Social Process Skills and Career Achievement among Male and Female Academics

Abstract

Research examining women's career development in academia suggests that despite the introduction of equal opportunity policies women continue to be underrepresented in the profession, particularly in the higher ranks. In New Zealand universities women comprised 22 percent of full-time academic staff in 1991. Patterns by academic rank show women to be concentrated in the lower ranks. In 1991 women represented only 4 percent of professors and 7 percent of associate professors. However, 49 percent of all assistant lecturers were women [12]. Psychologically based explanations for this situation have focused on a range of individual and environmental factors. Finkelstein [6] identified two explanations for the lower status of women academics. The first explanation suggests that female academics are disadvantaged due to structural factors such as overt discrimination. The second explanation for the status of women in the academic profession focuses on gender differences in performance, for example, female academics' lower publication rates [9, 13] and lower teaching evaluations [11, 16]. Differences in performance have been attributed to various sources including women's differing values, orientations, and activity preferences; greater role conflict and overload among female academics; and differences in educational background and training, such as lack of mentoring [6, 17].