Inequality in Higher Education (original) (raw)
Related papers
Women's Studies International Forum, 2005
This paper focuses on the experiences and perceptions of gender inequality by undergraduates at a British University with strong historical traditions. Contrary to a ‘post-feminist’ rhetoric stating that gender inequalities no longer exist in higher education in the UK, or at least not at an undergraduate level, results of a questionnaire and interviews show that gender inequality does still persist in this institutional setting. However, we also found reluctance among students, particularly female students, to recognise or articulate this as discrimination. Instead, there was a tendency to downplay or deny such inequalities, and resistance to such matters being raised. Drawing on existing literature in the field, we suggest this might be a ‘coping mechanism’, as well as indicative of the ‘post-feminist’ milieu. The paper then reflects on the implications of these findings, particularly for those seeking to address gender inequalities in such an institutional environment. Drawing on identity politics theory, as well as the authors' own activist experiences, we argue that while recognising women as a discriminated group may promote gender differentiation, this may still go some way towards practically combating ‘androcentric norms’ [Fraser, Nancy (1995). From redistribution to recognition? Dilemmas of justice in a ‘post-socialist’ age, New Left Review, 212, 68–93.] and thus gender inequality in universities.
Education Sciences, 2018
Debates on the absence of women in senior organizational roles continue to proliferate but relatively little attention is paid to the Higher Education (HE) context in which women in leadership roles are seriously under-represented. However, higher education is now central to UK political discourse given the growing controversy around student fees, vice chancellors' remuneration' and Brexit. This paper draws on a collaborative research study on the experiences of 105 senior women leaders across 3 UK Universities, which elicited accounts of constraints, successes and career highlights. Our research findings present empirical insights that expose the continuing gender inequalities most notable in senior Higher Education roles. Women's accounts include stories of diverse experiences, ongoing discriminatory practices and a failure to recognise the embedded gendered inequalities that continue to prevail in these institutions. Through a critical interrogation of the narratives of female professors and building on insights from a seminal paper by Broadbridge and Simpson a conceptual framework is offered as a heuristic device to capture critical and reflexive data in future studies of equality and inequality in leadership roles.
Women and Gender Equality in Higher Education?
Education Sciences, 2015
I look at the changes in higher education (HE) and women's lives over the last 50 years, drawing on my recent book Feminism, Gender & Universities: Politics, Passion & Pedagogies which is a life history of feminism entering academe. The Robbins Report (cmnd 2154 1963) on HE was published in the same year that I went to university. It inaugurated a process of change and educational expansion that was linked to other major social transformations, including feminism. Its effects have been widely felt such that women now participate in education and employment on unprecedented levels. Indeed, it has opened up opportunities for education and employment for women including individual and social mobility. From my study I show how it opened up opportunities for women from both middle class and working class backgrounds to be first-in-the-family to go to university. I will also argue that whilst there have been very welcome changes in education, and HE especially, such that there is a gender balance of undergraduate students in HE, this does not mean that gender equality has been achieved. Patriarchy or hegemonic masculinity in HE is still strongly felt and experienced despite women's and feminist involvements in academe over the last 50 years. The question remains about how to transform universities to achieve genuine gender equality across all students and academics in HE.
The gendered landscape of UK higher education: do men feel disadvantaged?
Gender and Education, 2017
The landscape of UK higher education (HE) has changed significantly over the past decades. Key shifts relate to the changing gender balance of the undergraduate student body and to emergent gender gaps in retention and attainment. Men are now less likely to access HE, complete their degrees or achieve 'Upper' degrees. There has been minimal empirical exploration of men's perceptions of the current gender patterning of HE, and none focusing on the extent to which they identify as a minority, or experience minority disadvantage, within this context. This study explores these questions via analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from 333 male and female survey respondents. The findings suggest that men do not recognise themselves as comprising a disadvantaged minority within HE, and that both men and women perceive that women face greater challenges because of their gender, both during their studies and in relation to post-degree life chances.
