Global linkages, the higher education pipeline, and national contexts: The worldwide growth of women faculty, 1970–2012

Abstract

Despite the surge in women’s enrollments in higher education over the last several decades, women continue to be unequally represented in faculty careers around the world. In this article, we use data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to examine and explain regional and global trends in percentages of women faculty within 92 countries from 1970 to 2012. Drawing on world society and development perspectives, we posit that women’s representation among faculty is influenced by a combination of global norms of justice and women’s rights as well as national contexts. Results of descriptive analyses show remarkable growth over time for all world regions, although gender parity has yet to be reached. Using country fixed effects panel regression strategies, we find that countries with higher levels of women who earn higher education degrees, stronger linkages to global norms of women’s rights, and higher levels of economic development are more likely to have higher percentages of women faculty, with the caveat that the effect of economic development is conditioned by national levels of women’s caregiving burdens. Although the pipeline argument serves as a popular narrative, women’s access to higher education is only part of the story; our analyses indicate that percentages of women faculty are shaped by the intersection of norms, national contexts, and human capital.