Although Carleton has female representation among its faculty, the lack of equal pay for female faculty members and instructors demonstrates that Carleton’s work environment isn’t as equal as it could be.
Data released by Carleton shows that women working in the arts, engineering, science, and public affairs faculties were paid an average of $4,809.75 less than male faculty members and instructors in 2018.
Women working in the faculty of engineering were paid $6,720 less than male faculty members, according to a research paper by Root Gorelick, a former member of the Board of Governors.
Some programs are made up mostly of women instructors and faculty members—the women’s and gender studies faculty, for example, is 80 per cent women. Others demonstrate the opposite end of the spectrum. The faculty of engineering, for example, is only 20 per cent women.
Upon the release of this data, Carleton agreed to bring in independent experts to review the issue and create a report in 2019, according to an Ottawa Citizen interview with Gorelick in July 2018.
The university also created a Pay Equity Commission for the 2017-18 academic year. Since then, Carleton seems to have stopped their efforts on the issue.
If Carleton is to live up to its proclaimed standards of gender equity, administration must put money where their mouth is. The university must commission an independent review in order to examine whether it has made any progress since 2018.
File photo.
