Task Force report represents a year's work

The report, prepared in 1996 for President William R. Greiner, represents more than a year's work by a committee composed of 21 members of the university community. Bernice Noble, professor of microbiology, and John Staley, headmaster of Cora P. Maloney College, served as co-chairs.

Among the task force's findings:

· Although 26 percent of full-time faculty are women, only 17 percent are tenure-track and 10 percent of full professors are female.

· Women are poorly represented in the highest administrative ranks. Of 17 academic deans at UB, only one is a woman. There currently are no female vice presidents. Of 78 department chairs, eight-or 10 percent-are women.

· Minority women have seen little progress in representation since 1977. While the absolute number of minority women faculty has increased in proportion to the overall increase in women, they have made "disappointing" progress toward tenure. Since 1985, minority women have represented 10 percent of faculty, but by 1993 only six percent of tenured women were minorities.

· Women represent "significantly less than half"-45 percent-of the student body.

[The entire report of the President's Task Force on Women at UB is printed as an insert in today's Reporter. President Greiner's statement regarding the report appears on Page 4.]

Many aspects reviewed
"For each aspect of women's lives at UB that was reviewed, our aims were to describe existing conditions, make comparisons with other similar institutions, assess the concordances or discrepancies between actual circumstances at UB and the perception of them, and, finally, consider strategies that might alter those conditions that seemed in the most urgent need of improvement," according to the report's introduction.

The findings were not surprising to those conscious about the issue, said Staley. "The findings provided a fair account of the status of women at UB over the past 25 years. There is a tremendous amount of intellectual and creative talent that needs to be encouraged and utilized into the next century."

What is important now, he added, is to begin "a serious community discussion of the issue."

In its research, the task force drew upon reports on the status of women gathered from 16 other AAU institutions, among them the University of Delaware, University of Maryland and University of Michigan.

1970 report invaluable
"We focused on ones like Buffalo, public research universities of comparable size," said Noble.

Also invaluable to the task force's efforts, she added, was a 1970 report, The Half-Eaten Apple, written by the late Ann Scott, a former UB professor and one of the local founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

Members of the task force kept copies of The Half-Eaten Apple in front of them throughout their work, Noble said, as a model that asked all the right questions about the status of women at UB.

According to the Report of the President's Task Force on Women at UB, "The Half-Eaten Apple, a look at sex discrimination at the University [at Buffalo], had accomplished many of the tasks assigned to us in 1995, including a detailed demographic analysis of conditions at UB and an overview of women's status in other academic institutions, with general and specific recommendations for achieving gender equity at UB....The Half-Eaten Apple served as a valuable reference that made it possible for us to compare the UB 'climate' for women 25 years ago with the present. None of the extra-mural reports we studied benefited from such precious historical information."

While the task force also examined quality-of-life issues such as child care and sexual harassment, for many, the greatest interest in the current status of women at UB focused on salary and promotion inequities, Noble said.

"A lot of people entered into this activity and encouraged us because they thought salary disparities were important," she said. "(But) it's a complicated issue, and there are other ways in which careers of women are disadvantaged besides not getting paid enough. On the faculty side, salaries at the moment at entry level appear to be OK and that's been true for a while."

However, she noted, part-time jobs at UB are occupied disproportionately by women. "And the low-paying jobs are disproportionately filled by women. What that means is, women don't get as much of a fair share of state salaries," Noble said.

"Women occupy jobs that have less economic worth. Men get jobs that society has agreed should receive higher pay. Those are complicated issues, so it's no wonder the institution has been sluggish to respond."

While salaries are by-and-large equitable at the entry level, women who achieve the rank of full professor receive only 85 percent of their male counterparts' salaries. In addition, "women are significantly less successful than men in their academic careers," according to the report.

"One of the...things that was surprising to me was how limited the opportunities for women are at the top. I think a lot of people didn't realize that either," Noble said. "There is a disparity in salaries at the very senior level, and since there are relatively few senior women, we aren't talking about zillions of dollars to make it right."

Collecting reports from a number of other peer institutions also allowed UB to assess how it stacks up against other universities.

"How the status of women at UB compares to the status of women at other universities depends on what issues you look at," Noble said. "We're in the middle, or maybe a little below the middle, which isn't surprising, because that's where we fit in with many things....We're not off the scale in either direction."

Perhaps the greatest challenge UB faces will be to change the climate in which women work at a time when most schools share the same concerns and goals, Noble said.

"A lot of things we looked at are issues that are changing rapidly across the country and from my point of view, I would not like us to fall behind," she said. "I was not surprised to find that we were not in the avant garde. If we are not careful, then those schools that are being more aggressive will outflank us quickly."

She noted that progress won't be easy because there is intense competition for qualified female faculty and UB is in competition with other schools for them.

Noble added that there are no quick fixes.

"But I think if there's a commitment to a fix and an appreciation of the need for a fix, then it's doable."

Staley agreed that some changes in the status of women at UB will occur more quickly than others.

"Now, the key point is for the campus community to read the report very closely and come forth for the next level of discussion on the status of women and where do we go from here, what are the solutions," he said. "In conversations we have had with the president and the vice presidents and others, they're very excited to get on with the solutions."

In addition to the two co-chairs, the Task Force on Women at UB was composed of: Kathleen L. Berchou, Payroll Services; Ruth D. Bryant, Architecture and Planning; Susan Hamlen, Accounting and Law; Donald Henderson, Hearing Research Lab; Richard T. Hull, Philosophy; Ruth Meyerowitz, American Studies; Judith K. Miller, Purchasing; Jennifer L. Roth, WBFO-FM; Erwin M. Segal, Psychology; Margarita Vargas, Modern Languages & Literatures, and Betty M. Williams, Accounting Services and Records. William C. Fischer, Office of the Provost, and Ellen McNamara, Human Resources, were ex-officio members of the group. Gina DeBlase-Trzyna, Gretchen E. Knapp, Jennifer L. Newkirk, Sharon O'Neill and Sharon Oh-Willeke were student members of the task force. Bonita M. Ryan of the Office of the President served as secretary to the group.