“WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP: GENDER-BASED
CHALLENGES IN EDUCATION”
Subject: Sociology of Education
Teacher: Prof. Esra Molu
Student name: Daniela Alfaro Ulloa
Master in Play, Education, Toys and Languages (PETaL)
2023
202
Gender-based challenges in education
Even in our times, women still face a big gap when it comes to access to leadership
positions in various areas of our society. Some of the factors that perpetuate this gender
disparity include the “gender unconsiousness”, this means that there is little or no
awareness that the female gender experiences discrimination in different areas. Another
factor is “leadership perceptions” which is the misperception that natural leaders are men
and older, scrutiny about the performance and even the way a woman dresses in the
workplace, women also experience discrimination in relation not only to gender but also
to age and race, exclusion from informal networks, glass cliff that implies putting women
in the position of high-risk failure, lack of mentoring, sponsorship or support, among
other things (Diehl & Dzubinski, 2017).
Usually women face “occupational segregation”, this is a term that refers to the following:
"Concentration of a specific group of people in an occupational activity,
limiting access to employment and being a clear manifestation of
persistent occupational inequality. It is often seen as evidence of the
injustices that still persist in the labour market. Occupational segregation
by sex is common in organisations and is caused by various factors such
as prejudice, stereotypes and socially assigned roles”. (Organización
Internacional del Trabajo-International Labour Organization, 2007,
p12.)
The educational field it is not an exception in showing segregation and discrimination,
according to Chapman (2006) “some of the major barriers preventing women from
aspiring to be principals included managerial and weekend responsibilities, safety or
discipline concerns, and time commitments”, the female participants at the research made
by Chapman stated that women face difficulties like external and internal barriers such as
biased community perceptions, competition, interview process, age discrimination,
cultural barriers, financial constraints, leadership style, and personality issues. The study
findings recommend changes in educational leadership programs, and in hiring practices.
In the state of New York during 2001, Hammond, Muffs, and Sciascia surveyed more
than 100 veteran principals, assistant principals, and superintendents about the perceived
ethnic and gender bias in the hiring process. The authors also discussed that their results
suggested a lack of seriousness in considering qualified women applicants, emphasizing
that men are chosen for principal positions at a rate three times higher than women.
According to Logan and Scollay (1999), men still held most of the top-level
management and leadership positions in the corporate world as well as in education even
though women had made significant inroads into most occupational fields traditionally
held by men. Hudson and Rea (1998) reported that women constituted 85% of the
population in the field of education; nevertheless, women leaders continued to be
underrepresented in school administrative positions.
Reality of women in educational management positions in Latin America
Unfortunately, according to UNESCO (2012), the inequality in salaries and access to
leadership positions in education and business are still difficult as well to achieve for
women in Latin America.
Labour markets in the region show notable gender imbalances, evidenced by a lower
presence of women in employment, they work in less productive sectors and occupations
with lower incomes. Vertical segregation and significant wage disparities are also
observed. Furthermore, the gender division of roles acts as an obstacle to women's
economic autonomy by imposing on them an additional burden of unpaid domestic and
care responsibilities.
And like the experiences of women in other professions, the lives of women in
academia have not been without challenges, particularly in institutions that prioritize the
interests of male professionals. Unfortunately, universities have been and continue to be
controlled by a patriarchal structure, both administratively and politically.
Normatively, different forms of gender segregation have been established which,
although discursively denied, have masked a sexist organisational structure. The
predominant organisational forms in most universities promote a social power structure
that values hierarchical roles assigned to men, male decision-making, and female
dependence (Astiz, 2021).
In accordance with figures from UNESCO IESALC (2020) only 18% of public
universities in the region have women rectors.
Regardless of women making up a higher percentage of university enrollees compared
to men, males continue to hold a majority of teaching staff positions, leadership roles, and
having the rector position. Even though women account for 46% of teaching positions,
men still predominantly occupy the highest positions of academic leadership.
UNESCO points out the lack of statistics regarding the equal participation of women
in university in leadership positions, it is from this deficiency of information that can be
perceived the “glass ceiling” that hinders women from gaining access to positions of high
responsibility and authority in universities. For this reason, it is relevant that countries
make studies about this issue, showing statistical figures to identify the challenge and
design the implementation of plans to minimize the gender gap.
In the article UNESCO concludes that there is a crucial need for public action to
encourage gender equality in the management of universities, in the broader context of
policies promoting equal opportunities, particularly for women seeking managerial
positions in both public and private companies, with the goal of achieving gender parity.
In the same way, in the Latin American context, it is more difficult for women to
access the allocation and competition for research resources. Women's participation in
higher education drops considerably in the transition between master's and doctoral
studies, with an even more significant decline among those entering academic work and
research (UNESCO, 2012).
Data show a high proportion of women in university education, but the distribution in
what women are studying in higher education is unequal. Female students usually are
enrolled in areas such as social sciences, education, health sciences, economics, and
administration, and just a minority of women are involved in STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics) areas.
