Despite earning 44 percent of the doctorates in agricultural sciences, women hold just 23 percent of the tenure-track faculty positions at U.S. land-grant universities, according to a new study by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Although the 23 percent is nearly double the 12 percent reported in 2005, the University says females hold very few administrative positions in agricultural academia. They also hold fewer significant roles on the editorial boards of scholarly journals in their field, serve on relatively few agricultural industry boards and hold fewer significant positions in global peer groups. One of the researchers says efforts should be made to understand the gap between Ph.D.-level training and the rate of progression to the faculty level and above. Women are getting plenty of graduate training at agricultural colleges, but it’s not translating to top-level positions, according to the research. Of the 50 institutions surveyed, only four had a female department chair for crop and soil sciences. Among the colleges of agriculture, nine have female deans.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.
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