Revisiting the Academic Caste System: Disentangling Academic Rank, Department Rank, and Gender

• In Event: 195 - Regular Session. Economic Sociology. Analytical Approaches to the Economy

Abstract

If academia is a caste system, for whom are the boundaries more or less constraining? I investigate this question using data from 2014 on the placement of faculty across graduate sociology departments in the United States. I construct a network composed of ties linking the degree-granting department to the faculty-appointing department to examine (1) the microstructural features that concatenate to produce a macro-level caste systemic structure; (2) how the market is structured distinctly by academic rank (assistant, associate, and professor) and gender (male and female) creating adverse conditions for some groups and comparatively permeable boundaries for others; and (3) the predictive power of National Research Council rankings vs. U.S. News rankings in explaining the structure of the job market. Using cutting edge exponential random graph models (ERGM), I find that micro-level forms of closure differ by academic rank and gender. Dyadic closure is more prevalent at senior levels and male networks tend to be comparatively more closed within ranks than female networks. Confirming the dissatisfaction expressed with NRC rankings, I find that reputation-based US News rankings explain the structure of the market remarkably well whereas NRC are not highly predictive. However, the caste system characterization is more appropriate for women than men – US News successfully explains almost all the variation in exchange of women across departments but not of men. Life course career benefits only accrue to senior male faculty who become less beholden to PhD department prestige rankings. By comparison, this benefit does not accrue to senior women.

Author

• Neha Gondal, The Ohio State University