Findings and recommendations were made into an Executive Summary by the task force. Three of the eight key findings are as follows: “Women may be less likely to receive administration appointments, particularly to department chair. Even when women hold administration appointments, they do not receive compensation comparable to men;” “Faculty report significant levels of gender-based treatment sometimes amounting to harassment;” and “There is a lack of a centralized office for reporting gender equity grievances.”

The most significant finding, according to the study, was that “gender has a significant and negative effect on initial salary and this effect carries through to current salary.” On average, starting salaries for women were $1,800 less than their male counterparts, the finding said.

With this information, the Gender Equity Implementation Task Force was organized to determine ways of fixing the inequalities. Again, a report was written and given to Wild in June 2002. From this report, several of the recommended changes have been implemented.

To address the salary inequities, the college deans were asked to examine salaries of similar professors by gender, Wake said. Twenty female faculty members had their salaries adjusted to equal their male counterparts.

For colleges in which salaries were hard to compare, such as the College of Nursing, which has a mostly female staff, Wake said the salaries of Marquette professors were compared to that of other nursing schools.

Not only were starting salaries lower, but raises were also of a lower caliber because an increase in salary is based on a percentage of the professor’s current salary, Wake said.

Not all of the Implementation Task Force recommendations have been applied, Maranto said. The Task Force is still hoping to set a new standard for parental leave. Currently, faculty members can take six to eight weeks off for a birth, adoption or sick family member, she said.

“It just doesn’t jive with the semester system,” Maranto said.

Maranto said the task force is looking to “go beyond the legal minimum for parental leave. Six to eight weeks is inappropriate. It is not good for students or faculty.”