WHAT DEPARTMENTS ARE HIRING? Inside Higher Ed has a report on a recent study of "gender" (by which they mean "sex") equity indicators by the Association of American University Professors. The tables toward the end of the report, comparing average salaries of male and female assistant professors, are probably the most instructive. (There's too much path-dependence in average salaries of experienced faculty to make any inferences, let alone corrections or policy prescriptions.)

Among the universities at which average salaries for female assistant professors are less than 85% of the male average: Chicago, Duke, Houston, Washington in St. Louis, Wichita State. Among the universities at which average salaries for female assistant professors equal or exceed, by a few pennies, the male average: Brown, Claremont Graduate, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame, Temple, Wayne State. Does it follow that Northern Illinois could successfully raid Chicago or Duke? Without more knowledge of the fields in which assistant professors are being hired in these two sub-samples of higher education, the best answer is "Don't know."