UCLA women share career successes, frustrations

By Cynthia Lee

More than 200 staff and faculty women shared their thoughts and experiences — rewarding as well as frustrating — in career development on this campus with visiting representatives from the UC Office of the President.

Two forums were held on Nov. 13 and 14 for staff and faculty women by Associate President Linda Williams and others, who are trying to determine what works and doesn't work on each campus as they begin to create an initiative to help UC women advance. At the well-attended staff forum at Tom Bradley International Hall, many women raved about having supportive supervisors, the chance to acquire leadership skills in such organizations as Staff Assembly, and the well-regarded career development programs offered by Campus Human Resources.

"Participate in work groups, task forces, committees, anything you can get yourself on outside of your regular daily routine," urged Annelie Rugg of the Center for Digital Humanities. "Getting exposure to people that you don't work with everyday — men and women — is a really excellent way to network."

However, others complained about the limited number of slots available in training programs, poor mentoring by supervisors, being locked into a "support" role and the inconsistent way flextime and other policies vital to working mothers are handled by individual departments.

"I believe with all my heart," said a 28-year UCLA employee, "that on this campus, they look at women and think, 'You're so good at what you're doing. You couldn't possibly go to the next level.' "

At the sparsely attended faculty forum at the James West Alumni Center, Sheila O'Rourke, UC assistant vice provost for equity and diversity, presented statistics showing that UCLA's hiring of female faculty lags behind the systemwide average, which is on an upward trajectory but still below the rate of availability.

In recent years, UC has overhauled its policies to make them more family-friendly. It has also revised policies to recognize public service and research on diversity and gender equity when evaluating faculty.

"Where are the enforcement mechanisms for these?" asked one female faculty leader. "The problem is that, yes, the language is there, and sometimes it even appears in the eight-year reviews. But what happens to department chairs or to deans who simply ignore it? Nothing happens to them."

Some UCLA departments are virtual "backwaters" for women, faculty members said, who must work in a climate they called "disastrous." Women are hired but soon leave "because they are treated so badly," one woman noted. There are no formal mentoring programs at UCLA and no real mechanisms to redress inequities, they said, discounting the Academic Senate's grievance procedure as an effective approach.

O'Rourke offered some encouragement, praising Vice Provost of Faculty Diversity Rosina Becerra for offering diversity training to search committee members and department chairs. She said she was impressed by Chancellor Gene Block's commitment to diversity.

Also, UC regents now want an annual report tracking UC's progress on diversity. "The Office of the President is asking the chancellors for those numbers," O'Rourke said. "When we start asking at the top, I can only hope that it starts to trickle down."

UC also plans to start up a systemwide committee on the status of women, with representatives from all the campuses, to report to the president and monitor progress "where we are going, what we are doing, what the barriers are that continue to exist and why they exist," Williams said.

"I believe there are absolute barriers to change," she said. Holding people accountable may help to remedy that.