Women’s under-representation in the university
sector: an exploration of the gendered nature of
academic leadership
Nina Teasdale, Colette Fagan, Liz Seston, Jane Ferguson and Karen
Hassell
Making Diversity Interventions Count Annual Conference, University
of Bradford. 16 June 2015
Presentation Outline
 Background to the project
 Literature Overview
 Policy context: Athena SWAN
 Methodology
 Key findings
 Conclusions
Women’s Under-representation in the university sector
Project Background
 Project focus: to explore the career paths into leadership of successful
senior female academics and their leadership experiences.
•
Statistical Picture:
Women constitute nearly half (47%) of non-professorial academic staff
(ECU 2014), while BME academics across the sector hold 13% of these
academic posts.
•
Vertical Segregation: women now hold 21.7% of professorial positions
compared with 7% twenty years ago; while BME academics hold 7.3% of
professorial posts. Of these, only 1.3% of BME Professors were women.
•
•
20.1% of vice-chancellors were women, up from 14% five years ago .
However, very few VCs or principals are from a minority ethnic background and
none are BME women.
•
Horizontal Segregation: In the UK, 27.7% of humanities professors are women,
compared with only 17.7% science professors.
Research Literature: Barriers to Gender Equality
Individual Barriers
Skills & Qualifications
Organisational/Societal Barriers
Gendered organisational structures & cultures: ideal full-time worker
model; culture of long working hours, esp in lab based discipline; job
all-consuming; ‘old boys’ club
Professional Confidence
Gendered nature of caring responsibilities
Even when working full-time women continue to take primary
responsibility for child and elder care.
Aspirations & Ambitions
Unconscious bias and stereotypes : ‘think scientist, think man’; ‘think
leadership, think man’
Promotion panels & appointment committees : semblance of
transparency about decision-making processes; male-dominated panels
and recruit in their own ‘image’
Practicalities of academic & science careers: short-term; fixed
contracts; competitive environment – publication quantity & securing
funding; lack of support and mentors; international travel & relocation
Policy Backdrop
 Athena SWAN Charter introduced in 2005: to improve women’s representation in
science & STEMM careers.
 Bronze, Silver and Gold Athena SWAN awards
 Since 2011, funding for biomedical research linked to Athena SWAN Silver Award
 Case study institution’s commitment to gender equality through Athena SWAN Institutional bronze award holder. 10 silver award departments and 5 bronze award
holders
 Recent Developments: ECU: Gender Equality Charter Mark and Race Charter Mark
Research Context and Questions
Shift from focus on individual-level arguments to gendered
cultures and organisational transformation and change
RQ: to explore the career paths into leadership of successful
senior female academics; their leadership experiences; and to
understand some of the (structural and
cultural) enablers and barriers of their
particular organisational settings and
how these shape their experiences
of leadership and diversity
Methodology
 Case study institution: University of Manchester – a large research intensive
university.
 Qualitative research: STEMM and Humanities Professors
 Semi-structured interviews
–
20 semi-structured telephone/face-to-face interviews with female STEMM
Professors
–
–
11 telephone interviews with humanities Professors.
Digitally recorded and transcribed in full
Pathways into Leadership
Promotions applied for when advised by others: ‘I think that women don’t put themselves
forward...women see the things they can’t do and men see the things they can....’ (interview 6).
Advancement perceived as slower than some of their (male) peers
Descriptions of careers: ‘drifting’ v career planning : ‘learning to play the ‘promotions’ game’
Issues of ‘confidence’
Similarity of accounts among STEMM and humanities
Pathways into Leadership: Significance of Support
Significance of support and mentors: support pivotal to success (especially
with regard to learning ‘how to play the ‘promotions’ game’)
Emphasis on ‘long-term’ relationships and support networks (often PhD
supervisors )
Significance of leadership courses and course leaders
Managing the Work-Home Interface
 Most of interviewees had children.
 Short periods of maternity leave; return
full-time
 Supportive partners and role reversal
 Experiences of managing work-home interface ‘influencing’ leadership style
 Continued significance of organisational/structural factors: ideal full-time,
committed worker norms still prevalent . Job all-consuming.
Departmental & Organisational Culture(s)
 Culture as multi-layered - not one single organisational culture: experiences differ
according to discipline/department/organisational context
 Gender profile of senior management: Invisibility/visibility of women at senior university
levels
 Academic culture as ‘flexible’: yet competitive, heavy workloads. Promotion metrics as
‘gendered’ : publications/funding focused
 Policy: Attitudes to Athena SWAN - still perceived as a ‘woman’s issue’.
 Gender: Influence of male-dominated / female-dominated contexts
 Gender: ‘...if I was being brutally honest, I would still say there’s a lot of sexism... We’ve got
to get a lot more women through, but there are still old boy networks. Whether we like it or
not we’re a long way off changing the world in that respect’ (interview 14).
 Policy Implementation Gap
#Distractinglysexy : Tim Hunt’s comments
• Tim Hunt, a biochemist, Nobel Laureate, and Fellow of the Royal Society has
resigned following comments he made at a recent conference in South Korea
that: ‘the trouble with “girls” is that they cause men to fall in love with them and
cry when criticised’.
• The Royal Society has distanced itself from
the remarks, tweeting: “Tim Hunt’s comments
don’t reflect our views.”
It later released an official statement,
saying that it was
committed to getting more women into
science. “The Royal Society believes that in
order to achieve everything that it can,
Science needs to make the best use of the
research capabilities of the entire population.”
“Too many talented individuals do not fulfil their scientific potential because of
issues such as gender and the Society is committed to helping to put this
right.”
Conclusions (1)
 Gender inequality in academia persists.
 Some fields, however, are doing better than others. But there is still a long
way to go for women in both STEM and humanities in terms of achieving
50:50 parity. Perceptions that ‘things’ are better in humanities. But is this
the case?
 In our study the focus has been on exploring women Professors career
paths into leadership ; considering how their organisational settings shape
their experiences of leadership and diversity.
Conclusions (2)
 Similar as well as differing experiences in terms of our interviewees’ career paths
into leadership & their leadership experience; no clear STEM - humanities
differences
 Significant: (i) working in male-dominated or female-dominated
discipline/department and
(ii) support networks within discipline/department/organisation &
other organisations
 Enablers: long term support and mentors; leadership courses – significance of
course leader; flexibility within departments & among co-workers
 Barriers: full-time worker model; competitive culture of publishing & funding ;
prioritisation of research for promotion...unconscious bias & gendered
expectations
 Further analysis: Policy implementation gap.