Provost Nancy Cantor, former dean of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, recently assumed the position of the University's second in command. Prior to coming to the University, she was chair of Princeton's psychology department.
Through affirmative action programs and shifts in social attitudes, women have had opportunities to excel in academia like never before - simultaneously, many claim that the world of academia has not come far enough.
Patty Stroud, director of the legal advocacy fund of the American Association of University Women, said the path is still long and wide.
"I know we haven't come far enough," Stroud said, noting that the number of women lag far behind the number of men in many science departments. "The challenges are many. Women, far more than men, cluster in the lower-paying fields. ... They more often follow the untenured track. The barriers to the tenure track are clear."
Stroud cited University statistics to demonstrate the imbalance of female and male professorships. She noted that the University employs 724 male professors and 98 females.
"There is about a $10,000 difference between the pay rates of men and women at the University of Michigan, with women making less," Stroud said. "Women are basically still earning 87 percent of what men in academia are earning.
"One of the major problems is that there are vastly more men," Stroud said. "Why is this happening?"
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| WARREN ZINN/Daily Provost Nancy Cantor, former dean of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, recently assumed the position of the University's second in command. Prior to coming to the University, she was chair of Princeton's psychology department. |
For the greater part of the 20th century, women who pursued careers in higher education found themselves halted by so-called glass ceilings that did not exist for their male counterparts.
Gradual strides made during recent decades have led to more gender-blind opportunities, which is evident in the University's administration and faculty.
University women celebrated the recent appointment of Provost Nancy Cantor, the first woman to fill the position, as an emblem to this progress.
"A great many people are encouraged by the appointment of Nancy Cantor to the provost," said Associate Vice President for University Relations Lisa Baker. "Both men and women know how outstanding she is. Appointments like that one are a real boost for the morale of women on campus."
Cantor attributes her success to her ability to embrace and use the experiences of being woman in shaping her values, both professionally and personally.
"In many respects, I feel extremely fortunate to be nurtured along the way," Cantor said. "I wouldn't trade being a woman and being an academic for the world."
Because women typically feel responsible for juggling more than one priority in their lives, including family, job and community, Cantor said, they are more prepared to adjust with changing circumstances.
"Out of it comes a sense of being adaptable and flexible and light on your feet," Cantor said. "They don't take themselves quite as grandly or seriously as some male colleagues may."
Susan Montgomery, assistant professor of chemical engineering, said the differences between men and women need to be acknowledged and accommodated. Experiences, such as pregnancy and child rearing, have very specific effects on women's lives.
"Being treated equally is not necessarily the answer," Montgomery said. "I think that women faculty have difficult balances to make between family and careers."
Montgomery said she is getting off the tenure track to concentrate more fully on her family. The chemical engineering department has supported her decision, she said.
Stroud said that many women are punished for taking legal maternity leave.
"Many times, women leave work due to pregnancy and take their legal, rightful leave," Stroud said. "There are instances when officials in charge of promotions take the leaves into account and interpret it as a lack of commitment to their career, and they receive a penalty for it. We need to look at the universities. We need to be beyond this. The laws in the books say it is illegal to discriminate based on sex."
Many women said being a woman did not hinder their careers because the road had already been paved for them, since they were traditionally female-oriented fields.
"(Being a woman is) not something that I feel was a personal obstacle for me," said Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford. "Those were always fields where women could move up."
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| SARA STILLMAN/Daily Ada Sue Hinshaw, dean of the School of Nursing, said she believes success in academia, or in life, isn't dictated by gender. As women advance through the ranks of higher education, the long lamented glass ceiling is fading, Hinshaw said. |
Some believe the concept of a glass ceiling creates limits for women in academics and other fields, and spurs the momentum of opposing opinions against women's causes.
Linda Gillum, assistant dean of the Medical School, said the perception of a glass ceiling for women often undermines other traits.
"I guess I've always been one to question the whole proverbial glass ceiling," Gillum said. "The glass ceiling is not necessarily the barrier it's perceived to be."
Gillum said more factors than gender contribute to a person's professional rise, including ethnicity and religion. Women reach pinnacles in their careers not entirely based on their gender, and other obstacles may indicate that one's path might need rerouting rather than a halt, Gillum said.
