Gender Inequality In Academia Research Articles

Glass ceiling in academia revisited: evidence from the higher education system of Turkey

Current study investigates the gender gap in academic promotions in Turkey taking a new perspective on the widely established existence of gender inequality in academia. The dataset includes the eight most-prominent research universities in Turkey and the nature of the ‘glass ceiling’ is explored by looking at the gendered distributions of: (1) academic seats -indicating academic performances, and (2) coauthorship patterns concerning genders. Findings suggest that there is gender disparity in academic performances as well as in academic promotions. In addition, gender is found to be a significant factor in explaining the current situation in academic ranks and subtle discrimination practices may exist instead of overt discrimination practices as it is also suggested in previous studies. In sum, results show two main points: (1) There is evidence of gender gap in academic promotions in Turkey, (2) A new variable –cross gender coauthorship- for glass ceiling research may provide further insight about the issue.

Gender inequality in academia: Problems and solutions for women faculty in STEM.

Recently there is widespread interest in women's underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); however, progress toward gender equality in these fields is slow. More alarmingly, these gender disparities worsen when examining women's representation within STEM departments in academia. While the number of women receiving postgraduate degrees has increased in recent years, the number of women in STEM faculty positions remains largely unchanged. One explanation for this lack of progress toward gender parity is negative and pervasive gender stereotypes, which may facilitate hiring discrimination and reduce opportunities for women's career advancement. Women in STEM also have lower social capital (e.g., support networks), limiting women's opportunities to earn tenure and learn about grant funding mechanisms. Women faculty in STEM may also perceive their academic climate as unwelcoming and threatening, and report hostility and uncomfortable tensions in their work environments, such as sexual harassment and discrimination. Merely the presence of gender-biased cues in physical spaces targeted toward men (e.g., "geeky" décor) can foster a sense of not belonging in STEM. We describe the following three factors that likely contribute to gender inequalities and women's departure from academic STEM fields: (a) numeric underrepresentation and stereotypes, (b) lack of supportive social networks, and (c) chilly academic climates. We discuss potential solutions for these problems, focusing on National Science Foundation-funded ADVANCE organizational change interventions that target (a) recruiting diverse applicants (e.g., training search committees), (b) mentoring, networking, and professional development (e.g., promoting women faculty networks); and (c) improving academic climate (e.g., educating male faculty on gender bias).

The Pandemic and Gender Inequality in Academia

Does the pandemic exacerbate gender inequality in academia? The temporal lag in publication pipeline complicates the effort to determine the extent to which women’s productivity is disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 crisis. We provide real-time evidence by analyzing 1.8 million tweets from approximately 3,000 political scientists, leveraging their use of social media for career advancement. Using automated text analysis and difference-in-differences estimation, we find that while faculty members of both genders were affected by the pandemic, the gap in work-related tweets between male and female academics roughly tripled following work-from-home. We further argue that these effects are likely driven by the increased familial obligations placed on women, as demonstrated by the increase in family-related tweets and the more pronounced effects among junior academics. Our causal evidence on work-family trade-off provides an opportunity for proactive efforts to address gender disparities that may otherwise take years to manifest.

The Failure of Gender Equality Initiatives in Academia: Exploring Defensive Institutional Work in Flemish Universities

Although a large number of studies have explored the main causes of gender inequality in academia, less attention has been given to the processes underlying the failure of gender equality initiatives to enhance gender representation, especially at the professorial level. We offer a critical discourse analysis of recently promulgated gender policy documents of the five Flemish universities, and demonstrate that defensive institutional work is a fundamental process underlying resistance to gender equality in the academic profession. That is, powerful organizational actors resist gender change by (un)intentionally deploying a combination of discursive strategies that legitimate what we describe as non–time-bound gender equality initiatives: The expected outcomes are undetermined in time, and they delegitimate concrete, time-bound measures that define specific outcomes against well-defined deadlines. By explicitly bringing a temporal dimension into our analysis, we argue that defensive institutional work deflects questions regarding what ought to be achieved when, and contributes to the slow pace of gender change in academia.

