Quelle: J Acad Ethics (Journal of Academic Ethics), 20 (2022) 3, S 437–450
Inhalt: Studies repeatedly find that women and men experience life in academia differently. Importantly, the typical female academic portfolio contains less research but more teaching and administrative duties. The typical male portfolio, on the other hand, contains more research but less teaching and administration. Since previous research has suggested that research is a more valued assignment than teaching in academia, we hypothesise that men will be ranked higher in the peer-evaluations that precede hirings to tenured positions in Swedish academia. We analyze 861 peer review assessments of applicants in 111 recruitment processes in Economics, Political Science, and Sociology at the six largest Swedish universities. Our findings confirm that the premises established in previous research are valid in Sweden too: Women have relatively stronger teaching merits and men relatively stronger research merits, and also that, on balance, research is rewarded more when applicants are ranked by reviewers. Accordingly, male applicants are ranked higher compared to female applicants.
What professors do in peer review : Interrogating assessment practices in the recruitment of professors in Sweden
Autor/in:
Mählck, Paula; Kusterer, Hanna Li; Montgomery, Henry
Quelle: Gender Work Organ (Gender, Work & Organization), 54 (2020) 2, 9 S
Inhalt: Sweden is known for its political will to gender equality. Sweden is also a country with a strong tradition of transparency in university recruitments. In this article, the assessment practices in the appointment of full professors in one Swedish university are investigated from an intersectional and postcolonial perspective on gender and place/space. Using a multimethod approach to investigate written evaluations of applicants, recruitment group meeting minutes and interviews with reviewers, the results show that there is great variation in how evaluation criteria are applied and filled with meaning. Moreover, in more than half of the appointment decisions the reviewers disagreed. The interview results show a structural bias operating towards researchers applying from non‐Western university contexts. At an aggregated level, national applicants have 3.88 times greater chance to be proposed for a position and national women applicants are the most likely to be proposed for the position.
Schlagwörter:Berufungsverfahren; Gender; intersectionality; intersektionale Perspektive; Intersektionalität; Peer-Review; Schweden; Sweden
CEWS Kategorie:Diversity, Europa und Internationales, Geschlechterverhältnis, Hochschulen, Berufungsverfahren
Quelle: Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung, 42 (2020) 4, S 50–69
Inhalt: Berufungskommissionen sind wichtige Arenen für die Durchsetzung der Interessen verschiedener Akteure. Sie werden auch in der Gleichstellungspolitik als zentrales Handlungsfeld betrachtet. Im Zentrum des Beitrags steht die Frage, welche Gleich-
stellungsmaßnahmen auf professoraler Ebene, insbesondere im Handlungsfeld Berufungskommissionen, bekannt sind und wie sie angesichts wachsender Ansprüche an exzellente Wissenschaft wahrgenommen und umgesetzt werden. Das Konzept des Geschlechterwissens nach Dölling/Wetterer diente als zentrale theoretische Perspektive. Die leitfadengestützten Interviews wurden rekonstruktiv ausgewertet. Es zeigte sich, dass das Gleichstellungswissen der Interviewten in Bezug auf den Kosmos Hochschule umfangreich ist, ihr Geschlechterwissen jedoch überwiegend alltagsweltlich. Ein zentrales Ergebnis ist, dass die Imperative Gleichstellung und Bestenauswahl in Berufungskommissionen als widersprüchliche Zielvorgaben wahrgenommen werden.
Schlagwörter:Berufungskommission; Genderkompetenz; Geschlechterwissen; Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen; Professor; Professorin
Inhalt: Gender disparities in top-level academic positions are persistent. However, whether bias in recruitment plays a role in producing these disparities remains unclear. This study examines the role of bias in academic recruitment by conducting a large-scale survey experiment among faculty in Economics, Law, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology from universities in Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The faculty respondents rated CVs of hypothetical candidates—who were randomly assigned either a male or a female name—for a permanent position as an Associate Professor in their discipline. The results show that, despite the underrepresentation of women in all fields, the female candidates were viewed as both more competent and more hireable compared to their male counterparts. Having children or a stronger CV do not change the overall result. Consequently, biased evaluations of equally qualified candidates to Associate Professor positions do not seem to be the key explanation of the persistent gender gap in academia in the Nordic region.