The Challenge of Gender in Higher Education: Processes and Practices
2008
Drawing on Hearn's (1999:125) idea that managers are involved in the 'creation of knowledges…indeed of what counts as knowledge', this article focuses on Irish Universities as creators and evaluators of knowledge'. Using primary and secondary data, content analysis of policies related to education and fifteen years reflexive participation in such structures, the paper describes a pattern of continuity in the male dominated nature of Irish Universities academic, managerial and governance structures, despite dramatic changes in the overall student and faculty profile. Then, drawing on Bolton and Munzio's (2007) work on processes and Connell's typology of masculinities, it uses a series of ideal typical evocative examples to illustrate the kinds of ideologies and practices involved in evaluative decision making for. In this way, it is argued, 'we gain insights into how men 'erect' barriers, how they enact 'biaises' in evaluational contexts (Martin, 1996: 206). It is suggested that the state as a key stakeholder, through its own policies related to higher education, implicitly reinforces these patterns. Women faculty remain concentrated in areas that are least likely to be seen as involving valued knowledges and in these contexts they draw on 'the symbolic resources o f feminity' thus complicating the possibility of resistance (Bolton and Munzio, 2007). Finally the paper suggests that an exemplary model of hegemonic Proceedings of the 4 th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education Vol. 3. Higher education and gender equity GUNI-Global University Network for Innovation-www.guni-rmies.net Proceedings of the 4 th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education Vol. 3. Higher education and gender equity GUNI-Global University Network for Innovation-www.guni-rmies.net masculinity in the current Irish Higher Education context. Thus it suggests that massive investments by the Irish state in science and technology reflect the influence of an exemplary model of hegemonic masculinity, and that this preoccupation is not accidental, since 'Western Science and technology are culturally masculinised… The guiding metaphors of scientific research, the impersonality of its discourse, the structures of power and communication in science, the reproduction of its internal culture, all stem from the social position of dominant men in a gendered world' (Connell, 2005:6). It has been suggested that managerialism is coming into an ascendant position in Higher Education in Ireland. In such a context there is potentially greater transparency and even in some cases 'spaces for women to do management and to do it in different ways' (Prichard, 1996). However these potentialities can be frustrated by a stress on a long hours culture and by a failure to fundamentally challenge the 'masculinist culture' involving the differential evaluation of predominantly female and predominantly male areas. Furthermore, despite the stress on targets and strategy implicit in a managerialist approach, there has been no evidence of any attempt to identify targets in the gender area, despite the recommendation to this effect (HEA, 2004). Hence it is suggested that competition within the national Higher Education system from Institutes of Technology where women are more likely to be in senior positions; as well as international competition and enlightened male leadership concerned with meeting such challenges may offer the best possibilities for change in the system. Proceedings of the 4 th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education Vol. 3. Higher education and gender equity GUNI-Global University Network for Innovation-www.guni-rmies.net Proceedings of the 4 th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education Vol. 3. Higher education and gender equity GUNI-Global University Network for Innovation-www.guni-rmies.net
Sex Discrimination in UK Academia
Gender Work and Organization, 2003
This article examines the gendered nature of employment in UK universities, showing women's experience of discrimination through differences in contract status and in access to academic hierarchies. It argues that the typical academic career path is structured according to a male perception of success: research-active, participating in the Research Assessment Exercise, an uninterrupted career history. The system of meritocracy upon which appointment and promotion within academic are based, the article argues, reinforces such a masculine approach to career success. These meritocratic systems of inequality reflect and reproduce the discursive practices of masculinity that present disadvantages to a majority of women and some men.
Gender and tertiary education: Is it useful to talk about male disadvantage
2008
Internationally there is much research showing that achievement within the education sector is a key determinant of positive labour market outcomes as well as supporting many other areas of wellbeing. Against a backdrop of overall strong and very positive improvements in educational participation and achievement, there is evidence that a gendered 'education transition' has taken place in New Zealand. The transition in tertiary education is demonstrated by higher rates of participation and achievement of women relative to men, particularly among the Māori and Pacific communities. Does this transition matter? Certainly in the past higher participation and achievement by men prompted much concern about the need for women to improve their relative outcomes. While now there is some concern expressed about boys' achievement within schooling, the same level of disquiet is not being expressed about the relative underperformance of men in tertiary education. In this sector concerns focus on overall Māori and Pacific under-representation, and there is still attention given to female under-representation in areas such as engineering or building. Is this because the gaps that favour women are minor differences or, in fact, are they new and important disparities? We find there is no objective measure that can tell us when gender gaps are important. However, historically gaps of the size currently found in tertiary education, but in favour of men, did cause concern. And currently similar sized gaps, again in favour of men, in areas such as pay continue to be high on public policy agendas. Further complicating this analysis of gaps is whether absolute gains to both men and women are considered, or whether simply relative positions are examined. Overall, the paper suggests that much of the gender analysis undertaken within the tertiary education sector, as well as within much of the wider policy world, remains based on a premise of female disadvantage or, alternatively, focuses on very specific areas of female disadvantage while often ignoring parallel male disadvantage. Focusing on one part of a binary population, without looking at the other part, has the potential to create new inequalities. We suggest that this needs to change to allow a more sophisticated analysis of gender and ethnic gaps. This includes a requirement to consider the growing heterogeneity of choices and outcomes for women and men, as well as identifying and overcoming the remaining constraints on choice for both men and women.
Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 2023
For the past 30 years, many researchers have highlighted the gendering of higher educational institutions. However, many organizations in the broadly defined Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) area in the EU have varying degrees of interest, or academic staff available, in the gender equality area with many being largely unaware of this literature. This article draws provocatively on existing concepts to ‘make sense’ of the persistence of gender inequality. Such concepts include gendered organizational power, which is frequently taken-for-granted and is reflected at structural and cultural levels. The concept of legitimating discourses (including excellence, choice, women’s ‘nature’ and organizational gender neutrality) helps to explain why gender inequality is not perceived. Other manifestations of institutional resistance to gender inequality provide insights into why it is not tackled effectively. The article recognizes that gendered change does occur and uses the metaphor of bonsai-ing to highlight attempts to limit the impact of such changes. Finally, it identifies some key issues that need to be tackled