The College Fix

School remains silent after forming task force to address ‘issues of gender equity’

Georgetown University refuses to release statistics related to gender equity, even as the school recently indicated that it suffers from gender-based inequality, a problem which the school created a task force to address.

The task force, created in March of this year and staffed by more than 20 university officials and faculty members, will “strengthen [Georgetown’s] capacities to support and advance gender equity” on campus, according to university President John DeGioia.

But in spite of the implication that Georgetown experiences at least some gender inequality on campus, the school will not release any statistics or figures to that effect.

Repeated attempts to obtain data on any gender inequity at Georgetown have been rebuffed or ignored by campus officials.

The College Fix reached out to the university’s public relations department for the data. Matt Hill, a spokesman for the school, did not directly respond to the query, stating instead that the committee was created because “Georgetown is deeply committed to gender equity and ensuring that our faculty and senior administrators reflect the diversity of our community.”

The Fix reached out multiple times to Laura Kovach, the director of Georgetown’s Women’s Center. Kovach informed The Fix that she would need the “permission” from the school’s Office of Communications before she could speak on the matter. Kovach did not respond further.

Jane Aiken, the chair of the task force, also did not respond to inquiries from The Fix.

Recent stats from various sources show the private Catholic school is actually doing quite well when it comes to having an equivalent number of male and female employees, and in fact even has more women than men employed as staffers and a respectable ratio of male-to-female professors.

While the university refused to release the data to The College Fix, a 2015 report from Georgetown’s Office of Assessment and Decision Support showed a steady increase in female faculty members since 2011. As of 2015, the number of female faculty members was 955 while the male faculty members numbered 1,238. Some 261 faculty members did not have their gender accounted for.

In the same year, the number of females on staff at Georgetown totaled 2,153, while males only accounted for 1,443 staff members.

No statistics on pay disparity or promotion gaps was alluded to by the Office of Assessment and Decision Support.

According to CollegeFactual.com, a college-matching service, Georgetown University has a gender diversity score of around 88, nearly 20 points higher than the national average. Their overall diversity score on the site, accounting for ethnic, gender, and geographic diversity, is about 90, nearly 30 points higher than the national average.

In his announcement, DeGioia said that Georgetown University has “the opportunity to look ahead to the important and necessary work that remains to achieve greater gender equity in our community.” The university president did not cite any specific examples of gender inequity at the school.

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