Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Caryn Riswold

Home
Progressive Christian
Telling the Truth About Privilege

Telling the Truth About Privilege

Last updated on: February 25, 2013 at 8:30 am by Caryn Riswold

Telling the Truth About Privilege 2013-02-21T11:06:03-07:00 Caryn Riswold

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On Saturday, the Illinois College Board of Trustees voted to promote me to Professor of Religion. For those of you not familiar with the academic hamster wheel and ladder, this is the highest ‘regular’ rank that a professor can achieve. Full Professor. It’s what comes after lecturer, instructor, assistant professor, and associate professor. Beyond this, it’s on to endowed and named chairs, or a shift to administrative leadership like dean, provost, or president.

And so I’m prompted to reflect on more than a few things. Primarily, I am thinking about the persistent gender gap in academia and how systemic privileges are built into this world.

In 2011, John Curtis, Director of Research and Public Policy for the American Association of University Professors, reported on persistent gender inequity in academia. In short, while women comprise 57% of college and university students, they are only 42% of full-time faculty:

Overall, women are less likely than men to be employed as full-time tenure-track faculty members, less likely to hold tenured or full professor positions, and comprise less than a quarter of all college and university presidents. Women in full-time faculty positions earn only about 80 percent of what men earn, and since women are also overrepresented in low-paying part-time faculty positions, the gender gap in earnings is actually even larger than that.

The fact is also that the number of women in full time faculty positions has grown slower than expected after Title IX in 1972 dramatically increased women’s access to higher education and their ability to earn graduate degrees normally required of faculty work. Curtis notes the common response that “it’ll just take some time” for women to gain parity with men in academic employment. A study of hiring trends and employment patterns reveals that this is not the case.

…at the rate of progress found at this university throughout the 1990s, it would take 57 years for women to make up 50 percent of the full-time faculty.

Additionally, when you go up the ranks, there are fewer and fewer women. 28% of those at the full professor rank are women. As of July 1, this will include me. Curtis notes:

At only 28 percent of all full professor appointments, women are still outnumbered more than two to one in the most senior rank. And recent reports from the Modern Language Association (2009) and University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers (Misra, et al., 2011) confirm that women are less likely to be promoted than men, and when they are promoted, the process takes longer.

I’m telling you this context not so that you’ll realize how fabulous I am, because really, I’m not.

I want to tell the truth about what (in addition to hard work over many years) made it possible for me to attain this rank at the ripe old age of 41:

I’m white.

I teach at a small liberal arts college whose mission is educating undergraduate students.

I teach religion and gender & women’s studies.

I’m hetero-married.

We don’t have kids.

My spouse has a work life that enabled him to follow me to this small town.

Every single one of these things is a more meaningful indicator on who is more or less likely to achieve tenure and be promoted up the faculty ranks in American higher education.

My whiteness matters, because the race gap is much bigger than the gender gap. For example, 5% of full time faculty nationwide are black, including those at historically black colleges and universities.

My childfree-hetero-marriage matters, because marriage and having children slows down women’s careers and helps men’s. Pressures on and discrimination against gay, lesbian, and transgendered faculty abounds.

My husband’s portability matters, because we live in a patriarchal culture that frowns upon men who move for a woman’s job, and the fact that my husband did it anyway means that my career advanced.

My field of teaching and study matters, because women who teach in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math) are less likely to achieve tenure and promotion.

My small undergraduate liberal arts college context matters, because women are more underrepresented at doctoral degree granting instutitions.

Sure, hard work matters, but all of these other things matter too … maybe more than they should. I want to tell the truth about privilege, and how it operates, so that it doesn’t remain invisible and we don’t continue to be oblivious to it. In an earlier post, I considered Peggy McIntosh’s widely read, quoted, and used 1988 essay on “White Privilege.” It built on her feminist awareness of how male privilege plays out, and moved on to address and name white privilege. It has since been adapted to address other systemic privileges like heterosexuality, and I suggested that we consider Christian privilege as well. The ways in which I benefit from being part of this norm too is real.

Because while I have worked hard to earn this promotion, the fact is that a lot of faculty work tirelessly every day and don’t earn tenure, or get promoted, or get published, or get speaking invitations. And it might have nothing to do with whether they earned it or not. It might have a lot more to do with other systemic ways in which identities and behaviors are rewarded and penalized in this culture and in this specific work context.

The more we tell the truth about them, the more accountable for them we all are.

Previous Post

February 22, 2013

Christian Is as Christian Does

Next Post

February 27, 2013 “Our Multiple, Messy, In-Process Selves”

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion At the Intersections Atheism Christianity Contraception Education Feminism Gender Getting Theological Honorable Mention Islam LGBT News Our Voices Race Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the collective name of the stories Jesus told?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Proverbs Prayers Psalms Parables