2006 Report of the

Vision 2020

2006 Report of the

University Committee on the

Status of Women

at the Johns Hopkins University

to President William Brody, Provost Steven Knapp,

Vice President James McGill

and the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees

September 15, 2006

Vision 2020

2006 Report of the

University Committee on the Status of Women

at the Johns Hopkins University

to President William Brody, Provost Steven Knapp,

Vice President James McGill

and the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees

SEPTEMBER 15, 2006

Executive Summary

CONTENTS OF THE REPORT

Page

A. Overview ........................................................................................... 1

1. Background ........................................................................................... 1

2. The Case for Change .............................................................................. 1

Persistent Manifestations of Inequity

Operant Gender Schemas

Recapturing Johns Hopkins’ Leadership among Universities

Table 1 –Executive Leadership

Optimizing Human Capital, Adopting Best Business Practices

Mitigating Legal Risk

Goals of the Report ................................................................................ 7

4. Achieving Sustainable Change ............................................................. 8

5. Root Causes of Gender Inequity ........................................................... 8

Institutional Culture

Gender Schemas

Competing Demands and Constrained Resources

6. Gains Made ........................................................................................... 10

B. Findings and Recommendations....................................................................... 12

Statistical Evidence.................................................................................... 13

Table 2 – Faculty Diversity by Rank, 1993 and 2003

Figure 1 – Faculty Diversity by Rank, 1993-2003

Figure 2 – Diversity of Full Professors by Division

Table 3 – Diversity of Full Professors, 1996 to 2005

Table 4 – Staff Diversity, 2003 to 2005

Table 5 – Student Diversity, 2003 to 2005

Table 6 – Faculty Diversity by Division, 1996 to 2005

Table 7 – Leadership Positions Filled By Women, 2003

1. Leadership

A. Findings ........................................................................................... 23

Ensuring Women’s Opportunities

Core Obstacles to Gender Equity in Leadership

Lack of Accountability

Disparate Experiences

Inadequate Models of Leadership

Lack of Succession Planning

B. Recommendations ................................................................................ 26

A Model for the Twenty-First Century

Vision Statement

Gender Equity–Awareness Initiative

Executive and Administrative Leaders

Senior Faculty Members

Table 8 –Faculty Leadership

Enhanced Training for the Next Generation

Institute for Next-Generation Leadership

2. Work/Life Balance

A. Findings ........................................................................................... 31

Redefine the Ideal Worker

B. Recommendations................................................................................. 35

Facilitate Flexibility

Policy Statement

Measures of Excellence and Commitment

Career Flexibility

Supervisor Training

Universal Training

Sponsored Research

Dependent Care

Leaves of Absence

Coordination

Student Concerns

Visibility

3. Cultural Dimensions

A. Findings ........................................................................................... 40

A Hostile Environment for Women

Experiences of Students

Experiences of Faculty Members

Experiences of Staff Members

B. Recommendations................................................................................. 45

Establish Responsibilities

Institute Best Practices

Replicate Success

Utilize and Empower Experts

Annual Data

Faculty Leadership Groups

New Metrics for Excellence

Accountability at the Highest Levels

Meaningful Mentorship.....................................................

Create a Climate of Equity and Civility

Develop a Short- and Long-Term Action Plan

Create a Culture of Civility

Proposed Statement of Principles

Change Institutional Images of Excellence

Focus on Gendered Nature of Academic Norms, Rules

Achieve Gender Parity in Leadership

Incorporate Gender Equity into Recruitment Goals

Eliminate Isolation of Women

Address Concerns of Staff Members

Provide Safe Mechanisms for Addressing Difficult Gender Issues

Expose and Abolish Outdated Approaches

C. Implementing and Sustaining Change over the Long Term ................. 52

A New Generation of Approaches.

