Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How The Demographic Composition Of Academic Science And Engineering Departments Influences Workplace Culture, Faculty Experience, And Retention Risk, Eric E. Griffith, Nilanjana Dasgupta

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

Although on average women are underrepresented in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments at universities, an underappreciated fact is that women’s representation varies widely across STEM disciplines. Past research is fairly silent on how local variations in gender composition impact faculty experiences. This study fills that gap. A survey of STEM departments at a large research university finds that women faculty in STEM are less professionally satisfied than male colleagues only if they are housed in departments where women are a small numeric minority. Gender differences in satisfaction are largest in departments with less than 25% women, smaller …