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EDUCATIONAL
POLICY & LEADERSHIP STUDIES
Wage Gap Still a Reality for Female Faculty
Professor Paul Umbach |
On average, female faculty earn
approximately seven percent less than their male counterparts,
or approximately $5,400 less in annual salary, reports Higher
Education Assistant Professor Paul
Umbach.
Umbach identified the wage gap using data from the National
Center for Education Statistics and the National Science Foundation
in his recent paper, “Gender Equity in the Academic
Labor Market: An Analysis of Academic Disciplines.”
The work appears in Research in Higher Education
as well as in Inside Higher Education.
Salary differences between men and women persist even when
controlling for education, productivity, experience, institution
type, and academic discipline, Umbach found.
Tricia Seifert (PhD
’06), a postdoctoral research scholar, worked with Umbach
on related research.
“Paul’s research shows that there’s still
this unexplainable gap in how much people are getting paid,”
she said. “It calls into question this notion that we’ve
come so far.”
Seifert said she sees a practical application for Umbach’s
research in her own professional life.
“I will be much more inclined to talk to my mentors
and advisors about what is negotiable, and how to approach
a negotiation,” she said.
Umbach hopes his work will have an impact on a broader scale
as well.
“I hope the work provides decision makers on college
campuses with information that will be useful as they consider
how to create equitable pay structures,” he said.
Helms
Pens Significant Policymaking Book
Higher Education Professor Lelia
Helms co-authored a textbook that promises to be an
essential guide for upper-level public policy students.
The Practice of American Public Policymaking, which she co-authored
with Selden Biggs, a management and program analyst for the
Dept. of Homeland Security, was published October, 2006, by
M.E. Sharpe.
In a review, David Folz, professor of public administration
at the University of Tennessee, said Helms’ book represents
a “significant contribution” to public policy
literature, calling it “the most comprehensive and thorough
coverage of the broad range of factors involved in and related
to the policy process that I have ever read.”
Helms said the book is written for future policymaking practitioners.
“The text provides a state-of-the-art, comprehensive
framework of analysis for understanding policymaking and policy
design,” she said.
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