Essential Proposals

Assure Permanence

Engage Professionals

Rely on HopkinsOne

Charge a New Office

Involve Trustees

Leaders’ Strategic Planning Retreat

Disband the Committee

Short-term Goals for Achieving Gender Equity

Longer-Term Benchmarks for Gender Equity

D. Contributed Reports ................................................................................. 58

Report of the Faculty Subcommittee........................................................... 58

Report of the Staff Subcommittee ............................................................... 93

Report of the Student Subcommittee........................................................... 101

Report of the Office of Human Services ..................................................... 124

APPENDICES

1. Summary of the Johns Hopkins University Reports on the Status of Women, 1985-

2006

2. Methods and Theoretical Approach

3. Report of the Case Study Subcommittee

4. Student Survey

5. Leadership Positions by Gender, the Johns Hopkins University

6. University Committee on the Status of Women, Members

Executive Summary

In keeping with Provost Steven Knapp’s charge, the University Committee on the

Status of Women has identified three overarching themes for attention to resolve current

gender-based career obstacles for women faculty, staff and students at The Johns

Hopkins University

• leadership

• work/life balance

• cultural dimensions

If Johns Hopkins addresses these issues with determination, imagination, and

administrative vigor, the university will reverse its current standing and advance Johns

Hopkins to the forefront among universities confronting issues relating to gender equity.

Johns Hopkins now ranks last in its peer group in the Consortium on Financing Higher

Education for its percentage of women executives. From today, Johns Hopkins has the

opportunity to reform its reputation and assume the leading role among universities in the

area of gender equity―defining the vision, moving forward boldly as the national model.

This committee consulted with experts in the field of gender research; analyzed

previous reports; met monthly for discussion during the academic years 2002 to 2005;

collected data with the support of Institutional Research; conducted surveys and

extensive interviews of women students, and staff and faculty members; and worked in

consultation with its guiding coalition, President William Brody, Provost Steven Knapp

and Vice President James McGill.

As a result, this report comprises:

• a brief history of previous efforts to tackle issues of gender equity;

• powerful arguments for pursuing further change, including legal risks and best

business practices;

• an examination of the root causes of gender inequity;

• practical methods for achieving and sustaining meaningful change;

• dramatic findings and reasonable recommendations to assure success.

Longstanding traditions and attitudes in the culture at the Johns Hopkins University

have spawned pernicious effects on career success and satisfaction, and smothered

optimism about the future among many women faculty and staff members, as well as

among women students. An accumulation of adverse experiences, as reported by these

constituencies to members of this committee, has created a subtly hostile environment

that has limited opportunities, been detrimental to achievement, and shaped career

decisions for many members of this community, especially women. While overall there

has been progress since 1985, when the Homewood deans commissioned the Ad Hoc

Committee on the Status of Women, incidents still occur regularly that are not in keeping

with standards the university purports to uphold.

Women have been a historically underutilized asset at Johns Hopkins. Now that

half of all graduate students are women, Johns Hopkins risks losing the brainpower,

creativity, and productivity of half the population if it does not make an extraordinary

Subcommittee methods, findings, and recommendations are described in the separate

reports of each subcommittee that follow the main report.

appeal to the women among the rising stars of the academic work force. The university

must recognize the realities of contemporary life and adapt to the changing dynamics of

the nation’s economy to overcome obstacles that prevent the full engagement of women,

including in its most senior executive and academic leadership positions. It is imperative

for this university to mine women’s capacity to produce knowledge and manage its

academic enterprise.

Earlier reports documented broad substantive, systemic, and cultural obstacles

based on gender in every division of the Johns Hopkins University. These concerns

remain to the present. While there are actions that can be taken to achieve certain

improvements in the short term, this report calls for changes in aspects of Johns Hopkins’

institutional culture, a process that requires strong leadership, time, wisdom,

understanding, dedication of resources, and commitment to a vision of success.

Interventions must attack not just the symptoms but also the root causes of gender

inequity.

Innovations in redressing gender-based inequity, achieved over the last twenty

years, form the basis for moving on to the next level of issues. They provide grounds for

optimism that more comprehensive interventions will make profound differences across

our entire community of learning, particularly given the changing norms in society. Three

critical areas should be targeted next:

• expanding leadership opportunities for women;

• guaranteeing reasonable work/life balance for all;

• transforming a culture in which gender-based obstacles and discrimination are

deeply rooted.

