Gender Diversity Among Soil Science Faculty in the United States: Representation and Pay of Women

Women have traditionally been underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in the United States (USA), including soil science. They have also typically been paid less than men to do the same jobs. This study was undertaken to explore gender equity within the soil science faculty at colleges and universities in the USA. It used information available online through university and other publicly accessible websites. The percentages of faculty by gender are for 2023, while faculty salary data is for 2022. We found that overall, soil science faculty were approximately 70% men and 30% women. There was considerable variation among subdisciplines, with 50% of soil biologists being women but only 20% of soil physicists. Women made up about 53% of instructors, which is typically a non-tenure track position. Women also had their highest percentage of the faculty at the lowest academic rank that is typically tenure-track, assistant professor, at about 42%, and their lowest percentage of the faculty at the highest academic rank, professor, at about 21%. Only 18% of department chairs were women, well below the overall percentage of women on faculty and showing a clear trend of decreasing representation by women at increasing levels of the academic hierarchy. Overall, women were paid significantly less than men. However, there were no significant differences by academic rank. Women were paid less than men at land-grant universities, but there was no significant difference in pay by gender at non-land-grant universities. Overall, the salary study indicates women are paid less than men because of the lack of women at the higher levels of the academic hierarchy, rather than differences in pay at a given level. Therefore, it is important to support women in their career advancement to close the gender pay gap among soil science faculty.