Gender, type of higher education institution, and faculty work-life integration in the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although many academics in the United States assume that work-life balance, especially for women, is better at teaching-intensive colleges than at research-intensive universities, there is no systematic data to support this belief. We analyzed survey data from 909 faculty at a research-intensive public university, a masters-level public college, and two private colleges to test this assumption. Consistent with their reputation, faculty at the three teaching-intensive colleges reported family/personal life-friendlier departments. Yet we found no difference in work-life integration between faculty at the research university and those at the colleges. After we introduced having a family/personal life-friendly department as a mediator, the faculty at the research university reported more work-life integration than those at the colleges. The assumption that teaching-intensive colleges offer better work-life balance constitutes one layer in the leaky pipeline that reduces the number of women academics working at research universities, thereby reproducing the gender hierarchy in US higher education.