Gender differences in higher education from a life course perspective : Transitions and social inequality between enrolment and first post-doc position
Autor/in:
Lörz, Markus; Mühleck, Kai
Quelle: High Educ (Higher Education), 77 (2019) 3, S 381–402
Inhalt: In the last decades, a vast number of post-industrialised economies have experienced a growing participation of women in higher education. However, men and women still differ with regard to their subsequent academic careers and labour market prospects. While several studies have disentangled the cumulative process of gender inequalities along the path to higher education, few studies cover two or more subsequent transitions in the academic career following graduation from upper-secondary education. We have investigated gender differences at five educational stages between graduation from upper-secondary education and the first post-doc position. To explain gender differences, we have integrated arguments of individual decision-making and educational, familial and work context conditions. This life course perspective leads us to propose several hypotheses on why the academic careers of men and women would differ in terms of transitions to the next education stage and graduation. We test our hypotheses using a longitudinal dataset which covers a large part of individual educational and academic careers of a cohort of students, beginning at the age of 20 years and extending up to the age of 40 years. Our results show that gender differences are more pronounced at the beginning of the academic career and tend to fade out at later stages. In particular, gender differences occur most strongly at transitions to the next educational stage rather than being caused by different graduation rates. These differences can be explained only to a very minor extent by performance. Separated analysis shows that men and women differ in their reasons to start or stop an academic career, with family circumstances in particular having different consequences.
Family-friendly academic conferences : A missing link to fix the “leaky pipeline”?
Autor/in:
Bos, Angela L.; Sweet-Cushman, Jennie; Schneider, Monica C.
Quelle: Politics, Groups, and Identities, 7 (2019) 3, S 748–758
Inhalt: Traveling to academic conferences to present research and network is essential for scholars to achieve success in the academy. Scholars with family obligations face barriers to participating in conferences, partly because most regional and national conferences are not organized to be family-friendly. While balancing travel to academic conferences with family responsibilities is a challenge faced by all academics, this burden can be especially high for women. As such, improving the family-friendly features of conferences could be one way to patch the “leaky pipeline” of young female scholars leaving the academy, and facilitate the movement of female faculty through the ranks from Assistant to Associate to Full Professor. We identify these barriers to conference attendance and how they might contribute to the leaky pipeline and share innovations from family-friendly small conferences that minimize these burdens. We also review what the major political science association conferences are doing to be family-friendly, and offer details about further recommended changes. Finally, we highlight one exemplary institutional policy and examples from other disciplines. Our conclusion is that there are many simple and affordable ways to make political science conferences more family-friendly and that these changes are necessary to creating an inclusive discipline.
Schlagwörter:academy; conferences; Frauen in der Wissenschaft; Gender; Mutterschaft; parenting; political science discipline
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf
„What got you here won’t get you there“ – die kommenden Herausforderungen
Autor/in:
Sack, Norbert
Quelle: Wissenschaftsleadership - Die Zukunft der Führung von Hochschulen und außeruniversitären Forschungseinrichtungen. Norbert Sack (Hrsg.), Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler. 2019, S 139–145
Inhalt: Der Wandel wird auch in den kommenden Jahren in der Wissenschaft weitergehen. Wie auch in der Wirtschaft bleiben die Trends Digitalisierung und technologische Innovation einerseits und die trotz kleinerer politischer Rückschläge weiter fortschreitende Globalisierung andererseits die wesentlichen Treiber für Veränderung. Daneben gibt es demografische Entwicklungen, die Veränderung auch für den Bildungssektor bedeuten. Die akuter werdende Frage nach gesellschaftlichen Prioritäten und nach der Verteilung der Finanzmittel, auch über politische Ressortgrenzen hinweg, führt zu einer weiter wachsenden Bedeutung der Verankerung der Wissenschaftsinstitutionen in der Gesellschaft. Für die Führungskräfte dieser Organisationen heißt das, dass interkulturelle Kompetenz, die Fähigkeit zu Kollaboration und zum Stakeholder-Management und das Umgehen mit komplexen Führungsherausforderungen und Spannungsfeldern weiter an Bedeutung zunehmen. Die Führungskräfte von morgen müssen sich noch stärker der Frage stellen, was die „License to operate“ ihrer wissenschaftlichen Institution ist.
‘Mentoring and sponsorship in Higher Educational institutions : Men’s invisible advantage in STEM’?
Autor/in:
O’Connor, Pat; O'Hagan, Angela; Myers, Eva Sophie
Quelle: Higher Education Research and Development, 39 (2019) 4, S 1–14
Inhalt: This article is concerned with the source of men’s invisible advantage in the male dominated disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It is suggested that this advantage has been obscured by combining sponsorship and mentoring. The research asks: Are men or women most likely to be mentored? Is it possible to distinguish between mentoring and sponsorship? Is there gender variation in either or both of these depending on the source – whether from the academic supervisor, line manager or other senior academics. This qualitative study draws on interview data from 106 respondents (57 men and 48 women) at junior, middle and senior levels, in four universities: one each in Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland and Turkey. It shows that both men and women received mentoring from their PhD supervisor, albeit with slightly different reported nuances. Men were more likely than women to receive sponsorship in that relationship. Both men and women received sponsorship from the Head of Department, whose wider responsibilities may have reduced homophily. Men were more likely than women to receive sponsorship and mentoring from senior men, with most women indicating a lack of access to such senior academics. By distinguishing between mentoring and sponsorship, this article contributes to our understanding of the way male dominance in STEM is perpetuated and suggests the source of men’s invisible advantage in STEM.
