The influence of gender in academia: a case study of a university college in Sweden (original) (raw)
Related papers
Slaying the Seven-Headed Dragon: The Quest for Gender Change in Academia - www-publicatie
Gender Work and Organization, 2012
In this article we propose a multi-level distinction between gender inequality practices and gender equality practices to come to better understanding of the slow pace of gender change in academia. Gender inequality resembles an unbeatable seven-headed dragon that has a multitude of faces in different social contexts. Based on an empirical study on the recruitment and selection of full professors in three academic fields in The Netherlands we discuss practices that should bring about gender equality and show how these interact with gender inequality practices. We argue that the multitude of gender inequality practices are ineffectively countered by gender equality practices because the latter lack teeth, especially in traditional masculine academic environments.
Gender Equality in Academia: Bad News from the Trenches, and Some Possible Solutions
Perspectives on Politics, 2008
Is there gender discrimination in academia? Analysis of interviews with 80 female faculty at a large Research One university-the most comprehensive qualitative data set generated to date-suggests both individual and institutional discrimination persists. Overt discrimination has largely given way to less obvious but still deeply entrenched inequities. Despite apparent increases in women in positions of authority, discrimination continues to manifest itself through gender devaluation, a process whereby the status and power of an authoritative position is downplayed when that position is held by a woman, and through penalties for those agitating for political change. Female faculty find legal mechanisms and direct political action of limited utility, and increasingly turn to more subtle forms of incremental collective action, revealing an adaptive response to discrimination and a keen sense of the power dynamics within the university. Women attributed the persistence of gender inequality not to biology but to a professional environment in which university administrators care more about the appearance than the reality of gender equality and a professional culture based on a traditional, linear male model. Respondents described heart-wrenching choices between career and family responsibilities, with tensions especially intractable in the bench sciences. They advocated alternative models of professional life but also offered very specific interim suggestions for institutions genuinely interested in alleviating gender inequality and discrimination. the University of California at Irvine (UCI), a major Research One (R1) university, from 2002 to 2006. Analysis consists of five parts. First we clarify that there is, in fact, a problem. We present statistics on salary and employment data for men and women within academia, since job and salary differentials are obvious indicators of Kristen Monroe
Higher Education, 2013
Women are underrepresented in advanced positions in higher education in Europe. This study takes a horizontal perspective and focuses on the relationship between gender and discipline in order to combine research on gender in higher education with theories of disciplinary differences in academic cultures. The study points out substantial differences between disciplines in gender composition, specifically, the probability of a person leaving academia after earning a doctor's degree and various attitudes towards gender equality work. Our approach, which is based on quantitative longitudinal as well as qualitative research methods, has yielded a more complex and contradictory picture of gender equality in higher education than have vertical cross-sectional studies.
Gender Inequalities in Academia: Multiple Approaches to Closing the Gap
Sociologia del Lavoro, 2024
This special issue aims to contribute to the debate on gender inequalities in academia and the gender equality policies that address them. In this introduction we offer an overview of the debate and of the main research issues and theoretical perspectives, showing how a multiplicity of approaches are needed for both understanding and transforming higher education institutions. Macro, meso and micro level approaches illuminate the gendered individual, cultural and institutional factors that constrain and enable academic life, with special attention paid to how the neoliberal turn, and its organizational consequences, exacerbates gender inequalities. Women, gender, care, and intersectionality approaches allow scholars to focus on the different gendered or intersectional relationships within academia. Policy-oriented approaches allow us to analyse and assess progress in institutional efforts to close the gap on gender inequalities in academia. Actor-centred studies expose the power struggles between actors that oppose or promote gender equality policies in academia.
Barriers to women's representation in academic excellence and positions of power
Nearly for half a century women's advancement in the workplace has been in a debate. Women's under-represented in higher education institutions and universities across the globe, and especially in the most powerful or influential posts, is well established. Despite gender equality commitments and women's educational attainment, still, they are underrepresented. Regions and countries may vary in term of culture, achievements and development, but barriers for women's representation in academia are surprisingly similar in many regions. It is found that there are several barriers which women might be experiencing in academia ranging from personal, organizational to societal.