Gender Differences in Research Scholarship Among Academics: An International Comparative Perspective (original) (raw)
Related papers
Gender inequality in academia: A comparison of New Zealand and Indonesia
New Zealand sociology, 2020
Women academics in New Zealand and Indonesia have different experiences in terms of rank progression due to various structural and cultural factors. Based on in-depth interview results conducted with 30 male and female academics in New Zealand and Indonesia, this article finds differences in gendered promotion in both countries. It similarly reveals differences with regard to the impacts on family life. Male lecturers in both countries typically surpass their female lecturer counterparts in terms of academic promotion. This is especially true for women academics in New Zealand who are both mothers and women of colour. Female academics of colour are therefore confronted with double marginalisation. Despite the New Zealand government's introduction of family-friendly policies, these have failed to provide the equality that these women should unequivocally have in their profession. In contrast to New Zealand, which is often taken to be a paradigmatic example of neoliberalism, this ideology has influenced higher education in a more limited manner in Indonesia, where inequality in academia is not seen as such a concern. The Indonesian tertiary education system has long been regarded as an over-bureaucratised system. It is presently being restructured in an attempt to align more closely to the western international system. Despite these changes, Indonesian women academics in this study still perceived a lecturer position as a family-friendly career option. Comparing Indonesia and New Zealand allows the exploration of academic career advancement from a far broader perspective than is usually the case, given that the majority of academic scholarship focuses on western academic experiences.
Academic employment and gender equity legislation in Australia and Japan, 1970-2010
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 2013
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the rate of change of men and women's employment as university academic staff in Australia and Japan; and, drawing on quantitative methods, show differences in the rate of change since the introduction of anti-sex discrimination legislation. The author also includes a discussion of programmes designed to increase female participation in academic positions to provide background to the existing changes. Design/methodology/approach – Using statistics published by the Ministries of Education of both countries, a time series of female participation at each level of academic staff was constructed. Breakpoint analysis is used to model the changes in the rate of change before and after the legislation was introduced. Findings – Both Australia and Japan have seen an increase in female participation rates in academic employment at all levels since the introduction of anti-sex discrimination legislation. In addition, the rate of increase of...
Gender Equality in Higher Education,
Gender Equality and Knowledge Production: Hierarchies of Exclusions This key note presentation will have three parts. In the first part, I will set up a scene for the issue of gender equality in HE in Serbia, going beyond statistics, and showing the state of art of research and policy in that domain. In the second part, I will offer a broader theoretical perspective on a set of exclusions which create dominant hierarchies in academia, internationally and nationally (within Serbia). I will claim, that contrary to the ideal of meritocracy, scientific and academic systems are mainly created in a spirit of exclusions, and that present day global and transnational flows are increasing exclusions, rather than decreasing. Therefore, those hierarchies are “hierarchies of exclusions” and they dominantly shape organizational power, knowledge production and policy making to which academia is linked. Within such a context of “competition with limited meritocracy”, all “vulnerable” or “minority” groups suffer from additional risks of exclusions, including women. Finally, I will give some concrete examples of how exclusion of gender as a research dimension and the lack of knowledge on gender issues, create three types of negative consequences: firstly, perpetuation of “old boys networks” in academia and exclusion of women, which cancels meritocracy; secondly, bad scholarship limited by androcentricism (where gender is not addressed, or when it is simply “added” without in depth analyses and critical thinking); and finally, dead-end and failure when dealing with the most fundamental problems of social and economic development of Serbia. The conclusion is that gender equality in academia, and within the broader sense of knowledge production, is inseparable from development of critical thinking, diversity, cooperation and meritocracy in science, as well as from constructive and progressive development policies.
Gender Inequality in Higher Education and Research
Business ethics and leadership, 2023
Significant economic and social differences in the living and working conditions of men and women, structural changes in society actualize the need to research the prerequisites and consequences of the existence of gender inequality in the country. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the causes and nature of gender inequality in the long term. The object of the research is the sphere of education and science of certain countries of Europe and America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. The main hypothesis of the study is the assumption of a relationship between gender inequality in the field of education and indicators of the country's social development (Human Development Index and level of education). Methodological tools of the conducted research are methods of trend and structural analysis. The information base of the research is data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations, the research period is 1950-2021. The results of the analysis of the Gender Equality Index during 1950-2000 in terms of its four dimensions (health, socioeconomic resources, gender disparity in households and gender disparity in politics) proved the presence of a significant gender gap in some countries of the world: the countries of Eastern and Western Europe are more developed compared to other regions of the world (South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa). According to the results of empirical calculations, the dependence between the level of human development and gender inequality has been proven: the higher the level of human development of the country, the lower the inequality in education. The study of gender inequality in the field of scientific research was carried out based on the analysis of publications in 50 international journals, book collections of Bengal Economic Association, Indian Economic Association and other professors of reputed institutions in India and abroad. Based on the results of the analysis, it was concluded that the publishing activity of women is lower than that of men: only 22.07% of publications in national and international journals, 23.65% of volumes of book collections and 27.90% of book chapters were published by women. The reasons for the low activity of women in the field of scientific research include: low opportunities for visiting the sites of scientific research institutions, field surveys or laboratory work; limited opportunities for training and advanced training at seminars and classes; lack of time to carry out research activities; discrimination based on personal interests and gender bias; much less interest in regular research due to social, psychological and physical reasons; excessive family load, etc.
