GENDER EQUITY AT UBC: Pay Equity Analysis & Key Statistics

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1 women.ubc A C H I E V I N G PA Y EQUITY F O R UBC FACULTY W O M E N GENDER EQUITY AT UBC: Pay Equity Analysis & Key Statistics In 2007 and 2009, UBC s Equity Office released two studies that found a statistically significant salary pay gap between male and female faculty. The data provided below are drawn from two studies: (i) the DATA Working Group s pay equity analysis of faculty salaries at UBC Vancouver; (ii) the Status of Women Committee s equity audit of UBC. Women make up 35% of full-time ranks at UBC, with some variation by rank (Table 1). 1 Table 1: Full-time faculty, by rank and gender, UBC (2009) Men Women Assistant Professor 61% 39% Associate Professor 63% 37% Professor 80% 20% Gender Pay Gap Regression analysis of the annual salaries of full-time professors employed at the Vancouver campus (as of June 2010) shows a gender differential of $14, in average pay. Half of the average gender pay differential is accounted by the under-representation of women at the Full Professor level. Another quarter of the average gender pay differential is accounted for by gender differences in the allocation of faculty members across departments. After accounting for experience (measured Years in Rank), Canada Research Chairs and Distinguished University Professors, an unexplained female pay disadvantage of $3,000 remains. Merit is UBC s measure of productivity. Our analysis of merit awards in 2008 and 2009 demonstrates that men and women faculty at UBC are equally productive. Table 3: Merit awards, by rank and gender, UBC (2009) 2 % Men Faculty % Merit awarded to men faculty % Women Faculty % Merit awarded to women faculty Assistant Professor 61% 61% 60% 39% 39% 40% Associate Professor 63% 63% 63% 37% 37% 37% Professor 80% 79% 81% 20% 21% 19% At UBC, women hold Canada Research Chairs in a lower proportion than the national average, and significantly lower than rates at the University of Toronto: 13% of CRC Tier 1 positions (versus 16% nationally and 26% at U of T) 3 28% of CRC Tier 2 positions (versus 31% nationally and 32% at U of T) 2 22% of all CRC positions (versus 25% nationally and 29% at U of T) 2 At UBC, women are represented in senior administration as follows 4 : 5 out of 18 Deans and Principals (27%) 11 out of 65 Heads and Acting Heads (17%) 1 out of 7 Vice-Presidents (14%) In contrast, at the University of Toronto, where 35% of faculty members are women: 11 out of 21 Deans and Principals are women (52%) 4 out of 7 Vice-Presidents are women, as is the Provost COMPILED BY STATUS OF WOMEN COMMITTEE, UBC FACULTY ASSOCIATION, JANUARY UBC FACSNAPS October UBC Human Resources, New CRC positions are announced every year, and these figures have changed for The CRC data are reported for 2009 because the salary study also used 2009 data. 3 UBC data, cross-checked with and Ghazzali, N. and Morin-Rivest, N CHAIRES DE RECHERCHE DU CANADA ET CHAIRES D EXCELLENCE EN RECHERCHE DU CANADA: STATISTIQUES DÉTAILLÉES. Report published by the CRSNG Chair, University of Laval: 4 UBC Equity Office, July 2010 w w w.facult yassociation.ubc.ca

2 Achieving Pay Equity for Faculty Women STRUCTURAL MEASURES & RESOLUTION TACTICS (SMART) WORKING GROUP In January 2010, the Faculty Association and Provost jointly sponsored two working groups, the SMART and DATA Working Groups. The SMART Working Group was charged with the task of recommending mechanisms and processes that would reverse and prevent the major causes of pay inequities at UBC. The DATA working group was charged with analyzing faculty salaries at UBC, and undertook a gender-related pay inequity analysis with respect to faculty at UBC s Vancouver campus. Its report, which complements that of the SMART group, will also be released in early The full studies will be released to the public in No comprehensive study of the factors that cause gender pay inequity has ever been conducted at UBC. The SMART Working Group therefore drew on information provided in the Faculty of Science Working Climate Study 1, as well as numerous studies conducted at other universities such as Harvard 2 and Stanford 3. Key issues identified in the Pay Equity study and our Equity Audit were: Longer time for promotion to Associate and Full for women, and lower probability of being promoted to Full Professor relative to male professors at UBC; Women are under-represented in CRCs and other national awards, compared to the national average; Differences in starting salaries between female and male professors (Note: this would need to be confirmed by a longitudinal dataset); Lack of awareness and training on gender equity for key committees (Hiring/Search; and Promotion and Tenure); The success of the Faculty of Science Working Climate initiative is well-established, but this has not been replicated across campus. The SMART working group focused on making recommendations in four areas: (1) Starting Salaries Objective: Ensure that differences in starting salaries within units have a legitimate basis and are not due to unconscious bias or other discriminatory practices. Recommendations: Provide all short-listed faculty with average salaries and compensation for the relevant unit Conduct annual audits of starting salaries and make corrections if necessary Develop guidelines on how to set salaries free of gender bias (2) Equity Training Objective: Make decision makers aware of historical discriminatory practices or unconscious biases that perpetuate gender inequities and provide them with procedural safeguards that ensure fair and equitable