College Composition and Communication Sep 2020

Disrupting the Numbers: The Impact of a Women’s Faculty Writing Program on Associate Professors

Kara Poe Alexander ; Lisa Shaver

Abstract

Women continue to be underrepresented at the highest academic rank of full professor. Studies show that once women earn tenure, they are inundated with teaching, service, and administrative responsibilities, which take time away from research and publication—the primary criteria for promotion. We believe that rhetoric and writing studies (RWS) faculty are uniquely situated to confront this challenge because of our disciplinary expertise, our experience administering writing programs, and our interest in equity. With the goal to increase the number of women full professors at our university, we created a year-long writing program for women associate professors. Based on results from this pilot study, we argue that RWS faculty can use their expertise to decrease the disparity at the highest academic rank and make the university more diverse and equitable. Moreover, we believe that RWS scholars can use their disciplinary expertise to address a range of other institutional and systemic challenges.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2020-09-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc202030890
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism teacher development labor and working conditions race and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Shaver et al. (2022)
    Mobilizing Women Associate Professors through Investment Mentoring, Cross-Unive…
    College English

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