Suing for tenure: a court of last resort for women faculty.

Lest we forget that higher education was created by and for the other gender, a new report provides shocking reminders that sex discrimination in the academy continues to destroy the careers of some of its best educators.

Published by the American Association of University Women's Legal Advocacy Fund, the 105-page Tenure Denied: Cases of Sex Discrimination in Academia provides details of 19 cases of women who fought back in court after being denied tenure. Their stories represent 33 tenure denial lawsuits the fund has supported since 1981.

Win, lose or negotiated tie, the cases describe a devastation of the women's lives and careers. They chose to risk their relationships, financial stability and professional careers not just for themselves, but for other women in the academy--past, present and future--because it was the right thing to do.

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Women faculty around the nation had a strong, immediate response to the report. Just two days after posting a press release about it on the Women's Studies listserv, the AAUW had received more than 200 requests for the book. Many professors were going through the same ordeals, and were very excited that the information from others--and the statistics to back their feelings--was out there for them.

Over the years, the courts have been very reluctant to interfere with tenure decisions within the academy, using strict guidelines to define a very narrow set of instances in which they will act to combat only the most egregious wrongs. Of the 19 cases described in the report, women lost 8 cases (42%), won 2 cases (11%), have 2 cases pending (11%) and reached a settlement in 7 cases (37%).

For many women the settlements were actually victories. Some women got tenure, reinstatement, front and back pay and most importantly, vindication and restoration of their sense of selves. Most settlements came with a gag order, so we'll never know the exact price paid by the universities. Some cases settled without a gag order--even those not in the report--have included universities revising their policies and procedures for awarding tenure, so in the future female faculty will not suffer from the same bias.