There are three times as many male teachers than there are female teachers at NIU.

The UCLA Higher Education Research institute’s survey found that 26 percent of NIU’s teachers are women and 74 percent are men.

This resembles the proportion of tenure-tract males and females here and nationally, said Lois Self, director of NIU’s Women’s Studies Program.

“It reflects the fact that only in the 20th century have women had full access to higher education,” Self said.

Only in recent years have women started to be accepted in academic departments, she said.

While there are less rigid stereotypes about men’s and women’s jobs today, things are not changing as fast as some would like, she said.

Efforts need to be made to actively recruit women and minorities and to keep them here, she said.

“The university is a microcosm of society,” she said. Because the number of women and minorities will pass the number of white males, the university will change out of necessity, she said.

“The proportion of women among new faculty at NIU is high,” said NIU Provost Kendall Baker.