CFW Executive Committee met on August 23, 2011

Women Atop Their Fields Dissect the Scientific Life

Elena Aprile, Joy Hirsch, Mary-Claire King and Tal Rabin are women scientists on top of their fields. The article describes their lives as scientists, the joys and struggles of research, and the specific challenges women in science face. Read the article published by The New York Times by clicking here.

April 5, 2011, Commission meeting at Penn State Altoona

The Mommy Track Divides

National Bureau of Economic Research paper: The Mommy Track Divides: The Impact of Childbearing on Wages of Women of Differing Skill Levels

"This paper explores how the wage and career consequences of motherhood differ by skill and timing. Past work has often found smaller or even negligible effects from childbearing for high-skill women, but we find the opposite. Wage trajectories diverge sharply for high scoring women after, but not before, they have children, while there is little change for low-skill women. It appears that the lifetime costs of childbearing, especially early childbearing, are particularly high for skilled women. These differential costs of childbearing may account for the far greater tendency of high-skill women to delay or avoid childbearing altogether."

See http://www.columbia.edu/~etw2108/workingpapers/Ellwood(WP)2009.pdf

Wall Street Journal: A Blueprint for Change

At a Wall Street Journal conference, business and government leaders examined what's holding women back in the workplace—and set out an action plan for creating new opportunities.
See: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/women-04112011.html. Accessed: 2011-04-13. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5xuiQjovj)
Contains articles, video, discussion, and votes.

There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap

Carrie Lukas, executive director of the Independent Women's Forum, writes in the April 12, 2011, Wall Street Journal that, "A study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30 found that women earned 8% more than men."
See: http://www.webcitation.org/5xuhEYYHm

I believe that Ms. Lukas refers to a Reach Advisors' study reported by the AFP news service.

Penn State Faculty Salaries, 2010-2011

From Penn State Live:

The Senate Committee on Faculty Benefits presented its analysis of faculty salaries for 2010-11. Salaries for professors and associate professors at Penn State rank third among the Big Ten public institutions, whereas assistant professors rank seventh. Detailed information is available at http://www.senate.psu.edu/agenda/2010-2011/mar2011/appl.pdf. The report cautioned that readers recognize the limitations of the data because direct comparisons can be difficult as organizations differ in structure.

More detail is available in the supporting tables including comparisons with other institutions and comparisons among the colleges and campuses within Penn State. The supporting tables are available on the Web at http://www.senate.psu.edu/agenda/2010-2011/mar2011/salarytables.pdf.

Penn State Faculty Tenure Flow Rates

From Penn State Live:

The annual report on faculty tenure-flow rates stated that for the last 14 entering cohorts -- 1990-2003 -- 58 percent achieved tenure by the end of their seventh year. Tenure rates have been slightly lower for female and minority faculty. For more detailed information and perspectives, see http://www.senate.psu.edu/agenda/2010-2011/mar2011/appk.pdf.

In Part-Time Jobs, Women Out-Earn Men

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2009.“ Data refer to the sole or principal job of full- and part-time workers, for wage and salary workers.

United States of Wage Gaps

The gap between men’s and women’s full-time earnings narrowed slightly in 2009, according to new data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

For full-time, year-round workers, median earnings for women were 78.2 percent of men’s median earnings, or $35,549 compared with $45,485. In 2008, the ratio of women’s to men’s median earnings was 77.2 percent.

Women's earnings and employment by industry, 2009

Women who worked full time in wage and salary jobs had median weekly earnings of $657 in 2009. This represented 80 percent of men's median weekly earnings ($819).

[Chart Data Here]