Unprecedented Urgency: Gender Discrimination In Faculty Hiring at The University of California

This article outlines the negative impact of California's anti-affirmative action initiative, Proposition 209, on the hiring of women faculty members throughout the University of California (UC) system. Martha West viewed with alarm the widening discrepancy between the increasing percentage of women Ph.D.s in the United States and the declining percentage of women faculty hires in the UC system after Prop 209 passed in 1996. The UC data indicated that serious discrimination against women was occurring in the faculty hiring process. Perceiving the urgency of the situation, she and other faculty advocates approached a state legislator for assistance in putting pressure on the UC administration. The legislator initiated a state audit of UC's faculty hiring process and held three hearings in 2001, 2002, and 2003, inviting testimony from faculty and administrators at all nine campuses and the UC's central administration. The proceedings of the hearings, the obstacles faced by faculty women, and recommendations for change are highlighted in this article.