The qualitative analysis in this report is based on the results of four focus groups conducted in the spring of 2000. Focus groups were conducted for four key groups of women on campus: 1) undergraduate and graduate students, 2) faculty, 3) classified staff, and 4) professional exempt staff. Several themes resonated from the focus group attendees:

1. An awareness of hierarchy and a corresponding assignment of gendered power relations on campus. The University as an academic institution is a class system in which tenured faculty have the most prestige and power. In the levels below them (non-tenure track faculty, professional example, classified staff, and students) there are often feelings of frustration and unused talents. Female faculty and students are acutely aware of issues of respect and authority in the classroom, i.e., men are "professors" and get respect; whereas women are "teachers" and are questioned and challenged. This issue represents a growing problem in the CU classrooms.

   Some of the things that I've talked to people about are the female teaching faculty, how they've been treated by students as far as not getting a lot of respect: being called by their first name, where male faculty are always called Professor so-and-so; being called things like "bitch" or having them argue over points with you just in class or in your office, things that you shouldn't be challenged about or they feel a male faculty member wouldn't be challenged about. (Faculty Member)

2. A concern with the lack of a female presence on campus. Women need to be in visible and accessible positions of authority.

   I think there aren't enough female faculty members, so that if you want to do research on female concerns, the things that could touch on women more than they would touch on men, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of support for that. (Student)

3. A realization that the highest positions of power are held by men, which impacts perceptions of hiring and promotion practices, and a lack of respect accorded to the less powerful females.

   [Describing a story well-circulated in the department]: there is basically this totem [pole], this power structure...as far as being challenged versus respected in the classroom: ... male professors are at the top of this structure, following would be male TAs, then female professors, and then female TAs. (Student)

4. A feeling of being "topped off," i.e., unable to move upward in the system, of isolation, of lack of voice, and of not feeling connected to other women on campus.

   I get a sense that there is sometimes not an opportunity to move within the university, and I don't know if that's just where my particular field is, but I get that sense, that there is nowhere else to go. If I wanted to try something different, that may not be an option for me. (Staff Member)

5. Specific issues and coping strategies also characterized the comments of focus group participants: discrimination, physical safety, work-related boundary-setting challenges, childcare, and sexual harassment. Women also raised issues over the control of their physical space at work. Child care was a concern for women at all levels in the University. Women were not aware that sexual harassment training is mandatory.

   I think that like on an individual basis I don't experience a whole lot of sexual harassment or even gender discrimination, but I feel like it's very institutionalized and just — like in the whole hierarchy... Well, in my current position there is nowhere further I can go in the college; I'm as high up as I can go as a female staff member. (Professional Exempt Staff member)

6. Women shared strategies for coping with hostile colleagues and inequality in the workplace, and also what happens when those strategies fail.

   I haven't been silent. That much is true. But I haven't, you know, really yelled at anybody either, such as I can recall. I've been yelled at, but I haven't yelled at anybody. My strategy, you know, in these arguments has turned to I take notes right under their noses; I take down every word they say. Excuse me? Excuse me, I need that again, you know. And then I just record it. And that stops people who are going to swear at you very fast, very fast. (Faculty Member)

   I don't think I want to — I don't think I want to fight this good fight anymore, that I want to — I just want to get out of here. (Student)

A detailed report of the focus groups can be found in Part II.