Kathryn Anthony is the only female full professor in the School of Architecture.

Barbara Minsker is one of 37 women among a College of Engineering teaching faculty of 389.

These women and all female faculty members are paid less on average campus-wide than their male counterparts according to a study released April 13 by the American Association of University Professors.

Issues in equal representation and equal pay for women become tangled in relation to how faculty members are chosen, how women balance work and family life, and how much priority administrators place on changing the demographics of the University.

“There is a persistent gender inequity in salary across the board everywhere; certainly there’s gender inequity in salary among professors,” said Cris Mayo, co-chair of the Gender Equity Council and interim director of Gender and Women’s Studies. “There’s no reason to think that Illinois is a little utopia of gender equity in a cornfield because it’s not.”

Despite efforts by departments, colleges and three administrative units, Provost Linda Katehi said reaching gender equity in the representation and salaries of female faculty members has been an ongoing problem for the University.

“Fighting the lack of diversity is a goal that takes lots and lots of years,” Katehi said. “You need to have an environment where you do not discriminate in a subtle way or in an obvious way. You need to have an environment that is conducive and to be able to create that, it takes years.”

Striving for equity in salaries requires constant attention — something department and college officials do not always give, said Carol Livingstone, associate provost and director of the division of management information, which tracks faculty salaries.

The University began monitoring salary equity in the early 1990s through an occasionally conducted study, Livingstone said. The study accounts for many variables that affect salary, such as a faculty member’s department, starting salary, seniority, administrative appointments, gender and race.

“They know what they’re being evaluated on and they put their efforts in those areas, so when we measure and report on gender equity and salary equity, they pay attention and they’re more careful about that,” Livingstone said. “But when we don’t pay attention to it, I worry that they will not put it at the top of their list.”

Still, salary equity is not the only concern of female faculty members.

“One of the biggest challenges for women faculty is the conflict between the tenure clock and the biological clock,” Professor Minsker said.

Faculty are given six years to achieve tenure, and these years usually coincide with the time women want to start a family, she added.

“You have to make huge personal sacrifices to do a faculty job, and women talk more about that,” said Susan Larson, assistant dean of Engineering and director of the Women in Engineering program. “Women take that burden more seriously.”

The University attempts to help women and men balance family life with a faculty position by allowing a one-year extension to the six-year tenure deadline for birth or adoption of a child, Katehi said. A program also exists to help spouses of newly hired faculty members find employment within the University.

“Many women feel there’s still a stigma that if their case is borderline, it might hurt them if they took that extra year,” Minsker said.

Officials in the College of Engineering and the School of Architecture have made attaining gender equity in salaries and working environments a priority by applying for a grant through the Gender Equity Council, a group formed in 1971 to report on the status of women at the University. Engineering used its grant money to start diversity training for committees that search for new faculty, said Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of Engineering, while Architecture started a program to attract up-and-coming women to the department.

Another group called the Diversity Initiatives Committee is working to counter gender inequity by convincing more colleges and departments to see it as a priority, said Feniosky Pena-Mora, associate provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs.

“(The provost) required that deans include diversity in their annual budget request report so that it’s connected with their goals of scholarship and all the goals they have,” he said. “That way, you see that this is not an add-on or an extra, but it’s more in line with the inner core missions of each of the units.”

Faculty members who believe their gender or another personal characteristic may be unfairly affecting their rate of pay can have their case reviewed by following an official process. However, this process is rarely used, said Menah Pratt-Clarke, associate provost and associate director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access.

“I think there’s a preference for resolving issues informally,” Pratt-Clarke said. “And a belief in the basic fairness and the genuine effort of most department chairs to want to address disparity if the disparity exists.”

Some say these efforts are not enough to counter the cultural perceptions that women are not as productive as men, and therefore, should not be paid as much.

“Gender inequity will not change overnight,” Mayo said. “Change will not happen if we do not pay attention to it because the accumulating disadvantages will continue.”

Katehi said conducting a University-wide salary equity study will be the next step toward achieving gender equity in faculty salaries. She said she hopes the study will be completed by the end of the semester, but Livingstone said this is too quick of a deadline because of problems with faculty data and a lack of personnel to conduct the study.

Completing the study within a year is a more realistic goal, Livingstone said.

“I would anticipate that we’ll find some gaps this time that need to be filled,” she said. “I would love to be proven wrong.”