Date of Award
5-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Engineering and Science Education
Committee Chair/Advisor
Matt Voigt
Committee Member
Kelly B. Lazar
Committee Member
Karen High
Committee Member
Rachel Wagner
Abstract
Academic service responsibilities (e.g., committee work, mentoring), in the most informal definition, are those tasks faculty perform that are neither research nor teaching. However, the simplicity of this definition undercuts not only the tremendous impact service can have on faculty efforts but also the well-documented, disproportionately high service burden carried by faculty with marginalized identities. This study, grounded in the existence of gender inequities in service responsibilities, comprises three interconnected papers that collectively address the overarching research question: How do math faculty at research-intensive institutions perceive, describe, and navigate gender inequities in service responsibilities? Utilizing the framing of Intersectional Feminism and a sequential mixed methods study design, this study provides insight and understanding into the ways math faculty describe, navigate, and experience service responsibilities in research-intensive institutions.
In the first phase of the study (paper 1), I collected and analyzed data (n=75) from the Faculty Service Survey (FSS) aiming to understand how faculty acknowledge and described gender inequities in service responsibilities. The second phase of the study (paper 2) involved multiple rounds of narrative interviews with six cisgender women and genderqueer faculty across academic ranks, exploring their experiences with high service responsibilities and the strategies they use to navigate them. The final propagation effort within this study (paper 3) is a guided reflection oriented around service responsibilities, developed as an evidence-based tool incorporating insights from both previous phases to benefit the community.
Results from this study highlight the critical need to consider intersectional identities when making sense of faculty experiences with service and the need to take action to systemically change how service is assigned and evaluated. Findings from the quantitative analysis of the FSS revealed that faculty across ranks and gender groupings perceived service assignments as being unfair within their departments and saw minimal reward or value from the evaluation of service. Complementing this, the qualitative insights from the narrative interviews revealed that a major impact on the decision-making process was `who’ is asking faculty to do service. Furthermore, interview participants exemplified intersectional identities when discussing their orientation to service as being intertwined with their personal values, research interests, and both academic and social identities. Ultimately, this study aims to bring awareness to the ways in which faculty are perceiving and experiencing their service responsibilities as an effort to foster a more equitable academic environment. In times like these, it is crucial that we as academic community make intentional efforts to support the thriving of cisgender women and genderqueer faculty in mathematics departments.
Recommended Citation
Otterbeck, Sarah, "The Math Doesn't Add Up: Gender Inequity in Service Responsibilities in Research-Intensive Mathematics Departments" (2025). All Dissertations. 3914.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3914
Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-7605-3772