Parenting on the Path to the Professoriate : A Focus on Graduate Student Mothers
Autor/in:
Kulp, Amanda M.
Quelle: Res High Educ (Research in Higher Education), 19 (2019) 3, 105 S
Inhalt: This study presents new findings on tenure-track job outcomes for mothers who parented children during graduate school. Using NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates (2000–2005) and Survey of Doctorate Recipients data (2000–2013), I explore how PhD mothers’ accumulation of career-related resources in graduate school influences their likelihood of attaining tenure-track jobs.
Quelle: Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019.
Inhalt: Focusing on the status of highly educated women in the workplace, this book examines how a particular demographic and workforce group can help to close the gender pay gap worldwide. Despite contributing to the substantial fall of differentials between men and women on a global scale, the demographic of highly educated women is rarely explored in terms of its impact on gender equality. Drawing on both macro- and micro-level perspectives, this book analyses the theory behind gender segregation and initiatives for women’s inclusion, as well as offering empirical accounts of women’s experiences in the workplace. The authors have written a timely and valuable book that will appeal to both researchers of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, but also policy-makers and practitioners involved in HR.
Schlagwörter:EU-28; gender pay gap; gender segregation; human resources; Pay gap; STEM; women equality initiatives
CEWS Kategorie:Arbeitswelt und Arbeitsmarkt, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf
Quelle: Mid-career faculty - Trends, Barriers, and Possibilities. Anita G. Welch (Hrsg.), Jocelyn Bolin (Hrsg.), Daniel Reardon (Hrsg.), Leiden/Boston: Brill. 2019
Inhalt: Women, especially those in mid-career, who identify as mothers and academics make complex choices limited by a unique set of external and internal constraints and challenges that shape their families and academic career trajectories. This chapter seeks to examine the current decisions and behaviors of Academic Mothers, highlighting ways in which these decisions and actions are constrained by institutional, familial, and societal factors. The author makes the invisible struggles of mid-career Academic Mothers more transparent and offers practical strategies for addressing challenges Academic Mothers face.
Schlagwörter:academia; academic mother; Frauen in der Wissenschaft; institutional cultures; mid-career professional; Mutterschaft; societal factors; work-family balance
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf
Inhalt: The transitional phase in the Twenty first century epoch has marked the most challenging stage of human lives. Employment and life style patterns are gradually transforming with the advent and influence of globalization, modernization, and urban ways of living and enhanced competition from the other nations. The role of women is very challenging due to the higher level of expectations; they have to gratify to make their living in the male dominating society. Women have to perform multiple roles and are expected to make proper balance between their personal as well as professional lives. In order to meet their personal, professional and social needs, they have to struggle with numerous gauntlets in the complex environment. The conflict in their job role and family role is one of the biggest challenges in the present era. Hence, the study aims at providing the insight to the conceptual framework of work-life balance, its significance in the lives of working women as well as various measures to ensure the certainty of balance in their lives.
Schlagwörter:Frauen in der Wissenschaft; Frauenrolle; Globalisierung; Lifestyle; Modernisierung; work-life balance
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf
Zwischen "Exzellenz" und Existenz : Wissenschaftskarriere, Arbeits- und Geschlechterarrangements in Deutschland und Österreich
Autor/in:
Binner, Kristina; Weber, Lena
Quelle: GENDER (GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft), 11 (2019) 1-2019, S 31–46
Inhalt: In der Gesellschaft wie auch in der Wissenschaft haben einige Veränderungen in Richtung Geschlechtergleichstellung stattgefunden. In den letzten Jahren werden wissenschaftliche Karrieren in Deutschland und Österreich jedoch nach ‚Exzellenzkriterien‘ und dem Leitbild der ‚unternehmerischen Hochschule‘ reorganisiert und Karrierepfade prekarisiert. Dieser Beitrag untersucht länderübergreifend, ob sich dadurch Geschlechterarrangements erneut ungleich gestalten. Dazu wird mit der Perspektive der alltäglichen und biografischen Arbeitsarrangements der Zusammenhang zwischen wissenschaftlichen Karrieren und Geschlecht analysiert. Im Fokus stehen die subjektiven Wahrnehmungen von Alltagsorganisation und biografischen Entscheidungen von NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen, die in zwei qualitativen Interviewstudien befragt wurden. Es wird auf der Subjektebene gezeigt, wie in Zeiten ‚exzellenter‘ Spitzenforschung Geschlechterungleichheiten in Alltag und Biografie erzeugt werden.