Committee meeting reignites conversation about gender inequality at UNC

Members of UNC’s Committee on the Status of Women met over Zoom on Tuesday to outline their goals for the year, including combating gender disparities in salaries, expanding child-care services for faculty and staff and pressuring UNC to improve transparency and communication about gender equality. 

In spring 2019, the committee presented its research on gender pay inequities at UNC to the Faculty Council. It had several meetings with Provost Bob Blouin to address the problem — prior to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“We got quite a stone wall in some of our first meetings,” music professor Brent Wissick said. “Things are not acceptable yet, but at least there seems to be a better conversation happening.” 

Members of the committee said they want to pick up where they left off in March. 

“What I see as our role in terms of this topic is keeping it front and center in South Building and making sure that solutions keep getting offered,” Linguistics Department Chairperson Misha Becker said. “I want to keep on proposing concrete solutions that are actionable.” 

The committee discussed the need for UNC to improve transparency and communication about inequities and recommended that the University publish a yearly report about salary and equity on campus. Dr. Kenya McNeal-Trice, director of the Pediatric Residency Program at the UNC School of Medicine, proposed the creation of an annual dashboard to track progress that has been made to improve accountability and address gaps. 

Additionally, members discussed the increasing need for child-care resources on campus. They talked about how the committee has explored this before, but said the COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened the problem with the combination of children attending school online and parents working from home. 

“We can’t coin this as only a women’s issue — it’s a family issue,” McNeal-Trice said. 

The committee discussed the idea of prioritizing space or contracting out to create a child-care facility on campus that is equally accessible and affordable to all UNC members, including faculty, staff and students. 

“Donors can support these things if there’s a real need and it’s documented and taken up as a cause by the leaders of the institution,” Gloria Thomas, the director of the Carolina Women’s Center, said. “They should know the real needs of women and identified women on this campus so they can start supporting some of those real needs.” 

Thomas proposed establishing a donor-funded emergency child-care fund. 

The committee discussed its next steps in communication with the administration. Members will brainstorm specific questions to ask at future meetings with administrators about how to address child-care benefits, accommodations and support on campus, as well as continue the conversation with Blouin about salary equality.

“They are finally listening,” Wissick said. “If we as a committee keep pushing, things will get better.”

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