Advocacy and Policy Issues for UM Women

The President's Advisory Commission on Women's Issues

PACWI the President's Advisory Commission on Women's Issues, is chaired by CEW's director, Carol Hollenshead, and is staffed by CEW's Policy Manager, Beth Sullivan.  This advisory commission includes faculty, staff and both undergraduate and graduate student representatives, and serves the University by providing the president and other senior leaders with advice on planning, policies and procedures affecting UM women. 

PACWI has documented trends in the status of women through a series of statistical reports on the status of women faculty, staff and students.

 Policy Change

Policy victories on the part of CEW and PACWAI include: extending the tenure clock for faculty members who give birth or have dependent care responsibilities, (SPG 201.92) the modified duties policy, (SPG 201.93) allowing faculty women to be relieved of classroom teaching responsibilities during the semester in which they give birth, providing additional salary increments for lower-compensated staff,increasing staff tuition reimbursement, improving the handling of sexual harassment complaints through the Office of Institutional Equity advocating for measures to increase women’s safety on campus, andenabling all staff members to use all available sick leave for dependent care.

Life in Academe

The Status of Women reports provide substantive data on women students, faculty and staff on UM’s Ann Arbor Campus.  These reports measure the relative standing of women in the University, identify areas where inequities exist, and provide benchmarks for setting goals and measuring progress.  The 2002 Status of Women Report is available online; previous reports are available in hard copy through CEW’s publications program.

Junior women faculty face unique demands and concerns, as documented by CEW through a series of focus groups, culminating in a report on those findings.

CEW Research Reports focusing on life in academe include:

Principles for Best Practices: A Collection of Suggested Procedures for Improving the Climate for Women Faculty Members in Science and Engineering Departments. Prepared for University of Michigan ADVANCE Departmental Transformation Grant by Jean Waltman and Carol Hollenshead of The Center for the Education of Women. This report describes specific programs or general behaviors that women faculty members have told us contribute to a climate that supports their academic career success and satisfaction. The examples represent three important general principles of effective leadership: transparency, uniformity, and assistance.

The Michigan Faculty Work-Life Study: This study presents the findings of a survey of over 1,000 U of M faculty members concerning career satisfaction. Included were questions on climate issuess, organizational structure, policies, and resources, workload and productivity, family work-life issues, and career satisfaction and retention.This report was conducted in collaboration with the U-M Center for the Study of Higher and Post-Secondary Education of the School of Education

You can download the Executive Summary (136 K) or the complete Report (136K). The tables are also available as PDF files.

Former Women Faculty:  Reasons for Leaving One Research University

Former Women Faculty(64K) by Stacey Wenzel presents the results of a qualitative research project looking at the motivations of women faculty at a large research university for leaving that university.

Additional resources for women faculty and staff are included in our links section.