This conversation draws upon themes covered by the 1988 publication, Women of Academe: Outsiders in the Sacred Grove, and will highlight challenges faced by women in Higher Education including the gender pay gap, work-life balance, and tenure.

Women of Academe caught the attention of college professors everywhere for saying “out loud” what women professors have known for years: women in college and university positions are treated as the “lesser class” than their male counterparts. They are, on average, paid less than their male counterparts, fill fewer of the tenured-or tenure-track positions than men, and do more service work in the academy than their male counterparts.

In 2016, the American Council on Education published a report supporting this claim, but also found that that “pipeline” of women entering the academy is equal to, if not greater than men.