The discrepancy between the proportion of women in the promising early stages of

academic careers and those promoted to senior and leadership ranks at Johns Hopkins

points to a serious problem in the advancement of women. Students interviewed for this

report observed that

• “The vast majority of our professors are white males.”

• “Being presented with a mostly male faculty makes me doubt my prospects as a

female scholar in my field.”

Female students expressed the desire to have female professors as well as male, and to

see women in leadership roles. Another student noted that “when the gender

discrimination is added on to racial/ethnic discrimination, the problem is even more

serious.” This report reveals numerous issues relating to the paucity of women in

leadership positions, including:

• evidence that women and men pursuing the same or comparable paths to

leadership face dramatically different experiences;

• inadequate models of leadership;

• lack of succession planning.

These findings offer an obvious opportunity for increasing the representation of women

at senior ranks. Linking gender equity generally, and women in leadership specifically, to

its mission and its institutional strategy will allow Johns Hopkins to position itself first in

the global research and higher education marketplace. In doing so, the university can

enhance the growth, creativity, and productivity of a major segment of its human capital

and transform itself into a model for the twenty-first century.

As an easily accomplished first effort, this committee recommends that, beginning

immediately, Johns Hopkins actively and intentionally

• recruit and promote women from within the university when executive and senior

administrative leadership positions become available;

• instruct search committees to seriously seek out and consider women directors of

departmental and divisional programs, centers, and institutes who have developed

strong qualifications for executive leadership.

In the longer term, this committee strongly recommends that Johns Hopkins move to the

forefront of the gender equity arena by creating an Institute for Next-Generation

Leadership to

• serve as a think tank and policy research center on leadership theory, with a

particular emphasis on women and other underrepresented groups and on the

redesign of leadership roles.

• provide expertise for ongoing assessment of leadership roles at Johns Hopkins to

advise how the evolution of their design and the provision of resources might

better serve to attract women and support their success.

• greatly extend and enrich current leadership training and education for Johns

Hopkins faculty and staff members aspiring to move into leadership within the

university and throughout the nation and the world.

Inflated emphasis on the work environment, to the exclusion of all else, is seen by

many to distinguish Johns Hopkins as a male-dominated environment, non-supportive to

women. There were recurrent reports that for many women students, anticipation of

difficulties in achieving work/life balance is a significant disincentive for electing an

academic career. Evidence gathered by faculty and staff subcommittees substantiated the

students’ concerns.

The business world recognizes that work/life balance is a key issue and that when

it is successfully addressed, the result is an increase in productivity and in the recruitment

and retention of top workers, especially women. There is a broad acknowledgment

among businesses that there is a need for clear protection of time for personal lives

balanced with full-time jobs, or for the election of part-time jobs. Many in the business

world recognize that workers who choose new work patterns should not be marginalized

or viewed as uncommitted to a career and that there should be opportunity for an

evolution in job definition over a worker’s lifetime.

This report points out that obstacles to work/life balance are particularly acute in

dual-earner and single-parent families, which are now the norm. The University

Committee on the Status of Women believes that all members of the Johns Hopkins

community should have the opportunity to organize their time and work more flexibly

without this being interpreted as diminished dedication to a career or to excellence. To

that end, this report encourages the university to redefine the characteristics of its ideal

worker and make specific, reasonable adjustments to the way it

• conducts business;

• trains and evaluates its employees;

• provides benefits, particularly to members of the support staff.

Collegial relationships often seem elusive to women faculty and staff members and

students at Johns Hopkins. Leaders must address this sense of isolation and foster a

culture of intellectual gender equity by

• instituting policies, procedures, training, organizational structures, and programs

to recognize, understand, and eliminate gender inequity;

• joining the entire community to undergo training to recognize gender-based

obstacles and the toll these take on the morale, productivity, and success of

women faculty members, staff members, and students.

This report recommends that, in the very near future, everyone in the community will

assume responsibility for countering bias―whether unintended or intended—and be

knowledgeable about how to lead discussions and propose solutions. The hallmarks of

this new civil culture will be an environment where

• everyone will recognize behaviors that devalue women;

• discussion of such behavior is considered legitimate and important;

• each person takes responsibility for eliminating devaluing behaviors;

• people need not fear retaliation if they raise issues or disclose incidents;

• everyone will be accountable for establishing a culture that does not tolerate bias.

