Over the years, the OWF has made a substantial impact on the working environment for women at Northwestern. We often effect change through collaborations with the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate. Some key initiatives and reports that affect women faculty are available below, organized from recent to historic. Some of these links require Northwestern logins to access the material.
See more information about our past initiatives related to Advocacy Groups, Equitable Treatment and Sexual Violence for more information.
Faculty Initiatives and Reports 2022
Faculty Initiatives and Reports: 2021
May 13, 2021
Winter 2021
Worrying signs that Northwestern was applying a “business as usual” approach to assessing faculty contributions in 2020 led the steering committee to raise the issue of how faculty productivity is defined in the context of a global pandemic. In the letter we ask for an equity approach for the 2020-2021 exceptional year, where some faculty were in a position to focus on research yet many faculty were not in a position to perform in the ways that are traditionally used in faculty salary assessments. We also ask for a clearer strategy on how the disparate impact of the pandemic on faculty will be factored into future tenure, promotion and salary decisions.
February 2021 Letter on Defining Faculty Productivity in a Global Pandemic
COVID-19 Faculty Initiatives: 2020
Fall 2020
After analyzing the summer survey results, the OWF released two documents. These documents identify immediate actions that can be taken, including appointing a new Associate Provost for Faculty charged with the responsibility for faculty wellness, career recovery, and post-virus equity; pledging and planning how to remedy the inequalities the Coronavirus has revealed, created or exacerbated; and talking to faculty about this action plan.
Factoring in the Pandemic Experiences to Protect Gender Equity: Memorializing the Summer of 2020
We also asked for an October meeting to discuss faculty concerns with the provost. On October 27, 2020, OWF members met with Provost Hagerty and several Deans to discuss issues related to faculty and COVID-19. The forum was moderated by OWF leaders Karen Alter, Dana Hill, and Leslie Harris. You can access a recording by clicking the purple-text hyperlink. Please note that accessing the recording requires an authenticated NetID and NetID password.
October Forum Discussion with Senior Leadership about Covid-19 Related Faculty Concerns
Provost Hagerty convened a tactical task force to consider policies for Winter 2020 to help caregivers facing significant burdens. She also appointed a new Associate Provost for Faculty, whose term began February 1, 2020.
In the summer of 2020, the OWF developed a strategy to investigate and try to decrease the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Northwestern women faculty. The strategy involved immediate requests, a short term strategy for the 2020 and 2021 academic year, and a request for a committee to focus on long term career recovery. The letters and reports are included here.
Summer 2020: An immediate action letter and survey of OWF faculty.
On July 6, 2020, the OWF distributed an email describing the strategy, and asking faculty if anything could be done immediately to help for the Fall term. While we were fashioning a response, the Provost released its Alternative Work Arrangements Policy that called for flexibility vis-à-vis faculty severely impacted by the pandemic. The letter sent to Interim Provost Hagerty about this policy, sent July 13, 2020, can be found here.
The OWF then distributed a 10 question survey July 20-August 7, 2020 to 725 full-time female faculty. The survey can be found here.
2018-2019 Initiatives
Equal pay for equal work (Formed Spring 2018)
Assessing service & teaching workload distribution
Co-chairs: Claudia Swan and Emma DeCosta.
Working Towards Equal Achievement (Formed Spring 2018)
Assessing Northwestern’s Climate for Women
Co-chairs: Dana Hill and Mango Curtis
Advocating for Teaching Track Faculty
Because a large percentage of teaching track faculty are women, the OWF pays particular attention to the working situation of teaching track faculty. Historically, the OWF advocated for improved conditions for lecturers, including library access, phones in offices, the provision of fringe benefits, and inclusion in department announcements and web pages. The OWF reports on the situation of women faculty at Northwestern regularly contain extensive reviews of the situation of teaching track faculty. In 2017 the OWF called for a ‘do over’ in studying pay equity among teaching track faculty. The committee on equal pay for equal work, formed in Spring of 2018, will focus on the distribution of teaching and service of all faculty, thereby addressing a concern that teaching track faculty provide more service and teaching, and that these efforts are less remunerated.
Pay Equity
The issue of pay equity was briefly studied as part of the 1994 Task for on Women Faculty, and the 2001 Committee on Women in the Academic Community. The OWF began advocating for a renewed focus on pay equity in 2011, asking for an updated methodology to study the issue.
The OWF identified shortcomings in previous studies, met with University leadership to promote a new study, provided important input into the study’s methodology, hosted talkback sessions where women faculty could provide feedback on preliminary findings, and advocated for a series of enhancements to studying pay equity going forward. These efforts culminated in a systematic study of pay equity at Northwestern, completed in November 2017, and updated in December 2017. We continue to work with the Provost’s office to improve the quality of the next pay equity study.
Provost’s Report II: Northwestern Faculty Salary Study and Faculty Compensation Survey (November 2017) and Update December 2017 available here.
- OWF’s Response to the Provost’s Pay Equity Study June 2017
- Report of Faculty Senate Salary and Benefits Committee May 2017
- OWF Consultant Report and Recommendations September 2005
Policies Affecting Women Faculty
In 2013 Linsday Chase Landsdale assumed the position of Associate Provost for Faculty. In collaboration with the OWF, the Associate Provost brought new energy to the study of the situation of all faculty at Northwestern, paying particular attention to gender equity and diversity and inclusion.
These initiatives revealed a gender-based discrepancy in faculty opinions regarding whether Northwestern University is a place the faculty can succeed regardless of gender, which contributed to the launch of the Provost’s Advisory Council for Women. The OWF has been an active participant in advisory council and the many initiatives undertaken by the Associate Provost (now the Vice-Provost’s) office.
You can read more about the many initiatives undertaken by the Provost’s office here.
Provost’s Report I: Northwestern Faculty Satisfaction with Career and Resources
Policies for Working Parents
In the early 2000s, the OWF advocated for a more generous and systematic parental leave policy, and for Northwestern to invest so as to assure a sufficient provision of daycare options. We advocated for the expansion of daycare options near campus and an improved and more consistent parental leave policy.