Diversifying the faculty across gender lines: Do trustees and administrators matter?

Our paper focuses on the role that the gender composition of the leaders of American colleges and universities - trustees, presidents, and provosts - play in influencing the rate at which academic institutions diversify their faculty across gender lines. Our analyses make use of institutional level panel data that we have collected for a large sample of American academic institutions.We find that other factors held constant, including our estimate of the “expected” share of new hires that should be female, that institutions with female presidents and provosts, as well as those with a greater share of female trustees, increase their share of female faculty at a more rapid rate. The magnitudes of the effects of these leaders are larger at smaller institutions, where central administrators typically play a larger role in faculty hiring decisions. A critical share of female trustees must be reached before the gender composition of the board matters.

► The gender composition of an academic institution's leaders is related to the rate at which it diversifies its faculty across gender lines.
► The gender composition of leaders matter is more strongly related to the rate at which an institution diversifies its faculty across gender lines at smaller institutions.
► A critical share of female trustees must be reached before the gender composition of the board is related to the rate at which the institution diversifies its faculty across gender lines.