employment practices. Recommendation: Equity training for Deans, Heads & Directors, Promotion & Tenure committees and search committees (3) Mentoring Objective: Create a university-wide program to allow faculty to benefit from the experience of their peers and facilitate successful career progression. Recommendations: Establish central mentoring offices at UBC Vancouver and Okanagan Revise the UBC-CV to include section on mentoring received and mentoring received and provided (4) Working Climate Objective: Establish a mechanism to conduct periodic working climate studies in priority faculties. Recommendations: Create a position for a senior advisor to the Provost on women faculty Initiate working climate studies in priority faculties To ensure effective implementation of these recommendations, specific time lines were proposed as well as mechanisms for monitoring and accountability including: Comprehensive annual employment equity and periodic pay equity audits Reporting on progress by the Equity Office & Faculty Relations to the Provost and Faculty Association Reviewing and revising, as appropriate, governance structures for faculty-related gender equity issues at UBC Mailing Address: West Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 t f e faculty@interchange.ubc.ca Okanagan Office: Arts 353B 3333 University Way Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7 t w facultyassociation.ubc.ca

3 Analysis IN BRIEF Volume 9, Number 2 August 2009 Association of American Medical Colleges Unconscious Bias in Faculty and Leadership Recruitment: A Literature Review Although women and minorities have made significant strides in achieving equality in the workplace, they are still underrepresented in the upper strata of organizations, including senior faculty and leadership positions at medical schools and teaching hospitals. a,1,2 Within the last decade, social science researchers have pursued the theory of unconscious bias as one barrier to workplace equality that may persist despite a general commitment to increase diversity across the academic medicine workforce and other organizations. This Analysis in Brief reviews the scientific literature on the theory of unconscious bias, explores the role of unconscious bias in job recruitment and evaluations, and offers suggestions for search committees and others involved in hiring decisions at medical schools and teaching hospitals. Background and Method Unconscious bias refers to social stereotypes about certain demographics or groups of people that individuals form outside of their own conscious awareness. Social scientists argue that most people have some degree of unconscious bias because it stems from our natural tendency to make associations to help us organize our social worlds. 3 To analyze and present the most relevant studies on unconscious bias, I performed an extensive literature search and sorted articles by their research methodologies and focus. b The eight articles selected for this Analysis in Brief were specifically about career-related unconscious bias, except for those on the Implicit Table 1. Experimental Studies of Career-related Unconscious Bias * Method Participants (238 academic psychologists) rated the curriculum vitae (CVs) of real-life psychologists: one CV from early career and one CV from later career. They received one of these CVs with either a male or female name on it, and were asked whether they would hire the job applicant (for those who received the early-career CV) or whether they would award the candidate tenure (for those who received the later-career CV). Given descriptions of fictitious male and female managers who were successful in male-dominated jobs, undergraduate students evaluated the managers on several measures, including likeability, interpersonal hostility, competence, and desirability as a boss. Participants (155 white males) viewed a fictitious resume of an Asian-American, Mexican-American, African-American, or Caucasian man that was either high or low quality. They gave the target of the resume an overall evaluation (based on intelligence, motivation, and likelihood to be hired) and a rating on suitability for various occupations (categorized as high- or low-status jobs). Participants (143 white undergraduates) viewed 40 photographs of black and white individuals, each paired with definitions of two words. The participants rated the verbal ability of the photographed individuals as if those individuals had provided the definitions. Steinpres, Anders, & Ritzke (1999) Heilman & Okimoto (2007) King, Madera, Hebl, & Knight (2006) Biernat & Manis (1994) Results Both male and female participants were more likely to hire the male applicant than the female applicant and were more likely to report that the male applicant had adequate experience in research, teaching, and service. Participants were four times more likely to write comments of concern in the margins of their questionnaires for female tenure candidates than for male tenure candidates. Female managers were rated as less likeable, more interpersonally hostile, less competent, and less desirable as bosses than were male managers. On the overall evaluation, African-American targets were rated the least positively and Asian- American targets were rated the most positively. Asian-American targets were rated as the most suitable for high-status jobs, whereas Mexican- American targets were rated as the least suitable for high-status jobs. Mexican-American targets were rated as the most suitable for low-status jobs, whereas Caucasian targets were rated as the least suitable for low-status jobs. Black individuals