Academic Women Research Articles

Gender gaps in publications and citations in gambling studies: Comparisons against addiction science.

Women in academia publish fewer papers and receive fewer citations than men. These gender gaps likely reflect systemic biases operating over several levels, from journal editorial policies to academic career progression. This study sought to characterize gender gaps for publications and citations in the field of gambling studies. An automated gender inference procedure classified authors' binarized gender from their first names. Gender gaps were computed for publications and citations of papers in gambling studies, using the wider field of addiction science as a benchmark. Publication data were scraped from eight peer-reviewed gambling/addictions journals and separately from all gambling publications listed in PubMed. Men authored 16% more publications than women among gambling papers and 23% more publications among nongambling addictions papers. Although robust gender gaps were observed in specialist gambling journals, we find limited overall evidence for gender inequality being greater in gambling studies. Indeed, among nongambling addiction papers, men published more, despite a greater apparent representation of women in the field. The gender gap was most pronounced for the last authorships, denoting seniority. Among the first authorships, there was variability between journals, and some journals displayed approximate parity. There was limited evidence for any corresponding gender gap in citation counts. Gender gaps in gambling research, and addiction science more broadly, adhere to wider trends in academia, including the associations with academic seniority. Variability between individual journals supports the role of journal editorial policies to increase the representation and visibility of women researchers in addiction science. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Allyship in the university setting: supporting women's success

PurposeThe lack of progress toward equity in the U.S. is evident across many spheres of society, academia notwithstanding. Women academicians, in particular, face many barriers that prevent them from advancing–including a continued unsupportive climate, competing work and family demands, and interpersonal discrimination. This paper reflects on a collaborative research effort in the United States to enhance allyship for women in academia.Design/methodology/approachThe authors partnered with a major university to hold ally training for department chairs during a university-wide department chair meeting. The authors developed a methodology for creating and implementing training content using a focus-group-based training needs analysis and a diversity science grounded approach to allyship training. The authors followed this up with surveys to assess impact.FindingsParticipants indicated that they learned from the training, but participation in follow-up data collection was limited, hampering the ability to conduct rigorous quantitative analyses around intervention impact.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the sample size may have been too limited to detect effects, the current study provides an approach that furthers the way in which researchers and practitioners can better assess the impact of allyship to women academicians.Practical implicationsPublished research on allies is very limited. The current research examines allies in the context of helping women in academia.Originality/valueDespite widespread recognition of the importance of first-line supervisors in support of diversity, limited intervention designs are available. The authors add to the extant literature on diversity interventions, while highlighting barriers to rigorous intervention evaluation.

Teaching While Black: Black Women Millennials’ Experiences of Teaching in South African Universities

The South African government continues to work tirelessly to reverse the effects of apartheid by addressing social inequalities and transforming the higher education sector by dismantling structural, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal discrimination. Black 1 1 The use of the lowercase “w” for white or whiteness in this article is the author’s stylistic act of decentering whiteness to amplify African women’s experiences. South African women have fought for the right to access education as well as to pursue higher education to the top levels of teaching in these institutions. Traditionally, the custodians of knowledge have been older white men. Millennial Black women’s presence in these spaces of higher institutions is disruptive and continues to be a site of conflict and negotiation for younger Black women academics. This article argues that race, intersecting with gender, age, and class, influences their teaching experiences in universities and how students perceive Millennial Black women in postapartheid South African universities. Intersectionality underpins this qualitative study, which explores nine Black Millennial women’s teaching experiences in universities in South Africa. The findings suggest that these women’s experiences are influenced by the kind of university in which they teach. The narratives showed how Millennial Black women lecturers at historically white institutions experience more hostility, mostly from students who share their same race and gender. This contrasts with the experiences of Millennial Black women who teach at historically Black institutions. The study has implications for university and government transformation agendas.

