Faculty Numbers:

As of 2000

• There are 1937 faculty members in the bargaining unit, 1896 are full time. 
• 605 of the full-time members are women.

Women Faculty at UC constituted

• 31% of Bargaining Unit Members
• 39% of Bargaining Assessment Payers
• 41% of AAUP Members

Background:

In the last round of contract negotiations the AAUP team presented a proposal to address inequities, but the administration was not interested in discussing the topic.  After the completion of negotiations, the AAUP Board authorized the re-establishment of the chapter’s Committee W (Committee W on the Status of Women in the Academic Profession).  Members include Marcia Bellas (A&S), Bernadette Dietz (Clermont), Andrea T. Kornbluh (RWC), Maita Levine (A&S), Carl Purdy (Engineering), Pat O’Reilly (Education), and Dave Sterling (AAUP).   Committee W spent several months reviewing the history of previous efforts to remedy gender inequities at UC.  To do this we collected relevant documents from the past twenty-eight years and established a permanent collection of these at the AAUP office.

Summary:

We found that efforts to remedy gender inequity have taken the form of law suits by individual women, investigations by federal government agencies such as HEW and the Department of Labor, non-governmental outside investigations, investigations and recommendations by campus groups such as Faculty Senate and the President's Advisory Council on Women, and provisions in the contract between the AAUP and the UC administration.

Chronology:

1972

UC campus women organize a women’s group.

 

1972 

UC women faculty file a class complaint with HEW charging the University of Cincinnati “has blatantly discriminated against women and patently continues its discriminatory policies in compensation and in policies of hiring, promoting, and granting tenure.” UC administration goes on record as stating it “hopes to equalize the pay differentials within three years.”

1973

HEW representatives come to campus take complaints. Federal Civil Rights investigators at UC find that in all of one of 22 job classifications women with more experience were paid less than men with less experience.

1973

U.S. Office of Civil Rights calls for a more complete survey of salary inequities.

1981-82 AAUP-UC Contract

Memorandum of Understanding #4 "Inequities"

'For the purpose of identifying possible salary inequities involving women and minorities, the University agrees to adopt a multiple linear regressions statistical technique.  Specifically, for the annual salary review during the Spring Quarter, 1982, the University will use the statistical program designed by Elizabeth L. Scott and published by the AAUP National Office.   An advisory committee comprised of the Director of the Office of Affirmative Action, two administrators appointed by the President, and two members of the Bargaining Unit appointed by the AAUP shall be responsible for developing procedures for the annual salary review program.

1982

Committee W Report to Salary Inequities Committee lists sources of salary inequity for women, including such issues as lower starting salaries and sex stereotyped assignments .  The report recommends that all female faculty receive a salary increase.

1982-85 AAUP-UC Contract

Memorandum of Understanding #3 "Inequities"

"The advisory committee…(above) shall be continued. The advisory committee shall also review possible salary inequities of the members of the Bargaining United identified by the program and recommend appropriate salary adjustments."

1985-86

Faculty Senate Human Relations Committee Report, based on the university database, finds evidence of sex discrimination in promotion and recommends further investigation. No Evidence of Action Taken.

1989

Preliminary report from salary equity committee includes guidelines for how a salary equity study should be done. No Evidence of Action Taken.

1992

Advisory Council to the President of Women's Issues: Women's Plan for the Nineties--reports that a survey of women faculty found that 62% of those who knew salary levels in their department reported inequities between male and female members. No Evidence of Action Taken.

1993

AAUP-UC Contract (memoranda of understanding) calls for the establishment of a joint committee to study equity issues. That committee in its report of July 1994 called a study of salary inequity to be made by "an expert in salary equity statistical modeling." No Evidence of Action Taken.

1995

Department of Labor finds evidence of gender discrimination in faculty salaries.

1995

Wyatt Report on Conditions at DAAP includes information on unfair treatment of women in regard to salaries. No Evidence of Action Taken.

1998

AAUP calls for a revision of article 15 in the AAUP-UC contract calling for funds to be set aside to resolve gender inequities. No Action Taken.

1999

Committee W re-organized

Study on Gender Inequities commissioned.

Study Completed March 2000.

Conclusion:

In the past the burden of demonstrating gender inequity has often fallen on individual women.

• This is most obvious in the various lawsuits women faculty have filed against the university including those of  professors Jane Leake (1970s) Katherine Gutzwiller and Rachelle Rosenberg (1980s) Nancy Evers, Martha Stephens, Daisy Quarm and Edna Kaneshiro (1990s)

• When there have been contract provisions for resolving inequity, the burden has been on individual women to come forth.

• Since at least 1972 gender inequity in faculty salary has been as issue at UC.  Since at least 1989 there have been regular calls for a salary inequity study.  By commissioning this study on behalf of its members the AAUP chapter proposes that we view this not as just a problem of individual women, but a problem for the university as a whole.

(Presented at the Open Forum on Gender Inequity in Faculty Salary, UC, 2 May 2000 , by A.T.Kornbluh)