The study indicates a gender-based gap occurs across the board.
"When we looked at whether it was in the sciences or the humanities or those sorts of splits, we found gender gaps occurring in departments all across the spectrum," Travis says. "There were gender gaps in departments that were classified in the humanities. There were gender gaps in departments that were classified in the social sciences, in the natural sciences and so on. There was not a gender stereotyped disciplinary area that was where the differences were found. It was scattered everywhere."
Travis says she and her co-authors, including Dr. Bruce A. Johnson of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, hope other colleges and universities will undertake quantitative analysis of their faculty salaries.
Those seeking to create change must fuel their efforts with substantive quantitative data, researchers say. Such data combined with equal pay legislation, such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 signed by President Barack Obama, could be the beginning for gender-based equality.
