Stay Balanced and Pragmatic

Dr. Teresa Reed, Associate Professor,
Music Theory and Literature,
african american music, School of Music
Director, African American Studies Program
University of tulsa

My perception is that while women are certainly well represented in academia, that representation is most pronounced in fields with which women have been traditionally associated. In nursing, education and the arts, for example, women tend to function in roles ranging from adjunct professor to department chair. This is less the case in fields like law and political science, which, traditionally, have been bastions of male hegemony. With regard to curricula, there are numerous incentives to develop and teach courses in women's studies. These "specialized" courses, however, tend to function as addenda to primary or required curricula, and they indicate the extent to which women's voices — and hence, women — remain locked outside of the power centers of the academic mainstream.
At my institution, I have witnessed an increase in the number of female professors with tenure. I have not seen any marked increase in the number of women with full professorships, nor have I seen an increase in the number of female academic deans. On the administrative side, there is reason for optimism. Although my institution has never had a female president, there are women who rank at the level of associate vice president and vice president, and the current director of athletics at my institution is female.
I am a tenured associate professor, but I have no aspirations beyond this rank, and the reasons for this are more pragmatic than anything.  Likewise, my female colleagues are reticent to climb the ladder of academia, simply because the demands of child rearing and homemaking leave little time to compete for promotion.