Organizations, Labor Markets, and Gender Integration in Academic Sociology

This paper examines several facets of gender integration within academic sociology: Total segregation, as in all-male faculties; appointments of women in token or solo positions; variations in the departmental faculty sex ratio; and the “ghettoization” of women in lower academic ranks and positions with heavy committee assignments. These outcomes are analyzed at the organizational level as the product of the operation of internal and external labor markets in academia. Drawing on a representative 1984 national survey of sociology departments (N = 230), multivariate analyses indicate that a large proportion of the variation in gender integration from one department to the next can be predicted from the organizational context. Several organizational factors appear to militate against total segregation (all-male faculties) while promoting balance in the faculty sex ratio and in the distribution of academic rank. These include demand for labor in the form of job opportunities, especially those created through turnover; women in the institutional power structure, including a separate women's studies program; and a state legislative climate favoring women's legal and political rights.