Tenured Women Faculty: Reasons for Leaving One Research University. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper

In an effort to understand how higher education institutions can retain women faculty members, this study examined the attitudes of eight tenured women faculty who chose to leave one research university. Some went to other tenured academic positions, others to research agencies. Interviews included open-ended questions as well as focused probes concerning key factors. In addition, the study examined data from the Carnegie 1989 national college faculty survey analyzing the responses of 367 women and 1,749 men who held full-time tenured positions. Findings revealed that there were aspects of the environment at the university that made the women interviewed choose to leave. They described experiences and incidences where their career opportunities were blocked, where others treated them with disrespect, where they had too little personal or financial support, where salary was inequitable, where the university did not help with dual career issues, and where personal and institutional goals were mismatched. A significant number of these negative experiences were related to gender. Results from the analysis of the national survey supported the finding that aspects of the faculty work environment are important factors in decisions to leave an institution. (Contains 31 references.) (JB)