Breaking Through the Associate Professor Glass Ceiling

Abstract

For many faculty members from racial and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in the US academy, the goal to become a full professor is not careerist but rather a political project that aims to challenge a glass ceiling that remains an important historical barrier in higher education. Unlike the hiring of assistant professors or the granting of tenure and promotion to associate professors or the hiring of senior administrators, the promotion-to-full process has not been a high-profile topic of discussion in debates over diversity in academia. Although many colleagues often do not readily admit to it, becoming a full professor grants faculty a certain level of status that opens opportunities. For instance, letters from full professors in tenure and review process are generally more highly esteemed than those from associate or assistant professors, and usually, only full professors review the promotion cases of associate professors. Chairs of the most important university committees are typically full professors rather than associates, as are deans, vice provosts, and vice presidents, not to mention provosts, presidents, and chancellors. Since white men constitute 75 percent of full professors in universities across the United States while white women comprise 16 percent of the rank, albeit with lower salaries, it is white faculty who are also the majority of deans, provosts, and chancellors at colleges nationwide; and thus the dominant reviewers of most faculty personnel actions (Chait & Trower, 2002).