were rated as having lower verbal ability than were white individuals, suggesting that the participants had a bias that black people are less verbally skilled than white people. * For complete bibliographical information on the literature in this table, see Association Test (IAT), which were included as background material because of their prevalence in the literature and their direct illustration of unconscious bias. Articles on career-related unconscious bias included methodologies of two types: experimental studies involving artificial workplace situations and examinations of unconscious bias in actual hiring and review practices. The implications about recruitment practices in academic medicine drawn from this literature review are generalized from the findings of unconscious bias in many fields. Results and Discussion Implicit Association Test Though not directly connected to career-related unconscious bias, studies involving the IAT receive the most support for the theory of unconscious bias in general. The IAT has consistently demonstrated that people unconsciously prefer white over black, young over old, and thin over fat, and that people have stereotypic associations a For the numbered list of references, see b For more information on the methodology of the literature search, see

4 Analysis IN BRIEF Table 2. Real-life Examinations of Career-related Unconscious Bias * Method The researchers analyzed 312 real letters of recommendation that helped medical school faculty receive their clinical and research positions. The letters were received by a large U.S. medical school from 1992 to The researchers evaluated whether the peerreview system of postdoctoral fellowships at the Swedish Medical Research Council was biased against women. To test for sex-biased hiring in symphony orchestras, the researchers compared two audition procedures: "blind" auditions (adopted in 1970 involves the use of screens to conceal candidates' identities) and "not-blind" auditions (no use of screens). To examine the effect of race on receiving job callbacks, the researchers responded with fictitious resumes to help-wanted ads in Boston and Chicago newspapers. The resumes were altered from actual ones found on job search Web sites. The researchers categorized the new resumes as high or low quality and assigned them an equal number of traditionally black names (e.g., Lakisha) or traditionally white names (e.g., Greg). linking males with science and careers and females with liberal arts and family. 4,5 Typically, the IAT requires test-takers to rapidly match individuals of different demographics to words and pictures of varying pleasantness. The quick associations that the test-takers must make reveal their unconscious biases. Additionally, the test-takers often complete a measure of conscious bias. Correlations between scores on the pairing task and the conscious bias scale are generally weak, suggesting that participants have unconscious biases. 6 Trix & Psenka (2003) Wennerås & Wold (1997) Goldin & Rouse (2000) Bertrand & Mullainathan (2003) Results Compared with letters of recommendation for males, letters for females were shorter, were more likely to be "letters of minimal assurance" (e.g., lacking in specificity), were more likely to contain gender terms (e.g., "she is an intelligent young lady"), and were more likely to include "doubt raisers" (e.g., criticisms, hedges, faint praise). For peer-reviewers to equally rate men and women on scientific competency, women needed an equivalent of approximately three more articles in Nature or Science, or 20 more articles in a specialist journal, such as Neuroscience or Radiology. Blind auditions increases the likelihood that a female will be hired by 25 percent. The switch to blind auditions in 1970 explains 30 percent of the increase in the proportion of females among new hires. Resumes with white names had a 50 percent greater chance of receiving a callback than did resumes with black names (10.08% vs. 6.70%, respectively). Higher-quality resumes elicited 30 percent more callbacks for whites, whereas they only elicited 9 percent more callbacks for blacks. Employers who listed "Equal Opportunity Employer" in their ad discriminated just as much as other employers. * For complete bibliographical information on the literature in this table, see Career-related Unconscious Bias Experimental studies of career-related unconscious bias generally involve participants rating the skills of equally experienced, fictitious job applicants who vary only by gender or race. As evidenced by the articles described in Table 1, studies of this type support the notion that, given equal weighting on all other variables, people prefer males over females, and white and Asian-American individuals over African-American and Mexican-American individuals in job positions. In contrast to these experimental studies, research in real-life settings highlights the practical ramifications of career-related unconscious bias. Real-life examinations provide evidence that unconscious bias affects decisions in actual hiring and evaluation processes. The articles displayed in Table 2 suggest that unconscious bias negatively affects female and black individuals in search and selection processes. Therefore, employers may be more likely to hire white males over individuals of other demographics for job openings. In contrast to studies involving the IAT, the studies in Tables 1 and 2, which do not address the level of consciousness of the participants biases, provide only indirect evidence of unconscious bias. However, most individuals believe that they hold fewer