Salon 2
Assesing gender equity at university level: a simulation-based approach (303289)
*Francis Abreu, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthElizabeth Colantuoni, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Scott Zeger, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Keywords: gen equity, university, simulation, causal inference
Even though gender equity in academia has been extensively studied, female faculty are still consistently hired at lower ranks, paid lower salaries and promoted less frequently than men (NRC, 2010). The majority of this research has focused on the individual faculty member as a study unit. However, existing approaches are insufficient to assess equity at institutional level for single-institution studies. How do differential gender practices in awarding salaries and ranks affect institutional measures of prestige and investment? We propose a simulation-based approach to answer this question and investigate how gender disparities along individual careers contribute to institutional measures. We applied our method to simulated data based on an existing university. First, we found that the total salary investment over 10 years on female faculty is 4.2% (95% CI [2.1,6.4]) less than what is expected for a gender-neutral university. We also found that full professor time for women was 2.5% (95% CI [0.8,4.2]) lower than expected for a gender-neutral institution. These measures complement equity studies at individual level and can help institutions achieve a more gender-neutral structure.