An Ontario university is the latest to bump the salaries of its female faculty members after discovering they were being paid thousands of dollars less than their male coworkers, but one professor says steps must be taken to prevent — not just rectify — such biases in academia.In a memo emailed to faculty Wednesday and obtained by The Canadian Press, the University of Waterloo said a working group tasked with analyzing faculty salaries uncovered a "systemic gender anomaly" that was "consistent across the university."
As a result, it said an adjustment of $2,905 will be made on Sept. 1 to the salaries of all female faculty members who were in the faculty association's bargaining unit as of April 30 of last year.
However, the working group said in its report that the increases will not be applied retroactively.
Aimee Morrison, an associate professor at the university and associate chair of graduate studies, says this type of inequity is a problem across academia "and probably all fields."
While it's great that the university is willing to address the problem, "I don't see a bigger conversation happening in really pointed ways about how does this keep happening," she said.
