Legal Commentary

Insider Higher Ed had a short column examining several recent and forthcoming studies of the increased school and university service and committee responsibilities given to women (especially newly tenured women) which, while important and potentially influential, distract from their scholarly work that remains the coin of the realm in academe. The studies suggest this is a new, if less overt, barrier to women's advancement in education, at least for those who want to be scholars rather than administrators. (H/T: Matt Yglesias, via Kay Steiger at Campus Progress).

Steiger has an interesting take on it: This is a product of the continued (although improving) underrepresentation of women in the academy. The urge is to give the women who are there powerful leadership roles by putting them on important committees and projects. The school's need to show itself as women-friendly demands that women be represented on public-face-but-time-consuming committees, such as appointments. All of which gives women power, but arguably of the wrong kind. Because, as one commentator in the Insider Higher Ed piece said, "You might move to a new job with your third book. You don?t move with your third university commission report."

Thoughts?