Social and Academic Policies for Women. Proceedings of the International Conference 10-13 September 2015, 2015
EDITORS’ FOREWORD It is a well-known fact that women are unfairly (and sometimes severely) disadvantaged in some key areas of social, political, cultural or economic life. These disadvantages are not only unjust, but sometimes also imply important economic costs for the society (i.e., the waste of talents remained untapped due to the disadvantages suffered by women). Therefore, designing and implementing successful strategies for the advancement of women in these areas is one of the most important and pressing target in contemporary world. It is no surprise that promoting equal opportunities for women is declared as an issue of utmost importance by most political platforms in the Western world and it is assumed as a key instrument in achieving the goal of a sustainable development. In this context, between the 10th and the 13th of September 2015, the Romanian Academy – Iași Branch and the “Gheorghe Zane” Institute for Economic and Social Research organized the International Conference “Social and Academic Policies for Women”. The conference, which took place in Iași, Romania, was organized within “PECAFROM – Promoting Equal Opportunities in University and cademic Career for Women in Romania” SOP HRD/144/6.3/S/127928 Project, co-financed from European Social Fund through the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013 and was intended and designed as an opportunity for dialog and debate for the project beneficiaries and researchers and other scholars concerned with the issues raised by the ideal of promoting equal opportunities for women. In order to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of these issues, the conference was open to both theoretical and applied approaches from all disciplines with contributions in analyzing and investigating the problematics raised by the ideal of promoting equal opportunities for women, from philosophy to economics, and from social to political theory. By facilitating their access to academic debates raised by the ideal of promoting equal opportunities for women, the conference constituted an important tool for realizing the main objective of PECAFROM project: that of supporting 550 women with higher education from Romania in increasing their employment opportunities and initiating and developing an academic career. This objective was realized in the project also through three other main types of support: guidance in accessing and processing the information concerning the academic labor market; financial support and entrepreneurial assistance for starting a business; and, last but not least, support in accessing training programmes for career development. The conference had four main sections: 1. Philosophical Foundations of Gender Policies; 2. Social & Economic Analyses of Gender Policies; 3. Gender in Rural space; and 4. Gender Ethics and Equity. Among the topics debated in these sections were: gender equity, discrimination and bias against women, gender stereotypes, work-life balance, equal economic independence, gender pay gap, gender and the labor market, gender balance in decision-making positions, women’s empowerment, or violence against women. As the title of the conference suggests, also a favorite topic was equality of opportunity for women in academia. Is academia a place of equal opportunities for women and men? Why are women so severely under-represented in some academic disciplines like STEM fields or philosophy? Are women negatively discriminated in these fields? Do we need more women in the fields in which they are most under-represented? Which policies are best in promoting equal opportunities for women and men in academia? Is affirmative action for women a justified tool for promoting equal opportunities for developing an academic career? This volume is a collection of papers presented in the conference and includes articles dealing with the above mentioned and other related topics, such as gender (in)equality in rural space, toponymy, online environment, academia, literary canon, education, occupations and social roles, military culture, practices of advertising etc. The volume is the second part of a book financed by European Social Fund through the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013 (the first part gathering some of the other main findings and conclusions of the research developed in the PECAFROM Project). We hope that the book will be found useful (and inspiring) by all those interested in women’s situation in contemporary social, political, cultural, academic, or economic life and also in promoting equal opportunities for women in all these areas.
Gender inequalities in Italian academia. What future for female academics?
Feminismo/s
In the last 20 years, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) has enacted two major reforms and passed a number of parliamentary acts that have radically changed the Italian academic system, e.g., the role of the permanent researcher was abolished and different types of fixed-term researchers were introduced. So far, very little is known on the effects of these reforms on men and women' s career progressions. Using a unique dataset that includes information on the whole Italian academic staff, this paper aims to provide an overview of the changes that the reforms introduced in the academic system and compare male and female scholars' conditions within the university. The focus of the paper is on the young cohorts of academics who work as researchers. The main finding is that, in a context in which the selection and recruitment processes are not exclusively based on merit, the «gender neutral» MIUR reforms are contributing to the reproduction of the female disadvantage.