Faculty By The Numbers

According to the latest figures from the American Council on Education, of the more than 500,000 faculty members in 1991, 68 percent were men and 32 percent were women, compared with 73 percent of men and 27 percent of women in 1981. In 1981, whites made up 91 percent of the faculty; in 1991, they constituted 88 percent of the total. In 1991, of the remaining 12 percent minority, there were twice as many male as female African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and American Indian faculty memb

Written byRenee Twombly

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The total number of full professors at colleges and universities increased by 25 percent from 1981 to 1991, with women accounting for 33 percent of the increase. The number of women full professors jumped by almost 80 percent for this period; but despite this tremendous growth, women still held less than 15 percent of all full professor positions in 1991.

More minorities worked as full professors in 1991 than 10 years earlier. The number of minority women full professors nearly doubled from 1,157 to 2,200, while the number of minority men increased by 58 percent. As a result, the four major ethnic minorities (African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and American Indians) represented 8.5 percent of full professors in 1991, up from 6.5 percent in 1981.

Despite the progress, the largest gains for minorities occurred at the "other faculty" level, which includes temporary lecturers and visiting staff. The number of minorities ...

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