The re-production process of gender bias: A case of ICT professors through recruitment in a gender-neutral country
Autor/in:
Tiainen, Tarja; Berki, Eleni
Quelle: Studies in Higher Education, 44 (2019) 1, S 170–184
Inhalt: Women's under-representation in the fields of science and technology is strong; both in software houses and academic posts. We focus on the academic field by gender sensitive analysis of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) academics. The general picture given by statistics' meta-analyses illustrates male dominance even in Finland, which is often presented as a country which values gender equality high. For achieving deeper understanding about the process of gender bias reproduction, we focus on one university and its selection of ICT professors. Although every professorship fulfilling is a situated process, they all together shape a homogeneous male-dominant picture. This paper continues on early gender-focused discussion of Studies in Higher Education by presenting an organisational point of view.
Quelle: Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 49 (2019) 2, S 1–16
Inhalt: The university reward structure has traditionally placed greater value on individual research excellence for tenure and promotion, influencing faculty’s allocation of time and definition of worthwhile labour. We find gender differences in Canadian natural sciences and engineering faculty’s opinions of the traditional criteria for measuring academic success that are consistent with an implicit gender bias devaluing service and teamwork. Most women recommend significant changes to the traditional model and its foundation, while a substantial minority of men support the status quo. However, this comparative qualitative analysis finds more cross-gender similarities than differences, as most men also want a more modern definition of success, perceiving the traditional model to be disproportionately supportive of one type of narrow research scholarship that does not align with the realities of most faculty’s efforts. Thus, this study suggests a discrepancy between traditional success criteria and faculty’s understanding of worthwhile labour.
Excellence as a Gender-Biased Concept and Effects of the Linking of Excellence with Gender Equality
Autor/in:
Wolffram, Andrea
Quelle: International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 10 (2018) 1, S 88–107
Inhalt: This paper focuses on the subjectivity of evaluations of excellence in promotion and hiring processes in academia and on the accompanying factors for successful careers in Science and Technology (S&T) disciplines. Against the background of the disproportionately low rate of appointments of female scientists to professorships in Germany, the article analyses how the demands of gender equality and the concept of excellence are negotiated at a German university that was successful in the German Excellence Initiative. The implementation of the excellence process was accompanied by a discourse of linking excellence with gender equality. This article draws on qualitative data from interviews with researchers at different levels of their scientific careers. It can be shown that researchers, regardless of their scientific experience, perceive equity measures in appointment procedures as undermining the meritocratic principle. Rather, most of them think that societal conditions outside the scientific system are responsible for the underrepresentation of women in professorships and other top positions in academia.
Schlagwörter:Beförderung; Berufungsverfahren; Bewerbung; career paths in science and technology; Deutschland; Diskurs; Exzellenz; Exzellenzinitiative; Frauen in der Wissenschaft; Geschlechtergerechtigkeit; Gleichstellung; Interview; meritocracy; Meritokratie; MINT; Personalrekrutierung; promotion and recruitment of women in academia; Social construction of excellence; Soziale Konstruktion; Technologie; Unterrepräsentanz; wissenschaftliche Karriere; Wissenschaftskarriere
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis, Wissenschaftspolitik, Berufungsverfahren
Quelle: Baden-Baden: Nomos (Schriften zur Gleichstellung der Frau, 45), 2018. 541 Seiten
Inhalt: Warum gibt es so wenige Juraprofessorinnen? Frauen haben in der Rechtswissenschaft noch schlechtere Chancen als in anderen Fächern. Schreckt die konservative Fachkultur? Bevorzugen Frauen die Sicherheit in Justiz und Verwaltung? Welche Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung des Frauenanteils können getroffen werden?