Graciela Chichilnisky
Graciela Chichilnisky is a professor of economics, statistics, and math who sued Columbia for gender bias.
Education and career
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Chichilnisky completed no undergraduate studies, moving straight to PhD work in the MIT econ department. She later moved to the math department at Berkeley, where she earned her first PhD. She earned a second from Berkeley's econ department.
She first joined the Columbia faculty in 1977, after postdoctoral work at Harvard, and has been tenured since 1979 in the Econ department. In 1995 she was named the UNESCO Professor of Mathematics and Economics.
Legal and other disputes with Columbia
Chichilnisky's original 1991 lawsuit against Columbia arose out of concerns about women's pay and their ability to attain promotions. Specifically, she alleged that the university was violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963. After two years of countersuits, the university settled with Chichilnisky for $500,000 in damages, a $60k salary increase, and her promotion to UNESCO professor. Columbia also increased the salaries of four other female faculty members.
A later dispute Columbia arose out of a conflict over her multiple campus offices. The university, seeking to maximize available space, sought to confine her to one office. Chichilnisky, however, asserted her right to an office in each of the departments in which she taught, and alleged that gender bias was behind the decision to restrict not only her number of offices, but her pay and her ability to attain promotions as well.
She is currently encouraging other faculty members to bring gender bias claims against the university.
