“They Make How Much?” Investigating Faculty Salaries to Examine Gender Inequalities

Abstract

I use the exercise in my undergraduate Methods of Social Research course, requiring students to analyze faculty salaries, look for patterns in the data, and address potential gender inequality in the salaries. The goals of the exercise are twofold: (1) to introduce students to gender stratification occurring in their public institution and (2) to provide an exercise designed to help the students realize both the strengths and weaknesses of using available data as a research method. In this paper I discuss aspects of the Faculty Salary Exercise and present qualitative and quantitative data from Methods of Social Research classes taught over three semesters. Twothirds of the students who enroll in this upper-division class are sociology majors (it is a required course for the major). The course also serves as a service course for other disciplines that require their students to take a research methods course. Students’ written work on the exercise shows that this is a very popular exercise (Who is not curious about how much money their professors make?) and one that opens students’ eyes to gender inequalities in an environment with which they are familiar. Below I briefly review the literature on gender inequality in academia, discuss various ways gender stratification has been taught through active learning, then turn to the Faculty Salary Exercise and students’ findings and evaluation of the exercise.