Photo courtesy of sabatheus via Wikimedia Commons. The library of Vassar College, which is currently embroiled in a lawsuit which alleges gendered wage discrimination against female faculty members.
Max Rhoads ’25
Staff Writer
Five current and former female professors at Vassar College, another member of the Seven Sisters, have filed a wage discrimination complaint against the college. The class action complaint, which was filed on Aug. 30, 2023 alleges that Vassar has been paying them less than their male counterparts for decades.
According to The Miscellany News, Vassar’s student news publication, thirty-six other female professors have filed a joint statement in support of them that reads, “We do not take lightly the decision to speak out, but Vassar has left us with no other choice. [Vassar] has known for many years that it has unlawfully paid men more than women, but it has for years rejected our overtures and refused to address this discrimination in any meaningful or substantive way.”
One piece of evidence in the suit was a chart detailing the wage differences between male and female professors, tracked over 19 academic years. It is clear that this wage discrimination has been occurring for years, and with such data at hand, it is impossible to deny that the pay gap is not gender-based. The decision to underpay women often comes from a conscious or unconscious assumption that women are less competent or have less important jobs than men; however, we are well into 2023. We know by now that women are just as competent at the same jobs, and play just as important roles in the workforce.
The lawsuit has garnered support from the Vassar student body as well. One Instagram account called @hearusout2023 has been organizing student protests. The account is calling on Vassar to pay its faculty equally and end gender discrimination at Vassar. The administrators of this account reported that, according to a survey conducted in 2011, “42.4% of female professors felt discriminated against at Vassar, and 11.9% reported that the discrimination was extensive.”
Unfortunately, wage discrimination is a pervasive problem in the workforce, especially in academia. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, as of 2016, the gender pay gap in the United States stood at approximately 20 percent across all industries. In a study conducted at Ohio State University, a male and female professor of the same rank were found to have a pay difference of 5.2 percent. In the case of Vassar, the pay difference between male and female professors averaged out to 10.0 percent in the 2021-2022 academic year — about twice that.
Although Vassar has been co-ed since 1969, it was founded in 1861 as one of the first higher education institutions to educate women in the United States. It is terribly ironic that an institution meant to further the educational opportunities of women does not treat its male and female faculty equally. This sends a message to female students that no matter how hard they try and what education they achieve, they will never measure up to their male counterparts. It will discourage women from continuing their education, which goes against the purpose of historically women’s colleges. On the Vassar College website, many statements promise to create a just environment for its students and faculty. Those words will mean nothing if they are not backed up by actions. To foster the just environment it wishes to, Vassar must close the pay gap.