Faculty Diversity in Historical Perspective

Annual report on Harvard professoriate details the tenuring of women

The 2011 annual report of the office of the senior vice provost for faculty development and diversity, just published, includes an elaborate timeline documenting the first appointments of tenured women professors in each of Harvard’s faculties (beginning with historian Helen Maud Cam in 1948), and in the decanal and senior administrative ranks. It is a startling representation of just how recently the faculty ranks came to include women.

The report’s annual summary of faculty composition by school shows few surprises, given the relatively slow growth in appointments during the past couple of years of financial restraint throughout the University. The total ladder faculty (those with tenure, and assistant or associate professors) numbers 1,570, up just 1 percent from 2010, with continued growth in the tenured ranks. Just over one-quarter (26 percent) of the ladder faculty members are women—in line with prior-year data—and as before, about one-fifth of tenured professors are women, while slightly more than one-third of the junior faculty members are women.

About 20 percent of faculty members are identified as minorities; of these, about two-thirds identify as Asian/Pacific Islanders; Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans represent 3 percent, 4 percent, and 0.3 percent of the entire faculty, with notable growth in the Latino ranks during the past several years, but almost no net growth in Black faculty members.

For a longer-term perspective on the evolving composition of the University’s faculty, see “Professorial Permutations,” one of the features in Harvard Magazine’s 375th anniversary issue, published in September-October.

Related topics

You might also like

The Price of Resistance

What Columbia’s settlement means for Harvard

Harvard Adopts Reforms as Higher Ed Turmoil Continues

University creates new “interfaith engagement” role; Columbia, Brown settle with the government.

“Do You Find That Reasonable?” Harvard Undergraduates Discuss a Changing University

A student panel grapples—civilly—with shifting policies and differing opinions.

Most popular

Hold the Fries

Baked, boiled, and mashed potatoes are better.

The Latest In Harvard’s Fight with the Trump Administration

Back-and-forth reports on settlement talks, new accusations from the government, and a reshuffling of two federal compliance offices

The School of Public Health, Facing a Financial Reckoning, Seizes the Chance to Reinvent Itself

Dean Andrea Baccarelli plans for a smaller, more impactful Chan School of 2030.

Explore More From Current Issue

A woman and a horse jump off a large platform into water

Scrapbooking a woman who rode horses into the sea

Nicolo Maestas in a grey suit and wearing glasses sits with her arms on a table

The Harvard health economist not afraid to get in the weeds

A six-foot-tall, five-panel folded screen stands in a field of grass next to the woods. It's painted different shades of green, with some squares cut out that represent digital pixels.

Julia Rooney’s paintings cross the analog-digital divide.