Dean of Nursing Ada Sue Hinshaw said the pipeline of women in all fields, including non-traditional fields like engineering or business, are expanding because of a gradual shift in viable options, starting as early as kindergarten and elementary school.
"We have a lot of work to do in those early years to open those options for young women, as well as for young men," Hinshaw said.
Gillum said that women medical students currently have excellent opportunities in pre-professional programs and advancement.
"I'm always out there recruiting excellent students," Gillum said, adding that she gets excited to give young prospects the "motivational speech" and extends the invitation to all students that she is accessible for advice concerning the medical field.
Hartford said the University's emphasis on diversity includes advancing women in higher education positions, as well as increasing the number of female students. The stressing of diversity includes creating more attractive opportunities for women and other traditionally underrepresented groups, Hartford said.
"Certainly, the number of women in more senior professorial levels has increased over the past few years, and also in non-traditional roles. I think there have been more women in the pipeline," she said, adding that people should not only look at the number of women who hold full professorships, but also the number of women who are assistant professors.
"I think the barriers and obstacles, be them in institutions and schools, are beginning to break," Cantor said. "I think they will break down if people realize it takes work to change tradition."
Cantor said efforts can be funneled in more than one direction, including continuing the creation of opportunities for women in higher education, making those opportunities recognizable at early ages and acknowledging the strides women have made contribute to women's advancement, Cantor said.
"Part of it is numbers," Cantor said. "Part of it is celebrating these advances and building a pipeline in middle and elementary schools.
Stroud said it is necessary for female students to have the opportunity to be taught by female professors. 
"If I am a student in a program that is all taught by men, where am I to find a role model? I begin to think, 'Why am I such a minority? Can I succeed?'
"Many times when women are enrolled in programs that are traditionally male they find hostility, such as instances of sexual harassment or direct harassment. It becomes hard for the student to move through the program without a mentor to take them through it and help them know what they can do it and achieve their goals."
Cantor pointed to the sheer number of women who now hold senior administrative positions in the world of academia. She said academics are more open to accepting women in these fields as equals, rather than as tokens of the group they represent.
"If there's a lot of tokenism going on, I haven't seen it," Cantor said.
Hinshaw said that as long as a person, whether male or female, has defined their goals and vision regarding their careers, gender transcends obstacles.
"The gender is not so much of an issue in that case," Hinshaw said, adding that interaction between men and women enhances the final product. "But you also bring a different perspective on the way you see things and handle issues," Hinshaw said. "You're now part of the team."
Hinshaw said that both female and male deans share many of the same stories and relate well to each other in their positions.
"I don't think there's any difference between the male and female deans," Hinshaw said. "They tend to be much of the same stories."
Hinshaw attributed the increase of opportunities for women and the use of programs for support and guidance as ways to boost the number of women in academia and other fields.
Hinshaw predicted that women will continue to break barriers.
"It will happen. I'm firmly convinced of that," she said. "Those glass ceilings are now fading."
Stroud said her office, which provides financial support to women suing institutions of higher education for sexual discrimination, takes on about 10 cases annually.
"We get approximately 10 cases a year, but we get between five and 25 calls a week from women considering suing or that have sued," Stroud said. "Obviously, I find it rather shocking that 20 years after the Civil Rights Act there is still the number of cases coming to me.
"Women are still suffering discrimination in higher education. Enforcement is still in the works," Stroud said. "This is one of the fears with Proposition 209 and bans on affirmative action.
"(This legislation) says that 'we are an equal society.' This is simply not true."
Gillum said she has always been a firm believer in the idea that people don't always have to follow one specific route to attain their goals, but rather they can create a unique pattern to fulfill their career and personal needs.
"I think the future's pretty bright," Gillum said. "I guess Nancy's position gets me kind of excited."
-- Nationally, only 5.9 percent of engineering professors are women, while 40.8 percent of humanities professors are women.
-- Thirty percent of law school professors are women.
-- As of 1992, 32.5 percent of faculty were women.
-- From 1990 to 1996, the proportion of female faculty in the School of Education nearly tripled.
-- Sources: U.S. Department of Education and "Climates and Character," a University report.