PM cracks glass ceiling, unis call in glaziers

Higher education is increasingly feminised, but women are failing to break into the professoriate. Recent research sheds some new light on this perplexing situation Glass ceilings have been a keen topic of conversation for the past week or so, but new research confirms they are not about to come crashing down in Australian universities any time soon. A recent study has shed new light on the contributing factors to why women fail to negotiate the well-documented hump between senior lecturer and the professoriate. While the reasons are many and complex, a previously misunderstood factor might be the role of external appointments. “While women are applying for promotion in numbers roughly equivalent to the available pool of applicants, half of all professorial appointments are external,” says Dr Joanne Pyke, a senior research fellow from Victoria University. “These appointments are heavily biased in favour of men. Over a 15-year period at VU, roughly four out of five external professorial appointments were male – a trend that was consistent over time.” “Put simply, women are going backwards because of the role of external appointments,” says Pyke, who interviewed 24 female level C academics from VU as part of her PhD thesis, called ‘Perspectives from below the glass ceiling’. “We know that gender inequalities continue, despite a widely held belief that Australian universities are becoming feminised,” says Pyke. “But they have become increasingly invisible. “I also wanted to make the point that women are making other decisions about their lives; it’s not just about career. I’ve tried to show that people make choices in a broader context – and the factors that come to bear on that decision making are often discouraging factors, rather than encouraging factors. These are factors which affect women in ways that most men don’t have to consider.” These include the well-documented troika of family commitments, the clustering of women in feminised roles and disciplines, and the difficulty in establishing an impressive research track record when these other two factors are in play. Late entrance to academe after participation in the workforce and child-bearing and a disproportionate share of academic administration and pastoral care add to the mix. Pyke says the modern market-driven university is integral to this. “The implications of the corporatised university include a heavier and more complex academic workload with increased accountabilities, rising staff-student ratios and increasing pressures for research output within quality frameworks,” says Pyke. “Academics compete for recognition and the qualities that women traditionally excel at, such as providing pastoral care and teamwork, are less likely to contribute to an academic profile that is regarded as meritorious when seeking promotion. “The opposite is true and a single-minded and continuous focus on self-promotion and the demonstration of a track record in attracting research funding and research outcomes are what counts in the promotion application.” There are other factors, too, whether explicit or not. She conducted no interviews in VU’s law school during her research because, at the time, there were no women employed above level B. Yet, she notes that in nursing, where the vast majority of more junior academics (and students) are female, senior academic appointments are 50 per cent male. The end result too often is that by the time many women finally arrive at a point at which they can apply for promotion into the professoriate, they are “too old, too tired or too unwell to consider promotion as a desirable option”. “This is not the case for everyone and VU have some active and very useful policies and programs in place to encourage women’s career progression,” said Pyke. “There are broader conditions at play, that are typical of universities across Australia, and internationally, that continue to be discouraging to women. It will take a shift in those conditions to make promotion a feasible and desirable option.” As to the women who actually break through and get to level D and beyond, is it worth it? Well, that’s another PhD, says Pyke. The new Universities Australia action plan for women is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks. Rethinking equity Policy: Chronic underfunding means that women disproportionately carry the burden of administrative and pastoral care – which don’t advantage women in the competitive marketplace. “We need to understand what those impacts are as there has been very little analysis of the gendered impacts of higher education reform since the 1990s.” Organisational: EEO policies are marginalised by market reforms, says Pyke. Remedies include a modification of the promotions process and criteria so women can apply before they reach retirement age and be valued for those things they are good at. Targets for senior appointments should also be put in place. Individual: There needs to be greater recognition of the constraints that hinder women and support to help them better negotiate the hurdles along the ways, says Pyke. These could include relief from teaching; leadership training and targeted research-development programs at critical times in women’s career development. Numbers tell the story Government data for 2009 shows women make up: 55% of level A positions (below lecturer) 50% of level B (lecturer) 40% of level C (senior lecturer) 25% of level D and above (the professoriate)