The Council on the Status of Women is a group of faculty, staff and students responsible for advising the Provost on how best to support women on campus and eliminate gender disparities from the classroom and workplace. 

The council has approximately 30 members from across the University who meet once a month and serve on subcommittees focusing on everything from policy and campus climate to outreach, professional development and planning their annual Sisterhood Dinner. At the end of the academic year, council members meet with the Provost to report and advise on the issues they addressed that year.

Under the advice of the council, the University has seen changes, particularly with issues of equitable pay. Anne Burke, associate head of learning spaces and services with University Libraries, chaired last year’s council and is a current member. 

“It was some of the work that came out of the Council on the Status of Women that resulted in our paid parental leave that we have here at the University now,” Burke said. “That’s a very recent development and just demonstrates how the work of the council has had just tremendous, real and meaningful impact on people’s lives.”

Janine Kossen, director of the Women’s Center and advisor to the council, said this victory of paid parental leave in 2020 has since spread to the entire UNC system, demonstrating the council’s impact beyond NC State’s campus. 

Kossen said despite the progress made over the past several decades, women are still regularly compensated less than men in equivalent positions

“It’s been 60 years since the passage of the Equal Pay Act and yet women-identified folks, particularly women of color, are still making less than their male counterparts in the workplace,” Kossen said. “Then we also take a look at invisible labor.”

A 2001 salary equity study of tenured and tenure-track faculty at NC State revealed substantial inequities in pay for both women and minority men in comparison to white men. The University responded to this report by investing $700,000 towards closing this gap. Though a 2006 salary equity study demonstrated narrowing of this gap, inequalities remained.

The University continues to conduct these studies every three years, but the council is concerned about the absence of non-tenure University employees in these studies. Burke said tenured and tenure-track faculty make up approximately 15% of all employees on campus. Focusing solely on this group neglects professional track faculty, non-faculty and staff that comprise the vast majority of NC State’s workforce. This oversight means we don’t have accurate information concerning pay discrepancies of NC State employees as a whole and are thus unable to address inequities.

“Asking the questions, knowing if there is a discrepancy, are the first steps towards rectifying any discrepancies,” Burke said. “But that’s not being done outside of tenure and tenure-track faculty as yet.”

Establishing a comprehensive pay equity study is a complex and costly process that Burke said may take time. In the meantime, the council is promoting implementation of salary transparency measures such as including pay scales in job listings. Pay scales are systems that help to calculate base salary for a given position. Understanding base salary helps job candidates effectively negotiate their pay so that it matches their experience and qualifications. 

Pay scales also help candidates understand the qualifications they need to get the salary they want. Dr. Domonique Carter, program manager for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the College of Engineering and current chair of the council, said accessible pay scales provided through her previous institution were a major factor in her educational decisions.

“One of the motivators for me to continue my education was that I had [pay scales] visible, and I could see ‘OK, if I take six more credits, then my salary will go up this much,’” Carter said.

The council is also exploring gendered trends in the distribution of uncompensated invisible labor.

“Women-identified folks, and particularly women of color, are expected to take on additional labor, especially in the [University] around serving on committees that are uncompensated committees, providing mentorship to others without compensation,” Kossen said. “A lot of the extra work inside and outside the classroom often falls on women in the University, and particularly women of color.”

While the University has child care resources for University employees, these resources are not available to parenting students, a population that is often underserved due to the lack of data showing how many students are responsible for children. 

“Those of us who are interested in trying to help in this space are often stymied because we don’t even know the scale of support that is needed,” Burke said. “It’s hard to convince people we need to provide support in this space [when] we don’t know how many students have caregiving responsibilities.”

Issues of inequality in the University, many of which are embedded in established structures, are complicated and require consistent, long-term efforts from the council.

“The University wasn’t set up to support women in the beginning, or people of color, or people of other marginalized identities,” Kossen said. “We as a council uplift those issues, work towards elevating them and bringing those to the attention of the people within the University who have the power to make change.” 

The Council on the Status of Women’s annual Sisterhood Dinner was Feb. 27 where the council presented the winners of the Equity for Women Awards and held a silent auction to raise money for the Women’s Center. Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles, graduate professor in the college of education, gave the keynote address on the night’s theme of reenvisioning an equitable workplace.