I was pleased, in my first year as president of Penn, to resolve without litigation a Title IX dispute, to assure that women athletes received the same level of support as their male counterparts. So far, I have talked about students. When we come to women in the faculty, things are getting better, but there is still a long way to go. While that is up from 31 percent five years earlier, it is clearly not representative of the students they are teaching nor the communities in which they live. And that is not all.
Women are more likely than men to be employed part time and to hold lower faculty positions.
Our numbers at Penn could certainly be better. Only 22 percent of our standing faculty are women, and only 15 percent of our tenured faculty. From below means increasing the number of women holding Ph.D.s so that they make up at least 50 percent of the pool of candidates for faculty positions. Unfortunately, while women make up a majority of undergraduate students, their percentages fall as they move toward advanced degrees. We must encourage our most gifted students to pursue Ph.D.s and post-doctorate studies.