The Dark Side of Academic Sisterhood

Despite the considerable advances of the feminist movement across Western societies, in Universities women are less likely to be promoted, or paid as much as their male colleagues, or even get jobs in the first place. One way in which we can start to reflect on why this might be the case is through hearing the experiences of women academics themselves. Using feminist methodology, this article attempts to unpack and explore just some examples of ‘cultural sexism’ which characterises the working lives of many women in British academia. This article uses qualitative methods to describe and make sense of some of those experiences. In so doing, the argument is made that the activity of academia is profoundly gendered and this explicit acknowledgement may contribute to our understanding of the under-representation of women in senior positions.

2020

In this chapter, I reflect on my progression as a woman academic over 25 years. Drawing upon Margaret Kovach's/Bonnie Stelmach's approach of a letterchapter, I write letters to myself that were pivotal moments during my career. There is a growing self-awareness from these moments that move beyond the personal to uncovering particular complicity in the gender inequities of the academy. The chapter, while personal, is intended to reveal those elements of vulnerability, insecurities, and complicity. As such, while the story is about myself, there is an invitation for other women scholars to self-reflect on their practices, hoping to create an explicit interruption to elements of gendered inequities in the academy. Keywords Women academics • Gendered roles • Gendered leadership • Academy • Higher education • Prestige economy 5:00 am and the alarm goes off. My body tells me to go back to sleep, but my mind races to consider how I am going to make a high energy, protein-filled, and quick breakfast before getting my daughter to the rink for her early morning figure skating practice. That is not all that is racing. My mind is also frantically considering what the kids need to bring for school-assignments, field trip forms, lunches, gym kit. The after-school activities involve a chauffeuring schedule that requires an excel spreadsheet: the son's hockey schedule that seems to change within 24-hour notice; the after-school practices for the play, and the group science project that requires the children to work together. Despite the run through the night before and the planned attack, 5:30 am requires one final check of any work emails and calendar invites to see what the meetings and academic work deadlines require. It is not even 6:00 am, and I am trying to bracket out the duties of life as a mom with active children, and the life of an academic. One thinks the weekend will bring reprieve, but all too often the activities commence at 6:00 am with hockey, with the other racing from figure skating, training, and ballet. By 6:00 pm, after a full day of driving from rink to rink, I am shattered. The nostalgic view of entering academia is one of a privileged profession. It harkens to the idea of working through complex and challenging ideas, interrupting dominant norms and practices, and hoping to advance new ideas for the betterment of

2018

The relationship challenges faced by women in leadership ranks within the academy are rarely researched. There is a dearth of research that explores the relationships between women in higher education settings and their colleagues, along with their ability to ascend to roles of leadership. Women have become well prepared to compete in the academy. However, many women in leadership roles in academia are not prepared for the lack of support and comradery from female colleagues. Using the personal stories of 34 female academic leaders, this research explores common experiences of relational aggression, perceived causes of these episodes, along with their perceptions of relationships with female colleagues in their respective institutions.

Australian Women's History Network

Sonya Wurster explores why so many women continue to be diverted out of academia as they progress through a university career.

Perspectives on Politics, 2008

Is there gender discrimination in academia? Analysis of interviews with 80 female faculty at a large Research One university-the most comprehensive qualitative data set generated to date-suggests both individual and institutional discrimination persists. Overt discrimination has largely given way to less obvious but still deeply entrenched inequities. Despite apparent increases in women in positions of authority, discrimination continues to manifest itself through gender devaluation, a process whereby the status and power of an authoritative position is downplayed when that position is held by a woman, and through penalties for those agitating for political change. Female faculty find legal mechanisms and direct political action of limited utility, and increasingly turn to more subtle forms of incremental collective action, revealing an adaptive response to discrimination and a keen sense of the power dynamics within the university. Women attributed the persistence of gender inequality not to biology but to a professional environment in which university administrators care more about the appearance than the reality of gender equality and a professional culture based on a traditional, linear male model. Respondents described heart-wrenching choices between career and family responsibilities, with tensions especially intractable in the bench sciences. They advocated alternative models of professional life but also offered very specific interim suggestions for institutions genuinely interested in alleviating gender inequality and discrimination. the University of California at Irvine (UCI), a major Research One (R1) university, from 2002 to 2006. Analysis consists of five parts. First we clarify that there is, in fact, a problem. We present statistics on salary and employment data for men and women within academia, since job and salary differentials are obvious indicators of Kristen Monroe

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 2021

Historically, the professional structure of higher education has provided restricted employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women. This is exacerbated where there is an intersection between gender and race, culture, religion, or age. Women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership positions across a range of disciplines, and this lack of representation of women within the professional structure of higher education itself acts as a barrier for more women reaching senior levels within institutions. More women are needed in higher positions to increase representation and visibility, and to encourage and mentor others to then aspire to follow a similar path. This critical review examines gender equity across the major career benchmarks of the academy in light of the impact of the personal contexts of women, systemic processes, and cultural barriers that hinder career progression. Research-based systemic solutions that work towards improved gender equity for women are discussed. The findings from this critical review highlight the need for global systemic change in higher education to create ethical equities in the employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women.

Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 2017

Comparative Education Review, 2021

“Male culture” strongly persists in academic and professional societies, including at annual conferences and meetings, where women-identifying individuals report facing various forms of sexual harassment, discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization. This study goes beyond parity metrics to innovate the monitoring of gender by analyzing gender inequalities and inequities in the space of an academic and professional society and its annual meeting using qualitative data collection and analysis of the case of the Comparative and International Education Society and the 2019 annual meeting. The findings uncover how these spaces continue to be exclusive of women in various ways, particularly and negatively affecting women of color, those from the Global South, and emerging scholars/practitioners. Recommendations are offered for academic and professional societies that seek to interrogate and challenge the regimes of inequality that exist amidst their operations.

ADVANCE Journal, 2020

This study examines the Advocates & Allies Program, a men faculty peer-to-peer professional development program designed to disrupt gender inequities in academia. The pedagogical approach is grounded in a grassroots-based critical analysis, was developed at a public land grant university, and has been introduced at over twenty additional higher education institutions. Data from five universities and two professional association conferences are included in this study. Results of this mixed methods case analysis illustrate why academic men may be motivated to engage in gender equity work; findings also confirm that the program increases participants' knowledge of unconscious bias and its impacts, prepares men with tools to enact change, and enhances personal commitment to gender equity, thereby affirming and extending the existing knowledgebase on effective allyship. The data suggest that the approach is an effective transformative model of intellectual activism that could be adopted by a wider sphere of academic institutions.

Gender, Work & Organization, 2021

Despite the egalitarian and collegial philosophy in its ideals, academic market is segregated and gendered where women receive fewer rewards than their male counterparts, are under-represented, segregated and excluded from participation in the formal and informal academic structures in academia. The country contexts, the gendered academic organizational settings as well as everyday interactions all play a major role not only in women's participation within academia, but also how they perceive their future in academic institutions. This research note, through an original survey with over 200 academics, attempts to study the latter assumption by looking at women academics' perceptions of their work life, their challenges, as well as aspirations. Our results show that those perceiving strong hierarchy in the realm of work are significantly more likely to believe that being woman in academia harms their job prospects. We also show that, not only were they pessimistic about the challenges facing them at the moment, but they were also more skeptical about women's potential in overcoming such challenges in the future.