Accomplishing the challenging―and sophisticated―agenda of organizational

changes proposed in this report will require assigning a high profile, university-wide,

resource-rich, and fully supported office, which will be charged with responsibility for

fostering change toward gender equity. This office will be staffed by professionals and

dedicated to ensuring that solutions are implemented in a sustainable way over the long

term.

By broadening its beliefs, incorporating highly self-conscious and intentional

approaches to its strategic planning, and assessing and monitoring its progress in valuing

and developing people, this university can ensure that all segments of faculty, students,

and staff have greater opportunity for success and satisfaction. Johns Hopkins should

create and actively use a rigorous and comprehensive data-based approach to set its

vision, standards, and practices. It should commit to a long-term, fifteen-year

intervention, setting specific goals, using rigorous measures and methods, and monitoring

and systematically assessing its progress. Ownership of this approach by the board of

trustees and leaders at the university, divisional, and departmental levels—as well as

allocation of necessary resources to implement such an approach—can lead to real and

sustained improvements and reconcile our ever-present goodwill and intentions with the

realities that this committee’s extensive work has exposed.

As the Leadership Alliance Presidential Forum stressed, “if we do not change our

own institutional structures and behaviors, we will make ourselves increasingly exclusive

and decreasingly excellent.” Johns Hopkins needs to take the lead and institute

intentional, substantial, and sustained change to ensure gender equity. The time is ripe,

action is required, and change must occur administratively at the university level to

secure success.

Executive Summary: Faculty-focused Subcommittee Report

Based on substantial evaluation, the faculty sub-committee identified the under-

representation of women in leadership positions as a core issue. To conduct an objective

analysis, the committee members used several approaches: 1) summarize the evidence of

root causes and manifestation of gender-based obstacles from Status of Women faculty

reports from this institution and from other academic institutions (Tables 1a, 1b, and 2

Faculty Subcommittee Report); 2) analyze institutional and national data about

representation of women full time faculty at Johns Hopkins University and compare

Johns Hopkins to peer universities (Appendix A, Faculty Subcommittee Report); 3)

conduct subcommittee meetings to review and distill findings, identify key areas of

concern; and 4) conduct several focus group interviews with senior women faculty at

Johns Hopkins University concerning their perceptions of gender-based obstacles for

leadership roles, taped the discussions, and summarized the findings (Appendix B,

Faculty Subcommittee Report).

At the end of the study, the committee concluded that an area of particular concern at this

time is the persistent dearth of women leaders at Johns Hopkins, absolutely and in

comparison to the eligible pool of tenured women. This category includes all persons

who manage the university or academic divisions, from the president and vice presidents

to deans. This dearth of women leaders, both academic and administrative, is no longer a

pipeline issue. National and Institutional data have indicated that qualified women in

substantial numbers have been available for the academic pipeline for 20 years. Despite

that, there is still low representation of women at senior levels as described above. This

suggests the need to evaluate the culture, institutional policies, and practices to ensure

that these are not contributing to this persistent gender gap.

The main recommendation of the subcommittee’s report is to:

By 2020, achieve a 50% representation of women in senior faculty and leadership

positions and gender equity with respect to every measure of career satisfaction

and advancement:

To achieve this goal, we recommend to:

• Commit resources to increase representation of senior scholarly women

• Develop new and less opaque hiring practices for both administrative and senior

faculty positions

• Consider redesign of executive leadership roles to be attractive to women and

supportive of their success

• Evaluate progress and maintain ongoing channels of communication between the

JHU Leadership and the UCSOW

• Routinely Conduct Climate, Salary, and Representation Survey at Institutional

Level to Monitor Change

Executive Summary: Student-focused Subcommittee Report

The committee collected data on a range of issues facing students in Arts and Sciences,

Engineering, Medicine, Nursing, Peabody, and Public Health. We found that there was a

better need for mentoring, especially among graduate students but also among

undergraduates. There was evidence of differential treatment of women by instructors of

both sexes, and of undue or unwanted attention to the physical appearance of women

students. Students are also concerned about balancing career and personal life. When

the committee began its work, data on students was scarce and difficult to obtain. Recent

efforts by Institutional Research staff are providing an improved database that will help

short and long-term planning. Surveys reveal significant differences between men and

women students, for instance in how they spend their time and in their perception of

Hopkins as a stressful environment.

