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Elizabeth De Wolfe, Ph.D., professor of history and co-founder of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, recently published an essay in Women in Higher Education that explores academic service loads and the role of gender.

The essay highlights the gender imbalance in service assignments and the ways in which the careers of female faculty suffer as a result of such imbalance.

De Wolfe suggests there are multiple causes for the unequal distribution of service, including more service requests of women and differences in the way women and men view their service contributions as part of a healthy university community.

While there are a variety of reasons why women undertake more service than men, the additional time women spend on service takes them away from other academic endeavors, such as scholarship, which are more visible and career advancing.

De Wolfe suggests that, as a way forward, administrators need to recognize “that gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality impact service assignment” and work with faculty to create expectations and guidelines around service and service-related compensation.

DeWolfe has taught and served the ɫ����Ƶ community for 23 years. Her research interests are in 19th century American women’s history.

She has several notable works including The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories.