One of the core activities of the WFF is the production of The View, which is a report compiled every 5 years analyzing the gender breakdown of Yale faculty. The 2021-2022 version of the report will be published Spring 2022. A booklet compiling all past versions of The View is also available. 

The View 2021-2022

Women and Men Faculty, Yale University: A View of 2016-2017.  

Women, Men, and Yale University: The View From 2012

Women, Men, and Yale University: The View From 2007

Women, Men, and Yale University: The View From 2002

On September 6th, 2018, WFF released Title IX and the Yale Faculty: A Review, a report which analyzes the Yale Title IX office’s 2011-2017 public semi-annual reports involving Yale faculty. This analysis gives a glimpse into the dynamics of sexual misconduct across the University, the types of misconduct that are most prevalent, and the sanctions that are imposed when faculty members are respondents. Based on its review of the cases, the report proposes recommendations around reporting, culture, and sanctions to reduce harassment and to create a more professional, respectful environment so that every member of our community is held accountable for poor behavior that impedes good scholarship and undermines our shared values. 

Below is an excerpt from the report which serves as an abstract:    

In the past year, the #MeToo movement has raised public awareness and interest in sexual and gender harassment across a variety of industries and institutions. When comparing the academic workplace with other workplaces, a 2003 survey found that the academic workplace had the second highest rate of harassment, only behind the military (Ilies et al., 2003). The organizational hierarchy of the academy creates particular power asymmetries that leave certain populations vulnerable and others less likely to be sanctioned. Hierarchical rigidity, secrecy, and intense competition for resources create ideal conditions for harassment, bullying, and discrimination to occur, to be condoned, and to go unpunished.

This report examines the public case summaries which are included in the semi-annual reports of sexual misconduct at Yale University, produced by the Title IX Office since 2011. We propose recommendations in several areas based around the reporting and disciplinary process, particularly with a focus on harassment, which constitutes 80% of the cases examined.

If you have any questions about the report or would like to review our data set, please contact wff@yale.edu. 

In addition to The View, the WFF has compiled an archive of other important reports on the status of women and minorities at Yale. These reports go back all the way to 1969, the year that Yale College went co-ed.

• Diversity Initiative Yale University (2005)
  Intended to increase the number of minority professors who are brought to the university and retained in the next seven years, this plan allows for the creation of a Diversity Recruitment Program for the Graduate School.
   

• Faculty Development and Mentoring at Yale (2005)

  This memorandum is based on a discussion convened by the Yale Women Faculty Forum (WFF) Council on February 15, 2005, at which members of the Council were joined by Jon Butler, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and Peter Salovey, Dean of Yale College, to consider questions of mentoring and faculty development at Yale. 

• Gender Matters: Women and Yale in its Third Century (2003)

  This volume contains the proceedings of a conference that constituted one of the principal highlights of Yale’s Tercentennial celebration during the year 2001. It is the result of an effort initiated by Professors Nancy Cott, Dolores Hayden, and Judith Resnik to mark the role of women at Yale. 

• Summary of Recommendations from Past Reports on the Status of Women and Minorities at Yale (2002) 
  This document includes a list of many of the recommendations made over the past thirty years, culled from the previous reports.
   
• First Report of the President’s Committee to Monitor the Recruitment and Retention of Disabled, Minority, and Women Faculty (1991)
  This report details the problems faced by minority and women faculty on campus, and posits several recommendations for academic departments to use in creating a more hospitable climate for underrepresented groups.
   
• Recruitment and Retention of Minority Group Members on the Faculty at Yale (1989)
  Responding to the national attention to affirmative action, this committee’s report outlines a plan for a Yale affirmative action policy.
   
• Yale Announces Goal of Doubling Number of Tenured Faculty Women (1985)
  This file contains a number of helpful documents related to the first attempts to systematically increase the hiring of women professors. Included is a press release, committee report, and the President’s response.
   
• Provost’s Report on Affirmative Action (1985)
  A summary of the Provost’s efforts to achieve the Crother’s Committee goal of doubling women faculty members by 1990, the report reaffirms the university’s commitment to affirmative action.
   
• Summary of Yale University Affirmative Action Program for the Employment of Women and Members of Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups, 1984-85 (1985)
  The initial plan for affirmative action, this report lays out the steps departments must make, and also provides valuable charts and statistics related to women faculty appointments.
   
• Report of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (1984)
  A general examination of women’s experiences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, along with recommendations for improving the campus climate for women faculty.
   
• Women at Yale: A Statistical Profile, 1969-1979 (1979)
  Report contains statistics on undergraduate women’s enrollment and grade distribution, as well as women faculty appointments and retention.
   
• A Report to the Yale Corporation from the Yale Undergraduate Women’s Caucus (1977)
  Written by Yale’s first undergraduate women, their report addresses campus sexism and institutional discrimination.
   
• Reports of the Faculty Study Group on the Recruitment and Appointment of Women and Minority Group Faculty (1976)
  A compilation of the reports produced by 4 different working groups in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, this report monitors the progress on the university’s affirmative action plan.
   
• Report to the President from the University Committee on the Status of Women, 1973-1974 (1974)
  Written following the first graduating class of women. Evaluates the committees, resources, and special offices set aside for women undergraduates.
   
• Report of the Committee to Recommend Procedures Concerning the Recruitment of Qualified Women (1971)
  A report containing concrete suggestions of how to increase women faculty hires for the upcoming school year.
   
• A Report to the President from the Committee on the Status of Professional Women at Yale (1971)
  This report gives anecdotal as well as statistical evidence about the way women are valued at the university from graduate students to tenured faculty.
   
• Graduate Education for Women at Yale (1969)
  Following the accusations of gender discrimination from graduate students and faculty, this report explores the situation of women graduate students and recommends department-level and university-wide changes.

Women Faculty Forum historical records can now be found in the Sterling Memorial Library, Archives at Yale.   

The records available compile and organize an archive of historical photographs and documents on women and gender issues at Yale along with the historical growth and activities of the Women Faculty Forum. Initiated in 2006, the WFF Archives have been updated through 2024.

More details here.

Visible/Invisible: Framing and Reframing Gender, Race, and Intersectionality

• On February 7, 2020, as the campus marks 50WomenAtYale150, and the country the 100th year of the potential for women to vote, WFF convened a day to reflect on women at Yale.  WFF convened a colloquium to reflect on what the “first entry” of women at the university meant and about the past, current, and future shape of gender equity policies at Yale as well as its import for gender in the curriculum and the scholarly and leadership missions of the University.

“Gender Rules: Conversations About Access, Outcome, and Equality” (2014-2015)

• The WFF partnered with YaleWomen to organize a conference on gender and institutional policy. On November 1st, more than 300 alumni, students, faculty, staff, and administrators gathered in the School of Management to hear from experts on gender equity research and advocacy. There were five panels with speakers making short presentations followed by open conversation with attendees. To see the full account of the event, check out the Storify digest by YaleWomen here. 

International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU): Women in Higher Education (2008)

• On April 21, 2008, Yale hosted “Women and Men in the Globalizing University,” a conference of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). This one-day colloquium continued the IARU research project on Women and Higher education and built upon the conversation begun at the first meeting of this group at Cambridge University in September 2006. For the colloquium on gender and higher education, some forty Yale faculty members and administrators joined representatives from each of the ten IARU member universities and experts from other institutions and foundations.

“Citizenship, Borders, and Gender: Mobility and Immobility” (2003)

• In May 2003, the WFF hosted the “Citizenship, Borders, and Gender: Mobility and Immobility” conference cosponsored by the Woodward Fund, Yale Center for International & Area Studies, Crossing Borders Initiative, and the Yale Law School. It brought together twenty-five scholars from Yale and other institutions to discuss how best to situate gender in the context of the new shape of citizenship in a globalized world.

Gender Matters (2001)

• Gender Matters: Women and Yale in its Third Century: This volume contains the proceedings of a conference that constituted one of the principal highlights of Yale’s Tercentennial celebration during the year 2001. It is the result of an effort initiated by Professors Nancy Cott, Dolores Hayden, and Judith Resnik to mark the role of women at Yale.