The academic “glass-ceiling”: investigating the increase of female academicians in Italy

Purpose This study addresses gender composition in universities. The purpose of this study is to define the vertical and horizontal gender segregation in both public and private universities. In particular, it measures the gender distribution throughout academic careers across levels and time, and among fields of science in Italian academia. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopted the framework of Blackburn et al. (2002) as a theoretical lens through which they examine and explain occupational gender segregation in the university context. A mixed methodology of both document analysis and examining some statistical indicators was used to create gender-disaggregated measures to help the authors answer their research questions. The data collected represent academia in Italy for the period 2010-2018. The data were obtained from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. Findings The authors show the gendered nature of academic institutions in Italy. In particular, the authors acknowledge that hierarchies of power exist that privilege men and the masculine and devalue women and the feminine within academic institutions. Practical implications This paper provides theoretical and practical findings that support the literature on gender issues in universities and other public and/or private institutions. The academic community, practitioners and policymakers can use the results to design measures to address gender inequality in academia. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is novel because it provides gender-relevant insights on the gender composition in universities in the Italian context. These insights are also relevant for academic institutions that operate in an international setting.

Historical comparison of gender inequality in scientific careers across countries and disciplines.

There is extensive, yet fragmented, evidence of gender differences in academia suggesting that women are underrepresented in most scientific disciplines and publish fewer articles throughout a career, and their work acquires fewer citations. Here, we offer a comprehensive picture of longitudinal gender differences in performance through a bibliometric analysis of academic publishing careers by reconstructing the complete publication history of over 1.5 million gender-identified authors whose publishing career ended between 1955 and 2010, covering 83 countries and 13 disciplines. We find that, paradoxically, the increase of participation of women in science over the past 60 years was accompanied by an increase of gender differences in both productivity and impact. Most surprisingly, though, we uncover two gender invariants, finding that men and women publish at a comparable annual rate and have equivalent career-wise impact for the same size body of work. Finally, we demonstrate that differences in publishing career lengths and dropout rates explain a large portion of the reported career-wise differences in productivity and impact, although productivity differences still remain. This comprehensive picture of gender inequality in academia can help rephrase the conversation around the sustainability of women's careers in academia, with important consequences for institutions and policy makers.

Gender Inequality in Academia: A Spatial Analysis of Selected Tertiary Institutions in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

Gender inequality is a situation whereby females do not have equal rights, opportunities, responsibilities and access to services as males. This paper presents reasons for gender imbalance among academic members of staff in three selected tertiary institutions in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study identified the number of males as against females in academia; examined the perception of respondents on the causes of gender inequality in academia; assessed the various way to encourage young women academics; evaluated the challenges facing females in academia; and the benefits derived from female participation in academia. A total number of 194 respondents comprising 101 male and 93 female academic members of staff were purposively sampled in three tertiary institutions in Ilorin. These institutions represent 50% of government tertiary institutions at different levels in Ilorin. The institutions included Kwara State College of Education, Kwara State Polytechnic and University of Ilorin. Percentages, mean, Likert scale and chi-square were employed to analyse the gathered data. The results revealed that there are more male (76.1%) than female (23.9%) academic staff in the sampled institutions. The major perceived factor that causes imbalance is inadequate qualification by females due to tradition and poverty with a mean value of 4.30. The hypothesis tested confirmed that there is gender imbalance in academia. Also, 48.4% women listed family responsibilities as the most pressing challenge facing them as academia. Hence, proper education through seminars and workshops among communities to educate people on the benefits of female gender education and employment in academia is necessary.DOI: http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v05i02.03

Participation of women in doctorate, research, innovation, and management activities at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid: analysis of the decade 2006–2016

This article studies the participation of women in doctorate, lecturing and research, innovation, and management activities at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), the most important and largest university in Spain devoted to engineering and architecture. The analyses revealed significant differences in the ratio of male (76%) and female (24%) lecturing and research staff. This unequal ratio conducted to women underrepresentation in other actions such as coordination of international projects, decision-making designations, patenting and software licensing, collaboration with companies, and PhD supervision. PhD enrolment and PhD defence data, disaggregated by gender and by technological area, were also analysed as they are the starting point of the academic career, and showed a widespread male prevalence over women (ca. 70% men vs. 30% women). The aim of this paper is to present actual, accurate, objective, and gender-segregated information extracted from UPM databases, to carry out a qualitative study drawing on an opinion survey and a “gap” analysis, and to undertake a critical examination of the historic, political, sociocultural and personal factors affecting gender inequalities in academia. Policy recommendations to improve the situation of women and to achieve gender balance in the disciplines of engineering and architecture are also provided.

