Center for the
Education of
Women
University of
Michigan
330 E. Liberty St.
Ann Arbor, MI
48103
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Research Publications
All downloadable publications and order forms on this page are Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF files. Download Acrobat Reader for free.
"Michigan Women and the High-Tech Knowledge Economy," a new paper by Susan Kaufmann, CEW Associate Director for Advocacy, explores how well women in Michigan and the U.S. are preparing to take their places in the developing high-tech knowledge economy. Women's low representation in the physical sciences, engineering and computer science and technology threatens to derail Michigan's goal of greatly increasing the educational attainment of state residents in those fields. This paper explores barriers girls and women experience while outlining actions that state and federal government, local school boards, colleges and universities, and Michigan families can take to ensure that women take their full place in the highly-trained workforce that Michigan needs to be an innovative competitor in the global economy.
How do professional American couples negotiate household and childcare duties?
(A power point presentation)
Renge Jibu, Nikkei Business Publications, CEW Visiting Fulbright Scholar
Ms. Jibu is an award-winning Japanese journalist for Nikkei Business Publications and a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at CEW. Her research and writing focus on how to balance work and life without reducing productivity, management of a diversified workforce, global labor issues
and corporate social responsibility. Having conducted interviews with more than 1,000 Japanese business people, Ms. Jibu found that Japanese professional women constantly struggle with the issue of work-familybalance because their husbands provide only minimal support in child
care and household management. As a CEW Visiting Scholar, Ms. Jibu spent the past year interviewing American professional couples about the way they divide home and family
responsibilities. She studied the factors that contribute to American husbands' cooperation and support of their wives' careers. Ms. Jibu provides a comparative analysis of how American and Japanese couples differ on this crucial topic. Copyright 2007 Renge Jibu
How American Men's Participation in Housework and Child-care Affects Wives' Careers This study is about how American dual career couples with children share household and childcare responsibilities. Overall, American husbands spend four times as much time on housework and childcare than Japanese husbands do. In Japan, working women are responsible for almost all household and childcare duties, often relying on the more generously supported public childcare services. In order to promote gender diversity in the workforce, Japanese society has to provide more opportunities for men to participate in household responsibilities
CEW presents preliminary findings and analyses based on our 2005 survey regarding institutional policies and practices concerning full and part time instructional faculty in non tenure track positions. The online survey asked administrators to provide information on non tenure track faculty at their institutions, including their utilization, their working conditions, benefits and compensation, and mobility between tenure track and non tenure track positions.
The Executive Summary (PDF) includes key findings along with methodology and background.
The full report Non Tenure Track Faculty: The Landscape at U.S. Institutions of Higher Education (PDF) includes the Executive Summary as well as tables and charts reporting analyses of the survey data.
Susan Kaufmann, CEW Associate Director for Advocacy, draws on data regarding employment, contracting, and education since passage of Prop. 209 in California to predict the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative ballot proposal’s potential impact in Michigan.“California experience suggests that the impact of the initiative can be expected to be quite broad, affecting not only affirmative action but also outreach efforts designed to ensure access to opportunity,” according to Kaufmann.
An earlier CEW study focused on the potential impact of the ballot proposal on women and girls.
Read the complete reports: The Potential Impact of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on Employment, Education and Contracting
Additional Information on the new report: Report Summary: The Potential Impact of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on Employment, Education and Contracting
Research Brief: The Potential Impact of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on Employment, Education and Contracting
The Gender Report: The Gender Impact of the Proposed Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
Research Brief: The Gender Impact of the Proposed Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
Según una reciente investigación, la propuesta de enmendar la constitución para prohibir la acción afirmativa (La Iniciativa de Derechos Civiles de Michigan, en Inglés Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, MCRI) si es aprobada por los electores en Noviembre, tendrá probablemente amplios efectos en Michigan. Lea el estudio. El Impacto Potencial de la Iniciativa de Derechos Civiles de Michigan en el Empleo, Educación y Contratación
It Isn't Over: The Continuing Under-Representation of Female Faculty, paper presented at AIR, May 18, 2006, Louise August. Further analysis of the employment progression of respondents to the CEW Faculty Work-Life Study indicates disparities in tenure attainment, promotion and attrition between male and female faculty.
Attrition Among Female Tenure-Track Faculty, paper presented at AIR, May 18, 2006, Louise August. Based on CEW's Faculty Work Life Study. A series of logistic regressions was conducted to examine faculty attrition using actual departure rather than self-reported departure intentions. The findings suggest that women experience their academic careers differently from men, and that different factors contribute to their decisions to leave.
A Commitment to Volunteerism. This paper compares the volunteer activities of women who received CEW Scholarships with national data on the volunteer activities of women. CEW scholars volunteer at a rate nearly twice that of the national average, and their motivations were predominantly altruistic. Based on a survey of past scholars, the paper also discusses the impact of the scholarships on these women.
Designing and Implementing Family-Friendly Policies in Higher Education, a newly-released publication from CEW’s Sloan-funded project on the academic workforce is now available from CEW. This publication offers suggestions for creating effective, flexible policies at institutions of higher education and includes specific examples from various colleges and universities. Thanks to generous funding from the Sloan Foundation, you can request print copies of this publication at no charge. Please email us at: acadclearinghouse@umich.edu Family-Friendly Policies in Higher Education: Where Do We Stand? is an overview of family-friendly policies now in effect at different types of colleges and universities across the nation.
