Gender Inequality at the Top: Why 'Fixing' Women Isn't the Answer (original) (raw)
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Why are there so few female leaders in higher education: A case of structure or agency
Management in Education, 2017
A significant gender imbalance remains at executive management level within higher education despite a number of initiatives to increase the number of women in the leadership pipeline and ensure they are better prepared for these roles. This article presents findings from a recent study on the appointment of deputy and pro vice-chancellors in pre-1992 English universities that provide fresh insights into why this might be the case. These findings challenge the notion of women's missing agency-characterized by a lack of confidence or ambition and a tendency to opt out of applying for the top jobs – as an explanation for their continued underrepresentation. Rather, they highlight the importance of three structural factors associated with the selection process: mobility and external career capital, conservatism, and homo-sociability. An approach of 'fixing' the women is therefore unlikely to be sufficient in redressing the current gender imbalance within university executive management teams.
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SAGE Open, 2021
Higher education is anticipating vacancies in senior leadership positions over the coming years. Women are likely to be candidates for these openings, as the number of women pursuing doctoral degrees is rising. However, in the present scenario, there is a dearth of women in senior leadership positions in India. With a purpose to identify the factors influencing the decision of women to take up senior leadership positions, a cross-sectional survey was planned in India. Female faculty ( n = 136) employed on a tenure basis in state public universities were the respondents. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and focus group discussions. About 48% of the participants expressed that they decline opportunities for administrative positions. The distance to the workplace was found to be a barrier to take up senior leadership positions. Recommendations to promote the readiness of women to take up senior leadership are discussed.
Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 3 (1) 28-50, , 2019
Global scholarship has documented gender discrepancies in power in higher education institutions (HEIs) for several decades. That research is now supported by wider gender equality movements such as those concerned with unequal pay and sexual harassment. Underlying these is the under-representation of women in senior management and full professorial positions. Thus, for example, in the US and the EU men make up the overwhelming majority of those in senior management (Rectors/Presidents/Vice Chancellors) and in full professorial positions. Variation within and across countries and types of institutions suggests that it is necessary to go beyond explanations for this at the individual level. Drawing on research in the sociology of education; higher education studies; management and leadership studies; gender studies; science and policy studies, and using quantitative data, experimental studies, individual case studies and comparative qualitative studies of HEIs, this article focuses on three discourses which legitimate the under-representation women in senior positions namely excellence, fit and national relevance. It evaluates interventions to deal with this including unconscious bias training, mentoring, gender mainstreaming interventions such as Athena SWAN and ADVANCE and ‘nudging’ leaders to end gender inequality. It concludes that a fundamental transformation of HEIs is required and suggests ways forward. KEYWORDS: Gender imbalance in senior positions, higher education, leadership, discourses, interventions
Is managing academics "women's work"? Exploring the glass cliff in higher education management
Sweden is among the countries with the highest per cent of women university Vice Chancellors in Europe. In She Figures 2012 the average proportion of female Vice Chancellors in the 27 European Union countries is estimated to be 10 per cent. In Sweden the number is much higher: 43 per cent. Swedish higher education management has witnessed a demographic feminization during the last 20 years. Which factors can explain that women have been so successful in gaining access to these senior management positions in Swedish academia? This paper discusses the demographic feminization, drawing on qualitative interviews with women in senior academic positions in Swedish higher education. The paper suggests that women's position in higher education management can be analysed using the concept ''glass cliff''. This metaphor describes a phenomenon when women are more likely to be appointed to precarious leadership roles in situations of turbulence and problematic organizational circumstances. The findings illustrate that women have been allowed to enter into senior academic management at the same time as these positions decline in status, merit and prestige and become more time-consuming and harder to combine with a successful scholarly career.
Increasing Gender Diversity in Senior Roles in HE: Who Is Afraid of Positive Action
This article argues that Higher Education Institutions should adopt positive action in recruitment and promotion to tackle women's under-representation in senior leadership roles. In a tie-break situation where two candidates are "as qualified as each other", section 159 of the UK Equality Act 2010 allows employers to give preference to a candidate from an under-represented group. The use of this measure, however, is often contested on the grounds that it is a form of reverse discrimination, it is tokenistic and that it can undermine meritocracy. This article seeks to challenge these objections and suggests that, far from undermining meritocracy, the use of positive action in recruitment and promotion could prove a useful tool to tackle gender bias, unpack stereotypes and re-appraise how merit is defined and assessed.
DigitalUNE (DUNE), 2019
This qualitative phenomenological study examined emergent barriers revealed by analyzing data from job advertisements, structured survey results, and interviews with past and present women presidents and chancellors of public and private not-for-profit higher education institutions about their selection journey for these jobs. The purpose of this research was to engage women who were past and present presidents or chancellors of public or private nonprofit colleges and universities to explore their experiences with gender-bias during the president/chancellor recruitment, selection, and transition enactment. The first question was to study how gender-bias appears during the recruitment of women candidates for a higher education institution president or chancellor role. The emergence of first theme which was that institutional differences may influence gender equity supported the finding that there may be implicit bias in the recruiting process. The second question for exploration looked at how does gender-bias visibly manifest during a higher education institution selection process for president or chancellor. The second theme that evolved from data analysis was that stakeholders’ implicit bias may disadvantage women supported findings that there may be institutional implicit bias in the selection process. The final question assessed how woman presidents or chancellors experience gender-bias during transition events that communicate their selection as the higher education institution president or chancellor. The data analysis led to the creation of a third theme found that launch actions are institutional as well as individual symbolism and organizational communications goals may introduce implicit bias into announcement activities such as press releases. The conceptual framework used the Four-Frame model developed from organizational theory and difference theory. These two theories provided a lens which guided the analysis and interpretation of data from the three data sources that allowed for enhanced validity through triangulation. The study’s findings demonstrate that some women presidents and chancellors have been successful navigating processes despite possible implicit bias forming institutional barriers. The insights from this study regarding barriers in the recruiting, selection, and enactment processes can contribute to future policies and programs.