‘Not one of the family’: Gender and precarious work in the neoliberal university

Gender inequality within the university is well documented but proposals to tackle it tend to focus on the higher ranks, ignoring how it manifests within precarious work. Based on data collected as part of a broader participatory action research project on casual academic labour in Irish higher education, the article focuses on the intersection of precarious work and gender in academia. We argue that precarious female academics are non‐citizens of the academy, a status that is reproduced through exploitative gendered practices and evident in formal/legal recognition (staff status, rights and entitlements, pay and valuing of work) as well as in informal dimensions (social and decision‐making power). We, therefore, conclude that any attempts to challenge gender inequality in academia must look downward, not upward, to the ranks of the precarious academics.

Gender Wage Inequality in Russian Universities

For several years, the Russian system of higher education had been undergoing massive transformations related to the enhancement of the global competitiveness of the national academic sector. The introduction of research-oriented universities and the transition to incentive contracts are the main elements of the reform. In this article we show how these institutional changes contribute to reducing the problem of gender inequality in academia. Based on comprehensive data from a Russian faculty survey (MEMO), it is found that there are considerable differences in gender wage inequality by university status: female faculty earn significantly lower salaries in ordinary universities, but there are no gender differences in pay in research-oriented universities, which are most actively transitioning to incentive remuneration schemes. Female faculty experience vertical segregation: women are less likely to achieve senior positions in university hierarchies. We also found indirect evidence of women’s self-selection for lower-paid positions: female faculty are less likely to achieve advanced degrees and to have research publications. Overall, the study shows that male faculty earns 8.7% higher salaries than female counterparts after controlling for all observable characteristics. Oaxaca decomposition showed that 53% of the gender wage gap can be explained by observable characteristics, while the rest can be attributed to discrimination, self-selection or unobservable factors. In the absence of discrimination, male faculty should earn 10% higher salaries, but due to discrimination and unobservable factors, male faculty, on average, earn 18.7% more. However, the gender wage gap in academia is considerably below the national average: women earned on average around 80% of male salaries in academic sector, while in the whole Russian economy women earned around 70% of men’s wages.

Informality, emotion and gendered career paths: The hidden toll of maternity leave on female academics and researchers

While the negative impact of child‐raising and caring on women's career progression in academia is well‐established, less is known about the role of academic women's lived experiences of maternity leave as an institutional practice. This article presents the findings of a qualitative study of the lived experiences of female academics and researchers in an Irish university. The analysis intrinsically links organizational structures and problems with the lived and felt dimensions of work. The findings point to the need for better structural accommodations for maternity leave which address the relationship between caring and career disadvantage within academia. The article adds to existing literature on the intersection of motherhood and academia by unpicking the specific role of maternity leave as both a lived experience and an institutional practice that can reinforce gender inequalities in academia.

Science (without) youth: Gendering Early Academic Careers in Slovenia

How is it possible to foster gender equality in academia if the academic field is gradually marked by precarity, particularly in the early stages of academic careers? How do early career scholars deal with the challenges of their professional environments and what are the potential strategies of structural change that can contribute to the improvement of equal opportunities in academia? These are the questions that Science (without) Youth: Gendering Early Careers in Slovenia [Znanost (brez) mladih: Zgodnje stopnje znanstvene kariere skozi perspektivo spola] raises and strives to discuss in its introduction and the seven chapters that follow. The book is a result of the GARCIA project that targets combating gender inequalities in academia by taking an innovative approach – focusing on researchers in non-tenured, temporary positions.

