RECOMMENDATION 5: ENCOURAGE WOMEN'S ACADEMIC AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT.

Discussion of the problem: After more than twenty years of affirmative actions, women are still found in disproportionate numbers in low-paid and low-status jobs and specialties. There are still major penalties for being female: many programs and colleges in our institutions that have a high proportion of female students and faculty also have lower pay and less institutional clout.

To achieve equal pay, prestige, job satisfaction, and autonomy, women students and employees need access to education, credentials, mentors, and evaluative procedures that are truly gender-neutral. Strategies for change must be based on a comprehensive understanding of the factors that hinder women's personal and professional development within our male-dominated disciplines and places of work.

Our universities must change in many ways to provide each and every woman true equality of opportunity. Supervisors must embrace the notion that the university's mission and their own department's productivity are enhanced by encouraging the personal and professional development of all employees. Departments and disciplines must change curricula, pedagogies, and workplace practices so that women students and faculty can translate entry-level access and ability into satisfying careers. Teacher preparation programs must collaborate with schools to liberate the aspirations of young women and men and of current and future teachers. And our Cooperative Extension programs must carry these models of gender equity into every community in our states.

Vision for the Year 2000:

1. All members of the university community have equitable access to information: all employees have library privileges equal to those of faculty, all employees have equal access to the Internet, and all employees are guaranteed full access to information affecting their employment.

2. All members of the university community have equal access to educational benefits: supervisors do not deny flexible scheduling to accommodate coursework without compelling reasons demonstrated in writing, and educational pursuits are recognized as positive work contributions in annual performance evaluations.

3. All members of the university community have equal access to important communities and conversations: release time for university service is guaranteed, all employees have clear and prompt access to decision-makers, and differences in male and female socialization no longer disempower women in classrooms, committees, disciplines, and offices.

4. The university has created effective approaches to meeting professional development needs, and funding available to support professional development is equitably allotted to women.

5. University institutes for public policy, curricula for teacher preparation and enhancement, Cooperative Extension services, and other programs of research, teaching, and public service exercise visible leadership in the promotion of gender equity in other institutions of the States we serve, as part of their explicit or implicit mission to maximize the development of human potential.