By Meredith Camel
UM News

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (October 16, 2014)—Of the 13,600-plus employees at the University of Miami today, the majority (63.2 percent) are women. But back in 1971, when 11 concerned women founded the University’s Women’s Commission, female faculty, employees, and students were far less represented here and on college campuses nationwide.

Over the years, the Women’s Commission has advised the administration on ways to open opportunities for women—so much so, that 611 of the 927 promotions taking place in 2014 went to women.

These facts are a few “sunspots” in the current climate of female employment at the U that Wilhemena Black, program administrator for Workplace Equity and Performance, shared with members of the Women’s Commission last Wednesday, October 15.

Black noted that the University has been tracking data on women in its workforce since the mid-1990s. While her department distributes a fact sheet called “Sunspots and Cold Waves” every March at the Women’s Commission’s annual breakfast, last week’s lunchtime presentation in the University Center delved deeper into the numbers that highlight the prominent roles women play at the U—from senior administration positions to faculty appointments to clerical posts. Minority women who work at the U is another data point that Black and her colleagues are now charting.

One area of employment where men largely outnumber women is on the University’s faculty, though the gap has been closing gradually over time. Understanding these data, Black explained, can help inform the University’s recruitment and search committee strategies.

“Generally there is a philosophy with respect to diversity here at the University, and our workforce is a reflection of that commitment to diversity,” Black said.

For more information on the Women’s Commission, including upcoming events, visit the group’s facebook page.