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Originally Posted by DrPhil
The general pattern exists across region, discipline, and graduate program. General patterns aren't meant to apply to 100% of the cases.
Let's take disciplines like social work and the social sciences, in general, which had a sharp increase in minorities and women over the last 30 years. Social work, for example, is now considered a non-traditional field for men, which now translates to it being one of the lower paying specializations for women depending on the research, teaching, and practitioner base.
Even with the increase in women and minorities, there are (women and racial and ethnic) minority faculty and student organizations to serves as networking tools, and to address concerns. Many of these faculty feel they are unable to climb the ranks in white and/or white male dominated field and/or department. Part of that is because most of these women and racial and ethnic minorities aren't the key decision makers. Students often don't notice that a lot of the diverse faces they see are either adjunct, nontenured full-time faculty, and are overworked and underpaid in comparison to the other faculty in the department and/or university. Even the tenured minority faculty often don't become department heads and graduate directors--unless the departments have no other alternatives--they often don't have a voice in the department and are on the sidelines doing research/teaching/mentoring.
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I'd beg to differ with you on this. Within the Social Work field when you state, "...which now translates to it being one of the lower paying specializations for women depending on the research, teaching, and practitioner base. " it's acutally very misleading to say such a statement. For the simple fact, that when you are within this field and a private practitioner base, you actually set your own prices as to what it is that you specialize in. Moreover, research within this field is done on a daily basis, particularly by minority men and women within this field. As far as teaching, it depends on where you go, if you are at a Liberal Arts school or if you are at a Private or Public School setting. Believe me, if you are at a school that specializes Social Work, you will see a variety of professors, from a variety of backgrounds teaching you your Social Work courses.
Furthermore, Social Work was never a high paying job in certain sectors of society to begin with. This was always considered a "woman's job" the same as let's say nursing or teaching. However, for those who got into Social Work, they know from the jump, expecting to make $100,000 a year really isn't a reliable way of thinking and you'll be surely dissapointed by your first paycheck. If you ask any Social Worker why they jumped into this type of job, and you'll have varying answers, however, the primary answer that you'll hear is "I love to help people."
Depending on what field you are working with in Social Work, it will determine what you are going to make. Depending on where you live, it will determine what you are going to make. Depending on what you are specializing in, it will again, determine what you are going to make. Depending on what you wanna do with your degree, what you're licensing is, etc., it will all determine what it is that you'll make. Further, the biggest dependence is if you are working for a NPO, FPO, State agency, Private agency, self. Things all depend.
Moreover, when you state, "Many of these faculty feel they are unable to climb the ranks in white and/or white male dominated field and/or department. Part of that is because most of these women and racial and ethnic minorities aren't the key decision makers. Students often don't notice that a lot of the diverse faces they see are either adjunct, nontenured full-time faculty, and are overworked and underpaid in comparison to the other faculty in the department and/or university." again, it's not necessarily true.
Social Work was NEVER a field that was white and male dominated to begin with. It was started as a "Do-gooder Society" in the late 1900's by Jane Addams. It was started as a philothranthapy (?) service organization to specifically help those orphans that were in the NY, Boston, and Chicago sides that were stemming from immigrants that died and left children behind. Moreover, it was specifically started in order to help the children and either place them with families that would "take them in" or within an orphanage setting that would continue to aid the children while teaching them a vocation through apprenticeships (?) which was primarily based off of the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1608.
When you state, "Students often don't notice that a lot of the diverse faces they see are either adjunct, nontenured full-time faculty, and are overworked and underpaid in comparison to the other faculty in the department and/or university" it's hard to say that this is true or not unless you have specifically gone to schools that deal with Social Work or have Social Work within their cirriculum. Having seen this from both perspectives, believe me, when you are going to these schools, you don't care who is teaching you what, you're just trying to finish reading the ton of crap they give you, do your paper, and graduate before you blow something up. Yes, you know that you have crazy as hell professors that you just wanna slap the stuffing out of, but you always realize that this is true wherever you go.
And actually at a school of Social Work, again, you will see, tenured, non-tenured, full-time, adjunct faculty that are there within a diverse ethnical background. A lot depends on where you are going to school.
When you stated, "Even the tenured minority faculty often don't become department heads and graduate directors--unless the departments have no other alternatives--they often don't have a voice in the department and are on the sidelines doing research/teaching/mentoring" it's not necessarily true. I've seen department heads that were of all colors, races, and backgrounds. It wasn't necessarily to do "no other alternatives" but due to the fact that they had the expertise and that was what the school was looking for. Because Social Work is usually within a broader scope of the "Humanities Division" of some schools, those within the department do have to stick together. Of course, people will have disagreements, however, within such a small department, their voice can be heard and it usually is.