Glass ceiling or murky waters: The gendered and racialized pathway to full professorship in Canada

Abstract

AbstractWe examined the predictors of being in the rank of full professor using a sample of faculty representing English Canadian universities. We hypothesized that women have a lower likelihood of being a full professor, controlling for a range of characteristics, including length of service, discipline, number of publications and Tri‐Council grants. We also explored how race and immigrant status factored into the likelihood of being a full professor. Using a sample of associate and full professors, we found evidence of a strong negative effect of the probability of being a full professor for women, even after controlling for all variables in the model. We also found evidence of a glass ceiling, where a difference in the effect of years of service was found for men and women. Finally, racialized immigrant professors had a greater likelihood of being at the rank of full professor and racialized Canadian‐born professors had the least.