Academic mothers and the practice of embodied care: navigating and resisting uncaring structures in the neoliberal academy

PurposeRecent research has captured the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in widening gender inequalities, by highlighting that academic women have been disproportionately affected. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women assumed most of the care labour at home, whilst working at normal patterns, leaving them unable to perform as normal. This is very concerning because of the short and long-term detrimental consequences this will have on women’s well-being and their academic careers. This article aims to stimulate a change in the current understandings of academic work by pointing towards alternative – and more inclusive – ways of working in academia.Design/methodology/approachThe two authors engage with autoethnography and draw on their own personal experience of becoming breastfeeding academic mothers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsTo understand the positioning of contemporary academic mothers, this study draws on insights from both cultural studies and organisation studies on the emergence of discursive formations about gender, that is “postfeminist sensibility”. Guided by autoethnographic accounts of academic motherhood, this study reveals that today academia creates an individualised, neutral (disembodied), output-focused and control-oriented understanding of academic work.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the conversation of academic motherhood and the impact of the pandemic on working mothers. The study theoretically contributes with the lens of “motherhood” in grasping what academic work can become. It shows the power of motherhood in opening up an alternative way of conceptualising academic work, centred on embodied care and appreciative of the non-linearity and messiness of life.

The Importance of Mentorship Opportunities for Women in Academia: A Systematic Review

This paper aims to review the literature on the importance of mentoring in academia, specifically focusing on enhancing women's careers in academia. This study focuses on studies published between 2000-2023. Due to gender imbalance in academia, mentoring of early-career female academics has been recognised as instrumental in improving their aspirations. However, this tool is not receiving the recognition that it deserves, especially for women in academia. It further briefly discusses how mentoring is used as a resource to foster institutional change and decolonise entrenched academic promotion practices of paternalism. Radical feminist theory underpinned this study as this theoretical position helps explain the power inequalities that occur in higher education institutions (HEIs) and women’s communities and how these in turn inhibit the progress of women in academia. Furthermore, the African philosophy of Ubuntu is also used to explain how women can be supported in academia using indigenous African epistemology. A systematic review approach was used by searching for studies that focused on the importance of mentoring in academia. The findings of the review revealed numerous significant challenges that women in academia encounter. In addition, various benefits of mentoring were uncovered and discussed

The relationship between emotional intelligence and well-being among women academics of Royal University of Bhutan

This qualitative study examined the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) women academics’ understanding of relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and well-being. The participants selected through a purposive sampling consisted of 14 women academics from RUB colleges spread across the country. The data were collected using a semi-structured interview, and analyzed with thematic analysis procedures. The findings revealed RUB women academics’ concept of relationship between EI and well-being in terms of intrapersonal and interpersonal relationship, and general mood. The findings also revealed the participants’ awareness of the impact of EI on their personal and professional well-being. Further, the findings highlighted the challenges the academics faced to be emotionally intelligent in all situations, and aspiration for enhancement of their EI through trainings. Therefore, one of the recommendations of the study is initiation of training in terms of workshops or professional development to enhance emotional intelligence

Gender drag and parody: Performances of professionalism by two young Chinese women academics

In recent decades, research has extensively explored the contextualized performances of women academics, primarily focusing on their academic achievements linked to career progression, predominantly within Western contexts. This study, however, delves into the nonacademic strategies employed by Chinese women academics to establish their professionalism within China’s neoliberal academic and institutional discourses. This approach contributes to a more nuanced understanding of women academics within the Asian higher education context. To unravel this issue, the study employs Butlerian theoretical concepts of drag and parody, qualitatively examining the experiences of two young Chinese women academics. It investigates how they navigate gender performance to portray professionalism through a feminist poststructural lens. The findings reveal that women academics encounter nonacademic assessments that significantly influence their career advancement. This paper provides valuable insights into the challenges faced by Chinese women academics concerning gender and academic subjectivities. It highlights their utilization of dragging and parodic acts as strategies to redefine their academic “excellence.” These discoveries prompt reflection on the profound impact of academic and institutional discourses as modes of governance on Chinese women academics.

