Do Early Promotion and Tenure Processes and Outcomes Differ for Women Faculty Members?
Prior research indicates a bias against women scientists in the most critical evaluation of their career: promotion and tenure (P&T). Personal accounts of women in academia suggest that this struggle is exaggerated for women who seek tenure earlier than expected, but supporting empirical evidence is scant. In the context of social role theory, we examined whether gendered (i.e., reflecting gender stereotypes) evaluations disadvantage women seeking promotion to associate professor early within academic P&T processes using data from 5,012 external review letters (ERLs) submitted by letter writers as part of P&T portfolios and voting outcomes for 885 candidates at five American universities. Controlling for institution, candidate discipline, and h-index, we first investigated whether women are less likely than men to apply for early tenure versus seeking tenure at the median time at their institution. We also examined whether those applying for tenure early received different P&T voting outcomes and ERL linguistic features, such as linguistic terms reflecting stereotypically masculine or feminine traits, expressions of doubt, descriptions of brilliance, and references to early promotion, and if gender moderates those relationships. Finally, we investigated the association of ERL linguistic features with P&T voting outcomes. We found that women are less likely to apply for early tenure than men, but gender moderates the relationship between tenure timing and voting outcomes such that women experience better voting outcomes when seeking early tenure and worse voting outcomes when seeking tenure at a regular or late tenure time. Early tenure candidates are more likely to receive unanimous yes votes and lower “no” vote proportions by department and college P&T committees, as well as more early promotion, brilliance, communion, and doubt language in their ERLs. Brilliance language was the strongest predictor of successful P&T outcomes. We conclude with practical implications, theoretical contributions, and future directions given the complex and multifaceted P&T process.
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