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.
Quelle: Equality Diversity and Inclusion, 38 (2019) 2, S 246–264
Schlagwörter:ADVANCE; career opportunities; Karrierechancen; MINT; STEM
CEWS Kategorie:Berufungsverfahren
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
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.
Inhalt: The purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of gender stereotypes in academia by examining the informal aspects of the university as an organisation. We do so by using the concept of 'micro-political practices related to recruitment and progression in higher education institutions'. To increase our comprehension, we conducted multi-method research that included the IAT test, a vignette study, and in-depth interviews at one university in the Netherlands. Our findings demonstrate the importance of unconscious stereotypes that create a divide between both male and female respondents. We explain how unconscious stereotypes permeate micro-political practices at the university under study. Consequently, we discuss whether our case represents a gendered organisation, which reproduces male organisational features in regard to recruitment and career progression. Our multi-method approach creates additional depth for our findings, reconfirming the importance of combining different data sources.
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.