I have been monitoring the status of academic women at UCLA since the 1970s, first as chair of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Affirmative Action and subsequently as president and a member of UCLA’s Association of Academic Women (AAW).

The recent gender-equity report found relatively small salary differentials — which can nevertheless result in significant reductions in lifetime earnings and retirement benefits — and a slower rate of advancement for women. The report underscores the fact that we have been remiss for many years in collecting data that would help shed light on the issue.

Between 1978-1992, I presented three different reports to AAW on the status of faculty women. Among the highlights were that from 1977-1989, women among ladder faculty increased from 10% to 17% and to 19% in 1991 (the percentage had risen to 22% by 1998); despite modest improvements since 1977, women in 1998 constituted 36% of assistant professors, compared to only 15% of full professors; in 1991, women accounted for only 12% of professors at Step VI and 2% at “above scale” (the two most “distinguished” professorial levels). By 1998, these figures had risen to only 13% and 4%, respectively.

These persisting rank differentials have implications for how academic women are perceived within the university; their small numbers, especially in the higher ranks, tend to render them invisible.

Through the years, there have been other studies on the campus climate. A 1988 study of 184 UCLA academic women by Professor Karen Rowe identified two main themes: a feeling of “benign neglect” and frequent tension between family concerns and the demands of academic careers.

Half of the women surveyed reported that standards for promotion were unclear; that they had a harder time in the promotion process; that they had experienced sexism from colleagues; and that there was no action taken in response to sexual-harassment allegations, and no sanctions existed for departments without women in faculty ranks. Respondents also believed that women had to be better than men to be promoted.

A 1990 campuswide diversity survey of 225 female and 765 male faculty by Professor Alexander Astin reported that gender discrimination was experienced much more by women than by men (44% versus 5%), as was sexual harassment (18% versus 2%), and that half of the women and one-fourth of the men reported hearing insensitive remarks about women from other faculty.

Despite considerable evidence of inequities and numerous proposals to remedy such inequities, UCLA has thus far done little to change the status of academic women on campus, to recognize them and to make them an integral part of the life of the institution. Clearly, the time has come to move from analysis to action.

My hope is that the recent gender-equity report and the conversations that it has generated will lead the university to take this issue seriously, to recruit women aggressively and promote them fairly and to attend to the concerns about campus climate. In short, it is critical that the recommendations of this and earlier reports be considered and acted upon.

Helen S. Astin is professor of education and associate director of the Higher Education Research Institute.