Political Science - News and Events
Spotlight: Professor Achieves Tenure in the Political Science Department
- Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
The Political Science Department would like to congratulate Dr. Victoria Gordon on accomplishing tenure.
Dr. Gordon is beginning her seventh year of teaching this fall at WKU.
“It’s a nice acknowledgement from colleagues that you’ve met the standards of their perspective of tenure,” Dr. Gordon said.
As a self-described goal-oriented person, Dr. Gordon said this is a great professional goal that she’s achieved
Her career began in city and county government before she decided to pursue a higher degree as other obligations in her life began to lessen.
After collecting many “horror stories” throughout the years from women in the work force, her newest research is focused on the utilization of maternity benefits.
Women in higher education are worried about starting families and how it would affect their tenure.
Dr. Gordon’s research includes women employed in public and private universities, as well as those within the private sector of the pharmaceutical industry.
While this newest research has not yet been published, Dr. Gordon’s findings in “What Have We Done to Our Daughters? An Exploration of the Utilization of Maternity Leave Benefits,” suggests that there is a “disconnect between official policies in organizations…and the perceptions of the employees of those organizations with regard to utilization of maternity leave benefits.”
As a new grandmother herself, Dr. Gordon became concerned about the future of these women and how they perceive their future.
Dr. Gordon has also published numerous articles in the areas of HR management and economic development.
As a professor at WKU for five years, Dr. Gordon has come to favor her students and the good dialogue she experiences in her graduate level classes with the mixture of older and younger students.