Sex, Scholarship, and Service

Abstract

In the global context, women are 49.6% of the total population, and in what history has categorized as the “elite professions,” there is near equal parity between male and female-identifying persons. In American Higher Education, parity has nearly been met with female-identifying academicians comprising of 47% of the professoriate, yet 65% of the senior ranks of the professoriate are still male. Women are less tenured and less promoted than males. Globally, women are less published. In the American academy, women are invited to present less and are recognized less for their accomplishments. While the disparity numbers in research or scholarly productivity have been reported for decades, an examination of the systemic factors contributing to the disparities has not. This chapter seeks to present the overwhelming intersectionality of gender and scholarly productivity in the academy through the lens of intersectionality theory and the implications for a continued need for sweeping reforms in the practices exacerbating the inequity in higher education for women.