The participation of men and women in educational research: Another look

Abstract

Within recent years the professional status of academic women has been well documented, particularly in terms of graduate school admissions, degrees granted, faculty salaries and promotions, and research productivity (Astin & Bayer, 1972; Tittle, Saario, & Denker, 1975). In addition to such visible and quantifiable activity, in most university communities there are other (married) women who covertly participate in their spouse's career. A survey by LipmanBlumen (1972) showed that a majority of graduate student wives expected to satisfy their achievement needs primarily through the success of their husbands. Papanek (1973) notes that faculty wives, in order to facilitate their husband's success, perform various social duties as well as an assortment of paraprofessional tasks ranging from typing to actual fieldwork. Astin and Bayer (1972) present demographic data which indicate that among married faculty members, men with large families attain higher rank. While allowing that this relationship may result from financial pressures, the authors speculate that these men may also have wives who encourage or assist their career goals. No similar relationship was found for female doctorates. The present study was designed to compare the contributions of men and women to booklength publications in the field of educational psychology. In contrast to other assessments, however, I wanted to look not only at authorship but also at the participation of spouses and others whose involvement has been recognized only informally. A preliminary review of book acknowledgments suggested that participation of both types could be examined by (1) noting the gender of book authors and (2) analyzing the content of their acknowledgments.