Less money, less children, and less prestige: Differences between women and men academic librarians

Abstract

Academic librarianship is a heavily feminized profession, with women making up between 72-74% of the workforce based on statistics from Canada and the US. As a result, gendered issues such as salary discrepancies and a glass ceiling phenomenon might be expected to be magnified in such an environment. Using linked data from the 2018 CAPAL Census of Academic Librarians, the authors examined the experience of motherhood and librarianship, specifically by looking at potential connections between gender, salary, number of dependents, and academic rank. Results demonstrate that in Canada, females earn on average, $10,000CDN/year less, are less likely to become a parent as their career progresses, and are overly represented at the lower ranks (e.g., Assistant Librarian) than their male counterparts. Drawing upon the literature on motherhood, salary differences, and career progression in academia, we demonstrate that while issues long standing in the profession have yet to be resolved there are changes that can be made to more our profession toward being more equitable to all its members.