Dissatisfied and Frustrated in Academia: Women Faculty Members' Experiences of Inequitable Workloads

This study examines the experiences of women faculty regarding inequitable workloads. Data were collected via eight focus groups with 29 women professors at a research-oriented university in the U.S. Midwest. Our findings showed dissatisfaction with workload distribution regarding the quantity of teaching, size of classes, and time spent on high-quality mentoring and advising (graduate) students. Findings also revealed concerns over non-promotable or low-promotable internal and external service tasks on and beyond committees. Participants noted a lack of tools at the department, college, and university level to efficiently monitor, address, and correct workload inequities. We propose the Awareness-Rewards-Equity (ARE) framework to capture faculty work tasks and facilitate conversations and policy development toward more equitable workloads. Keywords: women faculty, workload, U.S. academia, equity, STEM, teaching, service