While the College was the last Ivy League school to admit women into its student body and was nationally perceived as a male-dominated institution for many years after, today Dartmouth is a leader in its inclusion of women in its faculty.
According to Dean of the Faculty Ed Berger, currently approximately 35 percent of the 344 tenure and tenure-track faculty in arts and sciences at the College are female, while 31.5 percent of the 254 tenured faculty are women.
The average of a group of 14 selective colleges including all the Ivy League schools is 17 percent tenured, 22 percent tenure and tenure-track, Berger said.
Faculty are hired either as visiting professors on a one-year contract or regular faculty. Regular faculty are hired for three years, during which they undergo an annual departmental review.
At the end of the three years, the professors are considered for a second three-year contract and typically are reviewed for tenure at the end of the second period.
The College has made significant progress increasing the number of female faculty, Berger said. Five years ago approximately 25 percent of the tenured faculty, and 29 percent of the tenured and tenure-track faculty were female.
These figures still placed the College in the lead when compared to other Ivy schools at the time.
A Slow Start
History Professor Marysa Navarro said she recalls being the only woman in the tenure-track when she was first hired by the College in 1968.
She said that the lack of female professors at Dartmouth prompted her to formally complain to the College's Committee on Organization Policy in 1970 with discrimination against women in its hiring practices.
"I believe that gender and racial balance is as important in front of the classroom as is it is amongst the student body," Navarro said.
Navarro, who also serves as chair of the Latin American and Carribbean Studies Program, was granted tenure in 1972 -- the same year that the College matriculated its first coeducational class.
"However, times have changed and the efforts of the past have paid off," she said, adding that the situation for women today is vastly different.
Towards Gender Balance
"The College is very good at attracting and retaining women," Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Ozzie Harris said.
The College has also had a commitment to women over last 30 years manifest through coeducation, he said, adding that Dartmouth is interested in meeting needs of female faculty and their families.
The increased flexibility of the 1990s tenure model, which allows for maternity leave and other family situations, makes the tenure-track easier for women, Navarro said.
Comparative Literature Chair Marianne Hirsch credited the Women's Faculty Mentoring Network and the women's studies department as being positive forces as well.
Hirsch, who is also a professor in French and Italian department, was hired as an assistant professor in the romance languages department in 1978 and received tenure in 1982.
"The department offers faculty an opportunity to address issues of women and gender, power and structure in an academic way," she said.
Approximately 100 female faculty participate in the Women's Faculty Mentoring Network, Director of the Women's Resource Center Giavanna Munafo said.
The WRC coordinates the administration of the decade-old program. Two faculty, English Professor Melissa Zeiger and mathematics Professor Marsha Grocek match newly hired women with senior faculty mentors.
Mary Hudson, chair of the Physics department, said the high percent of female faculty at College was partly because Dartmouth was aggressive about stating that they wanted to hire women.
The appointment of women to leadership positions -- department chairs, deans and provost -- also raises the consciousness of those on search committees, Hudson said.
The College also deals well with the "two body problem," she said. "They make an effort to find positions for spouses -- which is particularly important in rural area."
Variation among disciplines
"While we congratulate ourselves on overall [tenure] figures, once we break them down, the numbers aren't so great," Hirsch said.
Certain departments have very few women and the College overall has few women and men, of color in the faculty, she said.
Hudson was initially hired in 1984 as an associate professor and was granted tenure in 1987. At the time of her hire, there were no other female professors in her department. Currently two of the 16 professors in the Physics department are female.
"It was important to hire female faculty," Hudson said.
"Once you establish a critical mass of women in an area, it is more encouraging to other women to pursue studies in the field," Hudson said.
The percentages of female tenured and tenure-track faculty vary widely across disciplines
According to statistics in the College's 1998-99 Affirmative Action Plan, as of October 1998, approximately 46 percent, or 63 professors out of 138 members of the humanities faculty were female.
Also in the report: 16 percent or 14 of the 88 sciences professors were female, and approximately 27 percent or 28, of the 102 social sciences faculty were female.
According to Berger, the proportion of female professors represents the availability of women in the field.
The Geography department is currently hiring, and one of the four candidates interviewing for the position is female. At the moment, two of the six professor in the department's tenure track positions are female.
The department does take into account gender and ethnicity in its hiring considerations.
"Dartmouth is a rich place because of its diversity, not just amongst the students but also among faculty ," Richard Wright, chair of the Geography department said. "This is a richer place for having women among us."
According to Wright the proportion of women in the hiring pool is increasing.
"This is partly due to the changing intellectual interests in the field, the new ones are more attractive to women," he said.
Despite the smaller percentages of women in the science faculties today, historically many of the first women to be hired by the College were scientists.
Hannah Thompson Croasdale joined the staff of Dartmouth Medical School in 1935 as a research assistant and two years later became a technical assistant in the zoology department. She became an assistant professor in 1959, was given tenure in 1964, and became a full professor in 1968.
Other pioneering women include Lucile Smith, Professor of Biochemistry, tenured in 1965, and Professors Frances McCann and Valerie Galton of Physiology, both tenured in 1967.