Faculty Diversity, Accreditation, and Sport Management

The lack of racial and gender diversity of faculty within sport management programs has been an area of concern for years. This is an exploratory longitudinal study that compared sport management faculty diversity over the course of five-years to investigate and understand how racial and gender diversity within Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA) accredited sport management programs has evolved over the years. A content analysis based on the Racial and Gender Report Card (RGRC) created by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) was used to determine faculty diversity amongst COSMA accredited sport management programs. Results indicated the sport management discipline still needs to be proactive in recruiting and retaining women faculty members, as well as expanding to make programs more racially diverse when it comes to Black and Latino/a/x faculty. The implications of this study highlight how accrediting bodies such as COSMA, have the potential to play a key role in keeping sport management programs accountable for diversity initiatives through the self-study process. The Racial and Gender Report Card (RGRC) created by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) was used to determine faculty diversity amongst COSMA accredited sport management programs. Results indicated sport management discipline still needs to be proactive in recruiting women faculty members, as well as expanding to make programs more racially diverse. The implications of this study highlight how accrediting bodies such as COSMA, have the potential to play a key role in keeping sport management programs accountable for diversity initiatives through the self-study process.

Women Physical Education Teacher Education Faculty’s Experiences in Japan and the United States

The purpose of this study was to explore women physical education teacher education faculty’s experiences in Japan and the United States, using an exploratory descriptive case study design. The conceptual framework of the faculty’s job satisfaction underpinned the study. A criterion sampling approach was employed to recruit participants. In total, seven Japanese and eight U.S. women faculty members took part in the study. Data were collected from a survey and a semistructured interview. The semistructured interviews served as the primary source of data. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and the frequency of the responses was calculated. An inductive thematic analysis was employed to analyze the interview responses. Triangulation, member checking, and peer debriefing ensured the trustworthiness of the data. Relative to overall job satisfaction, the U.S. faculty tend to have higher satisfaction levels in teaching achievement, research expectations, and research productivity compared to Japanese faculty. Four themes were identified from the interview responses: (a) persisting social norms and stereotypes toward women, (b) women’s representation matters, (c) juggling dual roles of being faculty and a mother, and (d) lack of support for mothers at work. This study provided the first evidence of women faculty members’ experiences and perspectives in the field of physical education teacher education in Japan and the United States. Continuous discussion and effort are crucial to creating a more inclusive and supportive environment for all.

Visions of the Earth: Colombian Indigenous Women Learning English from a Gender-Based and Multilingual Perspective

This case study is the result of a pedagogical intervention within the project Visions of the Earth in which 18 Colombian Indigenous women participated. Participants came from diverse Indigenous communities across different regions of Colombia. The project, Visions of the Earth, emerged as an initiative in collaboration with the Colombian Network of Indigenous Women in the Academia (RedColmia) and Universidad de Caldas. The project aimed to strengthen participants’ academic English through a year-long online program. Bi-monthly sessions were conducted by university professors and international guests, exploring visions of the Earth through texts by Indigenous writers who addressed historical exclusion and discrimination faced by Indigenous women in academia. Data were collected through two semi-structured surveys and participants’ artifacts. Despite debates on language erosion, participant perceptions underscore the importance of learning English as an empowering tool. Findings reveal that learning English under an Indigenous women gender-based perspective and multilingual approach is a medium for cultural appreciation, identity redefinition, and a means to share their unique perspectives on the Earth. This study provides insights into the intersection of language development, cultural identity, and academic empowerment for Indigenous communities.

Barriers to Women in Academia: The Case of Moroccan University Female Professors

This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the challenges women in academia face in their pursuit of research, with a particular focus on the Moroccan context. Using in-depth interviews with female Moroccan university teachers, we explore personal narratives to highlight the perceived barriers to women’s academic advancement. The results showed that family related factors and financial constraints were the most commonly mentioned obstacles that hinder women’s aspiration and/or time to conduct scientific research and attend international conferences and academic workshops. Implications of these findings suggest creating a gender-friendly work environment and providing specific incentives that could help female academics in their quest for research.

