Faculty Gender Inequity and the "Just Say No to Service" Fairytale

• In Event: 266 - Regular Session. Gender and Work in the Academy

Abstract

This paper considers how the "Just Say No to Service” approach contributes to blaming women faculty for their higher service workloads and career stalls, while diverting attention from the structural basis underlying faculty gender inequity. While many explanations for faculty gender inequity emphasize women’s behavior, choices, and abilities, I focus on systemic institutional barriers that appear gender-neutral but whose gendered effects on faculty service loads help the careers of men faculty or hurt those of women (Bird 2011; Briton 2000). Using a case study analysis of a research-intensive university along with data from existing research, I illustrate several specific mechanisms by which current university structures promote women faculty’s greater service workloads and conclude with a discussion of illogicality of the “Just Say No” to service argument.

Author

• Karen D. Pyke, University of California-Riverside