biases than the average person, 7 so the findings of bias in these studies very likely demonstrate unconscious bias. Implications for Faculty Recruitment Processes in Academic Medicine As evidenced by the preceding examples, unconscious biases may affect evaluations and decisions made in recruitment processes in academic medicine. However, the literature suggests that those involved in hiring processes can take steps to mitigate some of the effects of unconscious bias in evaluating job candidates. These steps may include: Ask individuals involved in hiring processes to reflect on unconscious biases by taking the online version of the IAT ( Create a more objective, structured interview process by (a) setting criteria or using objective measures to assess the skills needed for effective job performance; (b) administering training to all involved in the search and interview process on how to conduct structured interviews; and (c) using performance, satisfaction, and turnover rates of new hires to measure the effectiveness of the interview process. 8 Be aware that recommenders of applicants may hold unconscious biases, and therefore may present skewed representations of applicants in their letters of recommendation. 9 Consider that cultural differences can affect first impressions of candidates. For instance, the standard interview in the United States uses the criteria of self-confidence, goal orientation, enthusiasm, and leadership, even though these qualities may not be apparent in people of more reserved cultures. 10 Reserve ample time for the interviews and evaluations of candidates, as sex bias emerges more when evaluators are under time pressure. 11 Author: April Corrice, Research Analyst, Organizational and Management Studies, Office of the Executive Vice President, AAMC, acorrice@aamc.org, Association of American Medical Colleges 2450 N Street, N.W. Washington, D.C analysis@aamc.org

5 Analysis IN BRIEF Volume 9, Number 2 August 2009 Association of American Medical Colleges AIB Supplemental Information Numbered In-text References 1. Barreto M, Ryan MK, Schmitt MT. The Glass Ceiling in the 21st Century: Understanding Barriers to Gender Equality. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, AAMC Faculty Roster. Distribution of U.S. medical school faculty by sex and rank Available at: Accessed June 15, Banaji MR, Bazerman MH, Chugh D. How (un)ethnical are you?. Harv Bus Rev. 2003;81: Nosek BA, Banaji MR, Greenwald AG. Harvesting implicit group attitudes and beliefs from a demonstration web site. Group Dyn. 2002;6: Schwartz MB, Vartanian LR, Nosek BA, Brownell KD. The influence of one s own body weight on implicit and explicit anti-fat bias. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2006;14: Dasgupta N, McGhee DE, Greenwald AG, Banaji MR. Automatic preference for white Americans: Eliminating the familiarity explanation. J Exp Soc Psychol. 2000;36: Ehrlinger J, Gilovich T, Ross L. Peering into the bias blind spot: Peoples assessments of bias in themselves and others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2005;31: Graves LM. College recruitment: Removing personal bias from selection decisions. Personnel. 1989;66: Trix F, Psenka C. Exploring the color of glass: Letters of recommendation for female and male medical faculty. Discourse & Society. 2003;14: Mahoney FE. Adjusting the interview to avoid cultural bias. J Career Plan Employ. 1992;52: Martell RF. Sex bias at work: The effects of attentional and memory demands on performance ratings of men and women. J Appl Soc Psychol. 1991;21: Literature Search Methodology To gather the most relevant sources on career-related unconscious bias, I performed literature searches using the following databases and tools: PubMed, PsycINFO, ProQuest Research Library, and Google. I included all publication years in the database searches, with content from the first three dating back to 1948, the 1800s, and 1971, respectively. However, the article in this literature review with the earliest publication date was from The search terms used in these database searches incorporated phrases related to unconscious bias, such as unconscious bias, implicit bias, hidden bias, or discrimination, combined with phrases related to hiring processes, including hiring, interview, or evaluation. In addition, I examined the references sections of relevant studies for similar articles. Table 1 Bibliographic Information Steinpres RE, Anders KA, Ritzke D. The impact of gender on the review of the curricula vitae of job applicants and tenure candidates: A national empirical study. Sex Roles. 1999;41: Heilman ME, Okimoto TG. Why are women penalized for success at male tasks?: The implied communality deficit. J Appl Psychol. 2007;92: King EB, Madera JM, Hebl MR, Knight JL, Mendoza SA. What s in a name? A multiracial investigation of the role of occupational stereotypes in selection decisions. J Appl Soc Psychol. 2006;36: Biernat M, Manis M. Shifting standards and stereotype-based judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1994;66:5-20.

6 Analysis IN BRIEF Table 2 Bibliographic Information Trix F, Psenka C. Exploring the color of glass: Letters of recommendation for female and male medical faculty. Discourse & Society. 2003;14: Wennerås C, Wold A. Nepotism and sexism in peer-review. Nature. 1997;387: Goldin C, Rouse C. Orchestrating impartiality: The impact of blind auditions on female musicians. Am Econ Rev. 2000;90: Bertrand M, Mullainathan S. Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination. May 27, MIT Department of Economics Working Paper No Available at: Accessed: October 17, 2008.