Advancing African Women in Academia: Charting Modern Solutions

There is a gross underrepresentation of women in teaching, research, and leadership in higher education institutions (HEIs) globally. Despite the fact that a few studies have reported some gains in gender balance in HEIs, there are still glaring inequities of women in higher education, particularly in Africa. These challenges include but are not limited to, barriers to academic progression and career development, intersections of race, gender and motherhood, and identity and belonging. While several authors have revealed these gender gaps, it is valuable to understand the lived experiences of woman in academia on the African continent. African women encounter multifaceted challenges in academia. Structural barriers such as limited access to education, gender bias, and cultural norms that prioritise domestic responsibilities over career pursuits hinder their advancement (Founou et al., 2023). Additionally, the scarcity of female role models and mentors exacerbates feelings of isolation and imposter syndrome, further deterring women from pursuing academic careers. These challenges contribute to the underrepresentation of African women in leadership positions and fields traditionally dominated by men.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Mentoring as Support for African Women’s Academic Career Trajectories

Women in academia face many challenges. Although there have been possibilities for the advancement of women in higher education, gender discrepancies in leadership continue, with women facing structural challenges such as bias, and unequal possibilities for promotion. Balancing a career as a female academic, including parenting and family obligations adds another layer of complication, often resulting in breakdown. Women contribute distinct strengths to academia, expanding intellectual conversation and establishing varied learning environments. Mentorship, sponsorship, and inclusive policies assist in reducing barriers and encourage women to thrive as leaders, resulting in positive change in the academic setting. The article outlines the nuances of women in academia and the challenges and opportunities they face when pursuing leadership positions. It further explores the experiences and views of women in the faculty of Business at a University of Technology (UOT). A mixed methods approach was adopted to enable the researcher to give a female perspective to the academic position, experiences, and challenges within academia. The researcher used her judgment to select the sample based on the purpose of the research and a convenience sample to select best-case scenarios. Finally, the article suggests a participative model of collaboration, nurturance, compassion, and self-care to equip women with the tools they need to create career advancement opportunities and increase personal and professional change.

Gendered Emotional Labour in Academia

The authors share their reflections in the aftermath of the roundtable Emotional Labour in Academia that took place during the Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes (WGSRF) 2023 conference. Although each participant at the roundtable had a unique positionality, they had experiences to share as women in academia who desire to do their work well without exhausting themselves in the process. This paper does not restate all that was said during the roundtable event but shares what we have learned collectively and individually and further expresses the authors’ desire for more discussion on similar topics wherein we learn with and from each other about how to foster spaces of care and solidarity with one another.

A Conceptual Framework for Mentorship Support to Early-Career Black Women Academics in South Africa A Conceptual Framework for Mentorship Support to Early-Career Black Women Academics in South Africa

Globally, career development is a challenge for women academics at higher education institutions. In South African higher education institutions, Black women academics still lag in terms of career progression and their representation in leadership positions compared to their male counterparts. While structural and systemic challenges contribute to this, a lack of formal mentorship support for Black women academics is among the underlying reasons. Against this background, using various mentorship models applied in higher education institutions as the theoretical lens, this book chapter explores a conceptual framework for mentorship support to early-career Black women academics, which will often happen in a cross-cultural context due to historical imbalances. Through a qualitative research approach, a narrative literature review is provided based on content analysis of literature, both peer-reviewed and non-reviewed. Through a conceptual framework, this chapter provides insight regarding the type of mentorship support that is required to advance the career development trajectory of early-career Black women academics in South Africa, considering the paucity of women’s mentorship programs at most of our higher education institutions. Recommendations propose how mentorships can be integrated into the formal career development trajectory of these academics.

