ABSTRACT
Examination of the status of women in academia requires attention to two interrelated issues. The first is women's representation as students, faculty, and administrators in institutions of higher education. The second is the impact of scholarship by and about women on the curriculum and research in colleges and universities. Women have made dramatic gains as faculty and graduate students in academia in recent years and now earn more than half of all bachelor's and master's degrees. However, their influx has been uneven across types of institutions and academic disciplines. In academia, as in other occupational sectors, women encounter a "glass ceiling" blocking all but a few tokens from the highest leadership and policy-making positions. Feminist critiques and an explosion of new scholarship by and about women have appeared in numerous disciplines, but in most cases this scholarship has gained visibility only among women scholars and has not fundamentally transformed the knowledge base, methodological traditions, or pedagogical styles within academic disciplines (Kramarae and Spender 1992).
