School promotes second female professor

By Anna Archibald

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Laura Poppo has worked most of her life to attain the title of professor.

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Her years of work paid off when she was named the first female full professor in the University’s School of Business since the early 1990s. She is now the only female business professor at the University.

In the School of Business, it takes at least five years to become an assistant professor, six more to move on to associate professor and another six or more to become a full professor. Poppo said because business was still somewhat of a male-dominated profession, women were expected to put parts of their life on hold to make it to a higher ranking than men.

“Business is still a relatively new profession beginning in the late 80s,” said Poppo, who earned the title of professor last month. “It has been historically dominated by men. A woman’s reproductive cycle and the tenure of a professor don’t always work well together.”

Despite the lack of encouragement for women in the professional world, Poppo said that the University was very “human,” and that since she came here in 2007, she could see they cared about her as a person.

“While I was working at the first job, a senior faculty member said to me, ‘This is not a good time for you to get married or have kids,’” Poppo said. “But many of my male colleagues my age were married and had kids.”

Many people, including Poppo, said it seemed strange that she was only the second female full professor of business in the history of the University.

“I’m so proud,” Poppo said. “I’ve worked really hard to accumulate the research and background to get this far.”

Other universities in the area, however, have the University beat in the number of female professors.

Melanie Horton, administrative assistant to the dean at Kansas State University, said the School of Business had two female professors and the University of Missouri had three.

Before Poppo, Marilyn Taylor was the last female business full professor at the University.

Toni Dixon, director of communications in the School of Business, said Taylor hadn’t taught since the late 1980s or early 1990s.

“I’m very excited about it,” Dixon said. “I have the same questions as to why it’s taken so long, but I’m looking forward to a woman moving to the top echelon of the school.”

Stacy Kovar, accounting professor at Kansas State since 1997, has been a full professor for a year and a half.

“If you look at our profession historically, it has just been in the last 20 years that numbers of women have matched men in Ph.D. programs,” Kovar said. “When I first took an interest in the profession, there were a lot more male than female faculty.”

She said over the years, some schools have done a better job than others at recruiting and promoting women.

“It’s been challenging recruiting women at K-State because of the history involved,” she said. “It takes a long time to get through being unrepresented in the workplace and this is not necessarily the easiest place to attract women to.”

Poppo said the University has proved to her it is possible to balance all these areas of her life and receive support from colleagues while doing so. Consequently, Poppo said the encouragement she’s received from her husband over the years has helped her through the long journey. She has been married for 14 years and has two kids.

Cory Boor, Medicine Lodge senior and business minor, said he had never had a female business professor.

“It’s important for students to be taught from a female perspective as well,” he said. “We’re taught about the contrasting relationship between male and female bosses in the workplace and I think it’s important to get the same thing out of instructors.”

— Edited by Sarah Kelly

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