How Gender Stereotypes May Limit Female Faculty Advancement in Communication Sciences and Disorders

Abstract

Purpose The field of communication sciences and disorders (CSD) faces a critical shortage of the faculty essential to train the future workforce of speech-language pathologists and audiologists. Despite a predominance of women in the field, men receive doctoral degrees, tenure status, academic leadership positions, and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association awards at disproportionately higher rates than women. The purpose of this review is to explore how implicit gender bias may contribute to female faculty advancement, including current and projected faculty workforce shortages, and to propose tangible solutions. Method The authors present proportions of men and women who receive doctoral degrees, advance to each faculty rank, receive tenure status, hold department chairs in CSD, and receive American Speech-Language-Hearing Association honors and awards. They review ways in which cultural stereotypes give rise to implicit gender bias and discuss myriad ways that implicit gender bias may influence the decisions of students considering an academic career in CSD and their career trajectories. Conclusions Cultural stereotypes about men and women lead to implicit gender bias that may have real consequences for female faculty advancement in CSD. Such implicit bias can influence career selection and outcomes within the field in multiple ways. To ensure that CSD continues to attract top talent and maintain a robust pipeline of future faculty in doctoral training programs, the field must recognize the existence of implicit gender bias and implement evidence-based strategies to minimize its potentially damaging effects on the future of the profession.