These answers draw in part from “Intersectional Gender and Race/Ethnicity Related to Employment Insecurity among Full-Time University Faculty: Equity Issues” by Douglas L. Robertson, Ph.D. (BehaviorLive), and extend it with peer-reviewed research from our library of 27,900+ ABA research articles. Clinical framing, BACB ethics code references, and cross-links below are synthesized by Behaviorist Book Club.
View the original presentation →Intersectionality refers to the framework for understanding how multiple identity dimensions, such as gender and race/ethnicity, interact to produce unique experiences of advantage or disadvantage. In academic employment research, this means examining derived variables that combine these categories rather than analyzing each one separately. For example, rather than reporting that women and racial minorities are each underrepresented in tenure-line positions, intersectional analysis reveals whether specific combinations, such as Black women or Latina women, experience disproportionate employment insecurity beyond what either category alone would predict. This approach prevents the masking of compounded disparities that single-variable analyses often produce.
Non-tenure appointments lack the contractual protections that tenure provides, including protection from termination without cause, academic freedom safeguards, and long-term employment stability. Faculty in these positions typically receive annual or multi-year contracts that must be renewed, creating persistent uncertainty about continued employment. They often receive lower compensation, fewer benefits, heavier teaching loads, and less access to institutional resources such as research funding and graduate student supervision. These conditions collectively constitute employment insecurity because they diminish both immediate job stability and long-term career trajectory, regardless of the individual's qualifications or performance.
Faculty in stable tenure-line positions are better positioned to conduct sustained research programs that produce the evidence base clinicians rely on. When faculty from diverse backgrounds are concentrated in insecure positions with heavy teaching loads and limited research support, the resulting research pipeline narrows. Fewer culturally adapted assessments are validated, fewer intervention studies include diverse populations, and fewer training materials reflect the linguistic and cultural contexts practitioners encounter. Additionally, non-tenure faculty have less influence over graduate curriculum design, which affects how future BCBAs are trained in cultural responsiveness and equity-informed practice.
The Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS) is a federally mandated data collection system administered by the National Center for Education Statistics. All institutions that participate in federal student financial aid programs must report data on enrollment, graduation rates, faculty demographics, finances, and other institutional characteristics. For this research, IPEDS provides standardized, longitudinal faculty employment data across institutions, enabling comparison of demographic patterns in tenure-line versus non-tenure appointments. The dataset spanning 2010 to 2018 captures nearly a decade of trends, offering a more reliable picture than any single-year snapshot could provide.
Start by examining your organization's workforce data with combined demographic categories rather than separate ones. Instead of asking what percentage of staff are women and what percentage are people of color, ask how specific intersectional groups, such as women of color or men from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds, are distributed across roles, compensation levels, and advancement tracks. Look for patterns where certain combined categories cluster in less desirable positions. This approach mirrors the derived variable methodology used in the academic research and may reveal disparities that single-category analyses overlook. Use the findings to inform targeted recruitment, retention, and promotion strategies.
The BACB Ethics Code establishes several relevant obligations. Behavior analysts must be aware of personal biases and take steps to address them (1.10), promote ethical culture within their organizations (3.01), and maintain competence for the populations they serve (2.01). When employment structures produce inequitable outcomes along demographic lines, behavior analysts in leadership or decision-making positions have a responsibility to examine whether those outcomes reflect structural barriers. Additionally, advocating for equitable employment practices through public statements and organizational engagement aligns with responsible professional conduct under the Code's provisions for behavior analysts' public role.
Public metropolitan research universities are located in diverse urban areas, typically serve heterogeneous student populations, and produce a substantial share of applied research relevant to behavior analysis. These institutions train a significant proportion of the graduate students who become BCBAs and behavior analysis researchers. Their faculty composition therefore has outsized influence on the field's development, including which research questions are pursued, which clinical populations are studied, and how students are trained in culturally responsive practice. Focusing on this institutional category provides both practical relevance and analytic coherence for examining employment equity patterns.
Faculty in non-tenure positions have less capacity to mentor doctoral students through sustained research programs, serve on dissertation committees, or develop the funded research labs where graduate students gain critical training. When diverse faculty are disproportionately concentrated in these positions, fewer students from underrepresented backgrounds have access to mentors who share their experiences and can navigate the structural barriers they may face. This creates a compounding effect across generations: limited stable mentorship produces fewer diverse researchers, who in turn have less opportunity to mentor the next cohort, perpetuating the cycle of underrepresentation in the field's research leadership.
Derived variables are new variables created by combining existing data categories. In this research, gender and race/ethnicity categories are combined to create intersectional categories such as white women, Black men, Hispanic women, and so on. These derived variables allow statistical analysis of employment patterns for specific intersectional groups rather than treating gender and race/ethnicity as independent factors. This is important because additive models, analyzing each factor separately, may miss compounded disadvantages or unique patterns experienced by specific intersectional groups. The derived variable approach provides a more accurate picture of how employment insecurity is distributed across the full demographic landscape of university faculty.
Professional organizations can implement several strategies informed by these findings. They can collect and publish intersectional workforce data from certification records, enabling the field to track employment patterns over time. Grant programs and research fellowships can be directed toward early-career faculty in non-tenure positions to support their transition to tenure-line roles. Conference programming and publication opportunities can be structured to reduce the presentation and submission costs that disproportionately burden faculty without institutional support. Accreditation standards for training programs can include expectations for faculty employment equity. These systemic interventions address the structural conditions identified in the research rather than relying solely on individual-level solutions.
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Intersectional Gender and Race/Ethnicity Related to Employment Insecurity among Full-Time University Faculty: Equity Issues — Douglas L. Robertson · 1 BACB Ethics CEUs · $19.99
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.