One of the great sources of frustration in my life is when female grad students act as if I’m insulting them by explaining how difficult it is to be on the academic job market. These women are brilliant, talented, and hard-working; and, in their minds, there is no reason for them not to succeed. A common response I’ve received both online and in person is that it’s nothing more than a pessimistic attitude that has been holding back not just me but my entire graduate cohort.
I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps gender might have something to do with our frustration and relative lack of success. Certainly, we wouldn’t be the first women in history to find ourselves at a disadvantage on any given job market.
To satisfy my own morbid curiosity, I made a list of the job announcements in the field of Japanese Studies during the past two job markets (2012/13 and 2013/14). I then asked three questions of each position:
(1) Was it tenure-track?
(2) Did the job posting make it clear that the position requires Japanese language instruction?
(3) Is the person who was eventually hired male or female?
I found that the candidates hired for tenure-track positions that did not require language instruction were overwhelmingly male. Tenure-track positions that did require language instruction could go to men or women, but there was a small bias towards male candidates. Non-tenured positions tended to go to women.
The category of “teaching Japanese” might require explanation. To make a long story short, the majority of Japanese Studies PhDs from top graduate programs are not trained in linguistics or second-language acquisition, so jobs that do not require language instruction are considered to be the most desirable. Positions that follow this elite model tend to be elite positions, and positions that require language instruction tend to demand a heavier course load for a lower salary. In essence, teaching language is a burden that is almost never fairly compensated in the field of Japanese Studies.
Perhaps gender has nothing to do with the statistics I was able to gather. Correlation does not equal causation, after all. What I hope to highlight here is an apparent hiring trend that requires a great deal more research in order to be understood and corroborated.
Many thanks to Pau Pitarch of Kappa Bunko for his invaluable assistance!
Without further ado, here’s the data.
* * * * *
2013 – 2014 Job Market
_____
Total Jobs: 16
Tenure-Track, No Language: 4 men, 1 woman
Tenure-Track, Language: 5 men, 2 women
Non-Tenure-Track: 1 man, 2 women
_____
Bates College
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Dartmouth College
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Search Failed
George Mason University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Haverford College
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Michigan State University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Middlebury College
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Northwestern University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Princeton University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Kentucky
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Michigan
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of North Texas
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Notre Dame
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Wake Forest University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Wellesley College
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Western Michigan University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
* * * * *
2012 – 2013 Job Market
______
Total Jobs: 31
Tenure-Track, No Language: 8 men, 2 women
Tenure-Track, Language: 7 men, 5 women
Non-Tenure-Track: 3 men, 6 women
_____
Bard College
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Bates College
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Beloit College
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Boston University
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male
Hire Webpage: [link]
Chapman University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Centre College
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Earlham College
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Eastern Kentucky University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
George Washington University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Grand Valley State
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Kennesaw State University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Lehigh University
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Macalester College
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Middle Tennessee State University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
North Central College
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
The Ohio State University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Princeton University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
State University of New York, New Paltz
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Sewanee: The University of the South
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Arizona
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of British Columbia
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of California, Los Angeles
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Colorado, Bolder
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language-Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Denver
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Minnesota
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Pittsburgh
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of New Mexico
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
University of Notre Dame
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Williams College
Tenure-Track: No
Language Teaching Required: Yes
Result: Female Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
Yale University
Tenure-Track: Yes
Language Teaching Required: No
Result: Male Hired
Hire Webpage: [link]
* * * * *
Totals
Total Jobs: 47
Tenure-Track, No Language: 12 men, 3 women
Tenure-Track, Language: 12 men, 7 women
Non-Tenure-Track: 4 men, 8 women
All Positions: 28 men, 18 women