The Commission for Women released a study yesterday that says that Penn State employs very few women with tenure status.

The report, titled "1981-2001: Status of Women at Penn State," was submitted to the Faculty Senate at their meeting.

According to the report, there are about 200 tenured women and 1,100 men at the university.

The College of Liberal Arts has the most women in tenured positions, with about 60.

"We're doing better, but not at the pace that I would like to see it happen," said Robin Anderson, coordinator for process improvement.

She went on to say that from what she understands, the university feels that it is making progress as quickly as it possibly can.

Members of the commission said that there is only one set of rules and one set of guidelines for obtaining tenure at the university.

"Unfortunately," Anderson said, "women are often caught in the childbearing track." She went on to say that once women leave to have children, it is often impossible for them to get back onto the tenure track again.

According to the report, the term "tenure track" means that the individual is on his or her way to gaining tenure at the university.

There are currently about 300 men on tenure track and about 190 women.

"There is a 'stop the clock' tenure policy, but it's not applied across all colleges," Anderson said.

The 'stop the clock' policy allows women to go on maternity leave and resume their tenure track when they return without losing any time or position status.

The policy is not required of all colleges yet.

"It's usually up to the administrator," Anderson said.

University officials were unavailable for comment.

Commission members said that the problem was not just the number of people who obtained tenure during their time at the university.

According to the report, in 2000 about three times as many men were hired with full tenure as women. Those numbers were the best that women had seen for the past three years.

Again, the College of Liberal Arts hired the most women with tenure.

Anderson said that the report was originally prepared 15 years ago.

"When I was chair (of the Commission for Women) three years ago, we revisited the Status of Women report and revisited the data," Anderson said.

"Vasundara Varadan (the current chair of the Commission for Women) re-examined it again this year to keep (the information) in the forefront." Members of the commission said that they were looking to the faculty senate for help in promoting their cause.