‘Good girls’: emphasised femininity as cloning culture in academia

Gender inequality in academia might be understood as an effect of the belief of a contradiction between woman and science, which make it difficult for women to appropriate the right to author and authorise acts of knowing and thinking in science. In relation to this concern, the aim of this article is to explore how a group of successful women researchers do science and uphold their position as researchers. It is based on evidence from participant observation and qualitative interviews. Theoretical understandings of femininity and cloning culture are used to analyse how the women united as a group that displays a subordinate, heterosexual femininity. Their strategies might be understood as a form of cultural cloning. By expressing a collective emphasised femininity grounded in white, heterosexual, middle-class norms, the women experienced a sameness that rendered them strong as a group and well adapted in academia.

Gender Inequality In Academia: Evidences From Nigeria

Universities and other institutions of higher education in Nigeria see themselves as liberal and open-minded. They support social movements that encourage principles of democracy and social justice, yet their mode of governance is male dominated and patriarchal. This study, therefore, identified the causes of gender inequality in academia and the implications on the academic development of females in the university system. This study was considered necessary because of the observed anomaly in the composition of academic staff in Nigerian universities. Data for the study were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data were obtained through the in-depth interview of sixty (60) purposively selected male and female academic staff occupying key positions in three (3) Federal universities located in southwestern Nigeria. The study revealed that the recruitment and selection practices in the universities neither stressed male ideology nor discriminated against women; rather merit was the yardstick for acceptance into the profession. It was found that lack of mentoring, poor remuneration, womens lack of interest in academia, family responsibilities, the lengthy period of training, and the ideology that women should have low career aspirations due to traditional roles ascribed to them, accounted for the observed disparity in academia. The implication of this disparity on the academic development of women is the general reduction in their research output and the perpetuation of their low status in academia. The study concluded that appropriate institutional adjustments and affirmation action programmes are necessary to meet womens demands of equality and improve retention.

“They Make How Much?” Investigating Faculty Salaries to Examine Gender Inequalities

I use the exercise in my undergraduate Methods of Social Research course, requiring students to analyze faculty salaries, look for patterns in the data, and address potential gender inequality in the salaries. The goals of the exercise are twofold: (1) to introduce students to gender stratification occurring in their public institution and (2) to provide an exercise designed to help the students realize both the strengths and weaknesses of using available data as a research method. In this paper I discuss aspects of the Faculty Salary Exercise and present qualitative and quantitative data from Methods of Social Research classes taught over three semesters. Twothirds of the students who enroll in this upper-division class are sociology majors (it is a required course for the major). The course also serves as a service course for other disciplines that require their students to take a research methods course. Students’ written work on the exercise shows that this is a very popular exercise (Who is not curious about how much money their professors make?) and one that opens students’ eyes to gender inequalities in an environment with which they are familiar. Below I briefly review the literature on gender inequality in academia, discuss various ways gender stratification has been taught through active learning, then turn to the Faculty Salary Exercise and students’ findings and evaluation of the exercise.

The temporal dimension of gender inequality in academia

This paper examines gender inequality in academic careers by applying Merton's concept of ‘socially expected durations’ (SEDs). Women's relatively slower advancement along the academic hierarchy has been traditionally attributed to their traits and constraints. The concept of SED shifts attention from the individual to the organizational level, and the actual and expected augmented durations between promotions for women are viewed as part of the structural arrangements of academic institutions and their culture. It is argued that because of the distinct characteristics of academic careers, time-in-rank is an important dimension distinguishing among otherwise very uniform occupational roles and career patterns. The implications of conceptualizing career discrepancies in terms of socially expected durations are discussed.

Gender Differences in the Attainment of Doctorates

The study of gender inequality in academia is characterized by various conflicting positions (see Cole, 1979; Reskin, 1980). While it is clear such inequality exists, our knowledge of how it comes about is limited. Debate over the extent and interpretation of gender inequality in the academic labor market is exacerbated by this situation. The preliminary analysis reported here suggests that the inequality stems, in part, from different graduate training experiences encountered by female and male students.