Staying in School After Welfare Reform: How Beyond Welfare, Inc. Supports Student Mothers in Higher Education by Leslie Rebecca Bloom, Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Program in Women's Studies,Iowa State University, Visiting Scholar, CEW, Fall 2004.
This paper examines how one specific program, Beyond Welfare, supports participants in higher education who are welfare recipients by considering the experiences of a selection of student mothers who are participants of Beyond Welfare.
Gender, Work and Structural Adjustment: A Selected Annotated Bibliography (February 2005) in three sections. by Lakshmi Lingam, Professor, Unit for Women’s Studies,Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai India and Visiting Scholar, CEW. This annotated bibliography was prepared as a prelude to a review of research on structural adjustment policies and their gender and household impacts; and as an accompaniment to an empirical study that undertaken in Mumbai, India. It describes research emerging from the African, Asian and Latin American continents
Structural Adjustment, Gender and Household Survival Strategies: Review of Evidences and Concerns (February 2005) 132 KB by Lakshmi Lingam, Professor, Unit for Women’s Studies,Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai India and Visiting Scholar, CEW
After a brief overview of positions vis-à-vis structural adjustment, in this paper an attempt has been made to examine:
(a) the significant areas of concern that emerge from the literature around women's work, poverty and structural adjustment;
(b) the household survival strategies and gender-specific impacts;
(c) the popular notions around gender, poverty, household headship and household survival strategies and their critique have been presented in the final sections.
Women at the University of Michigan: A Statistical Report on the Status of Women Students, Staff and Faculty on the Ann Arbor Campus, compiled by staff from CEW, Human Resource Records and Information Services, and the Office of Budget and Planning. The report presents an accurate measure of the relative stantding of women in the University, identifies areas where inequities exist, and provides benchmarks for setting goals and measuring progress.
Tenure Clock, Modified Duties, and Sick Leave Policies: Creating 'A Network of Support and Understanding' for University of Michigan Faculty Women During Pregnancy and Childbirth – A report of CEW's 2003-2004 web-based survey.
The 2003 Michigan Women's Leadership Index , produced jointly by CEW and the Detroit Women's Economic Club. Executive Summary (256K)
Principles for Best Practices: A Collection of Suggested Procedures for Improving the Climate for Women Faculty Members in Science and Engineering Departments (28K). 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.
Sexing the Single Girl. (36K) This 2002 paper by Visiting Scholar Deborah Siegel examines images of single women in media and popular culture from the middle of the 20th century to the present.
Access and Barriers to Post-Secondary Education Under Michigan's Welfare to Work Policies -- Policy Background and Recipients' Experiences This 2002 report, researched and written by the Coalition for Independence Through Education, presents quantitative and qualitative research on Michigan welfare recipients' participation in post-secondary education.
Advocacy, Research, and Service for Women: The Pioneering Origins of the Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan. (84K) This paper examines CEW as an example of early efforts to provide gender equity on campuses. Author Linda Eisenmann explores the particular strengths of the Michigan model and re-defines the thread of women's activism from the 1940s to 1970s.
Junior Women Faculty Focus Group Report In the early 1990’s, and again in 2000-2001, researchers at the Center for the Education of Women conducted focus groups with women assistant professors. The earlier set of focus groups led to the formation of two popular, family-friendly University policies—the tenure clock-stop and the modified duties policies. The findings from the more recently completed set of focus groups—as well as from a series of similar sessions held in 2002 with women associate professors—are currently being used to refine those policies, as well as to investigate other possible policies and procedures for enhancing the career and personal lives of UM faculty.
The Michigan Faculty Work-Life Study The Michigan Faculty Work-Life Study presents the findings of a survey of over 1,000 U of M faculty members concerning career satisfaction. Included were questions on climate issues, organizational structure, policies, resources, workload and productivity, family work-life issues, and career satisfaction and retention. You can download the Executive Summary (136 K) or the complete Report (136K). Tables are also available in PDF format.
Women and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity A joint report from CEW, Catalyst, and the University of Michigan Business School (2000) presents results from a survey of graduates of top MBA programs. The full report is available through Catalyst Findings (48K) include the fact that although women MBAs express high satisfaction, female enrollment in business school remains just 30%
Women and Higher Education 2000: Michigan: a "Smart State" for Women?
Struggling to Stay in School, by Valerie Polakow and Peggy Kahn, documents the experience of low-income single mothers in Michigan pursuing postsecondary education while receiving public assistance. Struggling to Stay in School Obstacles to Post-Secondary Education under the Welfare-to-Work Regime in Michigan
Time and Money: Women Workers, Unions, and the Political Economy 1998
Former Women Faculty: Reasons for Leaving One Research University 1998
Other CEW Publications available in hard copy and from other sources.
CEW Research
From its inception, CEW has included research among its activities, exploring the lives of women, issues related to women's educational and employment options, and leadership. Through its research, CEW enriches our understanding of gender, improves practice and influences on policy development. CEW’s research program covers the adjacent areas of interest.