Desiring Solidarity with Doctoral Students: Ethnographic Fragments from Women Supervisors

Abstract Doctoral supervising (advising) is an asymmetrical but institutionally mandated power relation in which supervisors’ and students’ interests apparently converge. In fact, those interests often, and necessarily, diverge. Nevertheless, women academics in an ethnographic study of doctoral supervising, hailed at least in part by feminist critiques of institutional power, talked in many different ways about their desires for solidarity with their students. Engaging with elements of feminist thought about solidarity, in particular María Puig de la Bellacasa’s formulation of “committed attachments”, this paper closely reads two detailed memory-stories of supervising work. The view of supervisor solidarity that emerges through connecting the theoretical elements and the memory-stories is one of momentary affinities in the middle of things rather than any kind of purposive trajectory towards institutional transformation. My argument is that, despite its imperfections, this commitment to small acts of solidarity in the present not only makes the daily life of higher education more liveable for self and others but also thickens possibilities for institutional change going forward.

“Prove Yourself”: Exploring Epistemological Values in Mathematics Department Support and Oppression of Black Women Faculty

Black women faculty members face challenges in higher education, including limited identity-affirming mentorship and under-­recognition of their scholarship. However, little is known about their experiences in mathematics departments, where Black women are more severely underrepresented and disciplinary ideologies of neutrality mask social oppression. We interrogate the role of mathematics epistemological values (MEVs) in shaping departmental racialized–gendered oppression experienced by six Black women. Our findings illustrate that (a) quantification practices underpinning faculty evaluation disregard Black women’s achievements; and (b) notions of proving as a solitary endeavor justify neglecting Black women’s faculty development. We highlight departmental practices that support Black women faculty members, reframe MEVs to promote equity, and discuss implications for mathematics faculty and administrators working to advance equity.

Sisterhood in Academia - Storying our Experiences in Higher Education

Breaking the barriers for women in higher education institutions has been on the global agenda for over a decade. Women's lived experiences in academia has notably focused on issues of inequality and systemic gendered barriers that lead to women opting out of academia. This study acknowledges that many black women academics feel caged and overlooked in their positions and argues that despite these challenges, women are resilient and need to carve out spaces to navigate their paths in the academy. Using the autoethnography inquiry approach, we reflect on how our experiences shaped our academic journey in higher education institutions. The principles of Communities of Practice (CoP) is adopted as a framework underpinning this paper. It is envisaged that this framework will help examine the challenges and opportunities black women academics experience in higher education. Our reflective discussion on the sisterhood we embraced during our academic journeys has suggested that institutions need to provide mentorship opportunities, and spaces to talk, support and be supported.

Mentoring as a Form of Transformation in Academia

A considerable amount of literature has established the under-representation of Black women academics in South Africa and abroad. Several factors continue to contribute to the lack of transformation in most institutions of higher learning in the country. Despite this challenge, a number of women have managed to succeed irrespective of the institutional culture and structures of exclusion. This study explored literature on mentoring as a tool for Black African women and underrepresented minority groups within the academic space to enhance diversity, equality, and inclusion. The study has shown the impact of mentorship in giving women an opportunity to grow and advance within the academic space and the importance of representation.

My Hijab Covers my Mane, Not My Mind: Challenges Facing South African Muslim Women Academics

Muslim women in South Africa constitute 1.6% of the population, yet they have and continue to contribute significantly to the economy, pursue political freedom and rise to the upper echelons of academia. Research reveals that the identity of South African Muslim women centres on Islamic principles, such as modesty and dietary requirements, and cultural roles, such as being a mother and a homemaker. Despite Muslim women being more visible through media in recent years, literature shows that many remain marginalised, misunderstood, and often discriminated against for not subscribing to the dominant culture of the Western workplace. The study explores the challenges Muslim women academics face in South African higher education institutions when fulfilling their professional roles while maintaining Islamic and cultural obligations. Viewed through the lens of social identity theory, the chapter provides insight into the lived experiences of seven Muslim women academics and how they navigate the often-exclusionary spaces of academia. It will also provide practical solutions which may mitigate marginalisation and promote inclusivity within the South African academic landscape.