Underrepresented minority faculty in the USA face a double standard in promotion and tenure decisions

This paper investigates racial disparities in promotion and tenure (P&T) decisions within US universities. Data from five universities (1,571 faculty members) revealed that underrepresented minority (URM) faculty received 7% more negative votes and were 44% less likely to receive unanimous votes than their non-URM counterparts. A double standard in evaluating scholarly productivity was observed, with below-average h-indexes being judged more harshly for URM faculty. This effect was amplified for URM women. However, the differential treatment of URM women was mitigated when external reviewers highlighted their scholarship in review letters. The findings support the hypothesis of a double standard and highlight the contribution of biased P&T processes to the underrepresentation of URM faculty.

Theodore Masters-Waage, Christiane Spitzmueller, Ebenezer Edema-Sillo, Ally St. Aubin, Michelle Penn-Marshall, Erika Henderson, Peggy Lindner, Cynthia Werner, Tracey Rizzuto, Juan Madera