Surveying the Campus Climate for Faculty: A Comparison of the Assessments of STEM and non-STEM faculty

Abstract

A fundamental assumption of programs intended to increase the numbers of women faculty in science, engineering and math (STEM) has been that women in these disciplines experience a uniquely hostile climate. While this focus on STEM faculty is necessary and important, we argue that it may be too narrow.& In this paper, we compare STEM to non-STEM faculty, drawing on a representative survey of university faculty in one institution (N=612) conducted in 2007. Our findings indicate that non-white men in the STEM disciplines are in fact significantly less satisfied than white men in these fields and less satisfied than their counterparts in non-STEM fields.& Among white women, those in STEM fields are significantly less satisfied than those in non-STEM disciplines. These differences are largely mediated by perceptions of work and contextual factors, however.& With a few exceptions, we find that the factors that predict satisfaction are the same across groups of faculty.& This implies that efforts to improve university and departmental climates will benefit all faculty.

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