The participation rates of women in science and engineering studies are considerably
and consistently lower than those of men.
But there are some encouraging results, some countries in the region have a high
proportion of women in science (Argentina, 52%, Bolivia, 62%); Unfortunately in other
countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, or Chile, this proportion ranges around 30%.
(García-Holgado et al., 2019).
Regarding the technology industry, Latin American women only represent between
10% and 20% of the total labor market and are mainly concentrated in occupations that
are not linked to technology production and senior management (World Economic
Forum, 2016).
Likewise, in the mathematical field, women show a significant gender imbalance, in
the PISA test results conducted in 2012 eight Latin American countries (Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay) showed a significant
gender gap in mathematics in favor of men, because men outperform women in all
countries involved.
Current status of women university administration in Chile
In Chile, gender analysis of official figures shows that only 23% of women academics
in Chile hold senior management positions, which include the rectorship, vice-rectorship
and membership of research and postgraduate management.
There is a ceiling, which is expressed in the fact that women cannot access certain
positions, while they can get them at the lower levels of the hierarchy, especially in those
positions that have to do with administrative work, such as coordinator or career secretary.
This administrative work is considered to be unrecognized work and therefore of low
prestige for access to more important positions within the university.
In terms of recruitment of female academics, they represent only one third of full-time
employment in universities. Comparing various forms of higher education institutions,
women are more likely to be employed full-time in technical training centres (CFT) and
professional institutes (IP). The latter, in contrast to the university system, have
significantly lower levels of prestige.
In 1944, the first female dean of a university in Chile was elected: Corina Vargas, in
the Faculty of Education at the University of Concepción. A little over 60 years have
passed and many social transformations have taken place; however, the situation of
women remains similar in the Chilean higher education system. In 2004, in 8 universities
of the CRUCH - The Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities, out of a total of 25, there
is still only one female dean per institution.
The data indicates that as one moves down the educational hierarchy, i.e. closer to the
bottom of the higher education system, the representation of women tends to become
more equal. This is reflected in the female undergraduate student population, which
reaches figures close to or even above 50%. The most significant disparity between men
and women is observed at the most highly valued social and economic pinnacle of the
system.
Currently, in the country, it is also possible to observe two major trends among women
entering the academic professional world today: on the one hand, they tend to marry less
and have fewer children; on the other hand, they try to reconcile their domestic and
academic roles, with those who have chosen to follow a career development path being
doubly demanding. If this is the case, they choose those functions and positions that
represent the lowest possible demand, opting for part-time jobs, more closely linked to
teaching and administration, rather than research or management positions (Berrios,
2007).
According to Acker (1995), there are three major conflicts in women's academic career
development that significantly affect their work and alienate them from their male peers.
Acker points out that a major problem for women is how to reconcile work and family.
Both tasks are very demanding and women are always faced with the dilemma of whether
to prioritise work or family.
Like domestic work, academic work is incessant. Making a contribution to the
production of new knowledge requires considerable time and effort, and if a woman
chooses to be efficient in both areas she will expose herself to a high level of stress.
Another difficulty faced by women in the academic workplace is "minority
powerlessness", which is evident when the majority of positions are held by men, being
the only woman in a university faculty is not easy and invisibility can lead to exclusion
from informal networks of information exchange, which are of great importance in
making decisions such as hiring or promotions.
Finally, Acker (1995) mentions that the last difficulty that women face is the
dominance of men over knowledge and academic practice, which is evident in the fact
that men govern, administer and manage the academic community, while women have
been excluded from the jobs that produce the forms of knowledge, images and symbols
with which thought is expressed and ordered.
How can women's restricted access to positions of power in education be amended?
According to Deihl & Dzubinski (2017), organizations need to create strategies that
extend beyond the workplace and impact society as a whole in relation to the perspective
on women. The authors recommend four interventions that could reduce barriers for
women in academic management. The first intervention would be the creation of
workshops to make workers aware of the gender-biased issues that women face on a daily
basis, the second intervention is the establishment of new norms, these new norms would
mainly refer to decision making which should be transparent and consistent over time. A
third intervention proposed by the authors is to build partnerships with community groups
that seek to remove gender barriers for women, such as non-profit organizations that
encourage learning in STEM areas for girls and young women, since the inequality that
women encounter later in their careers must be addressed from the time girls are in school.
The last intervention proposed is the recognition of the contributions of the spouse who
has the heaviest workload in an organisation, allowing the delegation of tasks to other
employees so as not to affect the health of this worker, which in the case of women also
translates into the unrestricted respect of maternal leave laws.
Conclusion
Higher education institutions must join forces to promote equity in the academic career
development of all their members, more research is needed to be made on the difficulties
that women academics encounter in their work from a gender perspective. Although
progress has been made in recent years, there is still a long way to go before women have
equal opportunities for leadership in academia, and this must be tackled in the first
instance by recognising that there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
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