Abstract
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, on-going 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.
Highlights
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
Plurality and difference are global concepts and in this study we use them to denote an openness to diversity in viewpoints, beliefs and their interpretation including an openness to ambiguity and dissonance
Sci. 2018, 8, 81 and practices that result in gender inequalities across UK higher education
Summary
‘So by populating senate . . . populating any other committee in an ex officio [capacity]. Lucy describes the populating of university committees by ex officio appointments— we have cited it as an illustrative example of a common institutional practice, reflective of masculinities cultures Such a cultural backdrop perpetuates dominant masculine norms of leadership, leads to a continuing tendency to promote men and presents a striking antidote to plurality and difference reflecting entrenched gendered regimes. Sci. 2018, 8, 81 and practices that result in gender inequalities across UK higher education This concept of gendered regimes is illuminated throughout our work. It may seem counter-intuitive to begin a paper (concerned as it is with ideas around plurality and difference) with a quote depicting a dystopian world in which diversity is abandoned by a valorisation of masculine norms. We extend the work of Broadbridge and Simpson [1] proposing a lconceptual framework to support and capture future research on gender, plurality and difference in HE
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