Exploring an Organizational Science View on Faculty Gender and Work-Life Inclusion: Conceptualization, Perspectives, and Interventions

Although women faculty are increasingly hired into historically male-dominated organizational contexts (STEM disciplines), career equality progress is stalled in terms of recruitment, promotion (advancement to leadership roles such as tenured, full, chaired professorships, senior leadership) (Aguinis, Ji, & Joo, 2018); retention, and equality in nonwork and well-being metrics related to family life and personal recovery & social activities (Kossek & Buzzanell, 2018; Kossek, Su & Wu, 2017). Much of the research to date has focused on documenting individual trends of the under-representation of women in fields such as STEM and a “leaky pipeline” to the top, where women hold 13% of full professors positions, despite holding 25% of assistant professor positions (Carr, 2013). Women are also under-represented in business schools where only 20% of full professors are women, and men hold the majority of prestigious endowed chairs (Brown, 2016).
In order to move beyond merely documenting the under-presentation of women in varying disciplines, I argue that there is a need to dig deeper and examine these trends’ underpinnings -namely their relation to gender and work life inclusion from an organizational science lens. In doing so it is helpful to also consider moving toward solutions by examining the intersectionality of several perspectives, and interventions.