The main recommendations of the subcommittee’s report are as follows:

• Increasing the number of women on the faculty and in administration will

improve mentoring and create role-models for students, but only if advisors and

mentors are directly available to students at all levels.

• Creating a more welcoming environment involves both large and small changes.

University-wide issues include campus safety and affordable daycare. Some

actions would require minimal resources (e.g., increased flexibility in graduate

student residency requirements to allow for part-time graduate work).

• Our commitment to gender equity should be publicized, demonstrating that

Hopkins is assuming leadership as an intellectual and cultural force.

• Regular reviews of departments and programs, whether internal or external,

should address issues of equity and diversity. Reviews can help departments to

understand the issues facing their students, of which they may be unaware.

• Undergraduate orientation programming can be expanded to encourage students

to maintain a tolerant and respectful environment.

• Small incentives will help departments to use short-term solutions as steps toward

long-term solutions.

• Regular data-collection on students and recent alumni, as is now done by

Institutional Research, should continue, and all survey data should be broken

down by gender. Collecting data on graduate students and the obstacles they face

is the most critical need.

• Long-term goals can include outreach programs in the Baltimore area, building on

new initiatives (e.g., Baltimore Scholars program), and partnering with

philanthropic organizations in the region.

For more detailed discussion of findings and recommendations, with a summary of the

student survey results, see the student-focused subcommittee report.

Executive Summary: Staff Subcommittee Report

The Staff subcommittee reviewed all 22 prior Johns Hopkins University reports since

1985 on gender-based concerns which were relevant to women staff at Johns Hopkins.

The result of this review, summarized in Appendix 1, indicated that every report has

identified the presence of significant gender-based obstacles for women including women

staff; these concerns have been consistent across reports over the last 20 years. The Staff

subcommittee then sought to understand whether these reported concerns are thought to

persist to the present, through interviews with women staff across the Divisions of the

University. The overall findings are that women staff perceive that gender-based

obstacles and bias persist to date at this University. While some concerns are less severe

than they were 20 years ago, they have not been resolved. These concerns are in the

areas of recruitment, career development and advancement, professional training and

development, compensation and benefits, work-family balance, sexual harassment and

discrimination, security and facilities. Overall, these issues are thought related to a

culture that devalues women broadly and women staff specifically. Further, women staff

identified the dearth of women leaders and the perception of high turnover among women

executive staff as evidence of an adverse climate. Areas of major progress to date relate

to the establishment of training, work-life and career management programs within

Human Resources. Lack of progress is thought to be due to lack of implementation of

recommendations in other areas from the reports of the last 20 years.

The main recommendations of the subcommittee’s report are as follows:

• Make the concerns of women staff a top institutional priority

• Institutionalize equity through policies, practices and accountability systems.

Resolve the devaluation of women staff as manifested in policies, procedures,

practices and norms across the university. Provide gender equity in rewards and

compensations, including salary, benefits, promotion rates and recognition,

including for part-time staff.

• Resolve the current hostile environment for women by creating a culture where

everyone can recognize and takes responsibility for resolving behaviors that

devalue women, and where people need not fear retaliation if they raise issues or

disclose incidents. As part of the latter, revive the institutional Ombuds office.

• Improve career development opportunities for women staff, including instituting a

university performance management system, monitoring development activities

and ensuring 3 days of participation in training opportunities each year. and

ensuring that performance evaluations are done annual for all staff. Train

managers to value differences, recognize gender bias, and eliminate it from

evaluations,

• Undertake a Staff Attitude Survey with attention to gender issues and repeat

regularly.

• Institute ongoing, routine data collection and analysis across the University

regarding gender-based obstacles for women staff as well as faculty and students,

and institute corrective action to eliminate inequity permanently.

For more detailed discussion of findings and recommendations, see the Staff

Subcommittee report.