Who’s Looking? Examining the Role of Gender and Rank in Faculty Outside Offers

Abstract

Outside offers, defined as comparable offers of employment at another organization, are means by which faculty determine their relative market worth and increase their salary at their home institution. Despite the career advantages associated with outside offers, little is known about the groups of faculty most likely to receive them. For example, given unexplained pay differences between men and women faculty at research universities, it is important to understand whether there are gender differences in who receives outside offers. This study used survey data from (n = 784) faculty respondents at a large, public university and exploratory logistic regression to examine the relationship between receiving outside offers and gender, partner status and having dependents, rank, and time in rank. Key findings suggested that rank was associated with outside offers, with those in higher ranks more likely to receive outside offers. Men were more likely to receive outside offers than women. We draw implications from this exploratory study for future research and for constructing retention policies that do not unintentionally disadvantage certain subsets of faculty.