Patriarchy, power, and professors: A study of tenure in a school of education

This study examines the tenure process as it is experienced by tenured professors in a professional school of a large research university. Through narrative analysis or storytelling, informants represent the process of achieving tenure; discourse constitutes the data base that explains the peculiarities of tenure in a specific setting. Discourse also permits the examination of larger issues of patriarchal embeddedness, power, leadership, and collegiality in higher education. Tenure is the focus; patriarchy and power, the frame. The purposes of this inquiry are: (1) to determine the fairness of the tenure procedures given the nebulous criteria that govern the process; and (2) to demonstrate that male dominance is formally built into institutional policy because it is a cultural mind set that permeates the perceptions if not the behaviors of both men and women. Competition, aggressiveness, and ideological conflict influence the relationships of the constituencies engaged in the tenure process. The research setting is a graduate school of education. Schools of education experience a unique position as partners of academic disciplines and centers for teacher training, a profession identified primarily with women. This study examines this tension and reveals its effect on the tenure process