From the New York Times news section:
One of America’s First Women’s Colleges Is Accused of Paying Men More
Vassar, which is coeducational now, has maintained a gender-based pay gap for two decades, current and former female professors say in a recently filed lawsuit.
By Sharon Otterman and Erin Nolan
Sept. 18, 2023Vassar College, one of the first institutions of higher learning for women in the United States, prides itself on being a pioneer in women’s education and deeply committed to equality between the sexes.
And yet, Vassar, a liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where tuition this year is $67,000, has systematically paid its female full professors less than their male counterparts for the past two decades, according to a recent federal lawsuit.
The suit, filed last month by five former or current tenured faculty members, has roiled the left-leaning campus with allegations of unequal pay, delayed promotions for female professors and a discriminatory performance-evaluation system.
Hundreds of students rallied outside a faculty meeting last week to demand that female professors be paid the same as men. On a campus where the promise of gender equality is a draw for students seeking a college culture steeped in diversity and equity, many students interviewed said the issues raised by the suit had left them feeling betrayed.
In a display of solidarity, dozens of professors wore white to the faculty meeting. As students cheered outside, some educators arriving for the meeting became visibly emotional.
In the 2003-04 academic year, female full professors earned about 7 percent, or $7,770, less on average than their male counterparts, according to the data, which was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The gap has widened since, the data shows. During the 2021-2022 academic year, male full professors earned $153,238 on average—about 10 percent, or $13,900, more than women of the same academic rank.
Occam’s Butterknife theorizes that unfalsifiable Systemic Sexism is so strong that even at Vassar, men are irrationally paid more.
Occam’s Razor suggests that men tend to earn more.
