Women’s refusal of racial patriarchy in South African academia
Autor/in:
Raymond, Zaakira; Canham, Hugo
Quelle: Gender and Education, (2022) , S 1–18
Inhalt: This paper explores the career experiences of women academics at three South African universities. To understand the experiences of women academics, we conducted an intersectional interrogation of the politics and practices of belonging in departmental cultures. The sample consisted of thirty women academics whose interviews were analysed through a discursive thematic frame. We found that while all participants experienced gender-based discrimination which hinders academic progression, the barriers experienced by black women academics are compounded by the intersections of race, gender, and motherhood. Patriarchal and racist institutional, disciplinary and departmental cultures served as further challenges to belonging. On the other hand, through counter storytelling and refusal, women created alternative spaces of sociality where suffering co-exists with pleasure, refusal and survival. Ultimately, the paper suggests refusal as a generative theoretical lens to surface the complexity of women academics.
Gendering excellence through research productivity indicators
Autor/in:
Nygaard, Lynn P.; Piro, Fredrik N.; Aksnes, Dag W.
Quelle: Gender and Education, (2022) , S 1–15
Inhalt: As the importance of ‘excellence’ increases in higher education, so too does the importance of indicators to measure research productivity. We examine how such indicators might disproportionately benefit men by analysing extent to which the separate components of the Norwegian Publication Indicator (NPI), a bibliometric model used to distribute performance-based funding to research institutions, might amplify existing gender gaps in productivity. Drawing from Norwegian bibliometric data for 43,500 individuals, we find that each element of the indicator (weighting based on publication type, publication channel, and international collaboration, as well as fractionalization of co-authorship) has a small, but cumulative effect resulting in women on average receiving 10 per cent fewer publication points than men per publication. In other words, we see a gender gap that is not only caused by a difference in the level of production but is also amplified by the value ascribed to each publication.
Quelle: Administrative Sciences, 12 (2022) 2, 59 S
Inhalt: Attempts to transform the gendered structures and cultures of higher education institutions have had limited success. This article focuses on one Irish university (pseudonym University A) where gender inequality was a major concern culminating in high-profile litigation. Using a feminist institutional approach, it asks: (1) What changes and interventions were introduced in the context of a favorable national policy environment and local grassroots support? and (2) how were these interventions perceived by staff? The methodology draws, firstly on the authors’ personal knowledge of the local context; secondly, on an analysis of University A’s key gender equality-related actions and documents; and thirdly, on a thematic analysis of qualitative data from 129 respondents in an online survey. Positive changes are identified, as is institutional resistance, reflected in low ambitions and focus on individualistic solutions. In the qualitative data, resistance involving denial; assertions that the problem is solved; the importance of meritocracy, and a focus on “fixing the women” (and the men) were identified. Acceptance of gender equality as an organisational issue was reflected in criticism of the interventions as tokenistic window dressing; not impacting on the culture and “not going far enough”. The implications for effectively addressing gender inequality are discussed
Researching Students’ Experiences of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Harassment: Reflections and Recommendations from Surveys of Three UK HEIs
Autor/in:
Bull, Anna; Duggan, Marian; Livesey, Louise
Quelle: Social Sciences, 11 (2022) 8, 373 S
Inhalt: In the US, ‘campus climate surveys’ are an established measure of the prevalence of, and students’ awareness of and attitudes to sexual and gender-based violence and harassment (SGBVH). They are regularly carried out by universities to assist SGBVH prevention and responses. Such surveys have only recently started to be carried out within UK higher education institutions (HEIs) and the three authors of this article all independently undertook such surveys in different HEIs. Comparing our experiences of undertaking these surveys across three HEIs allows us to explore similarities and differences in our experiences of this type of research, in particular the challenges which arose in carrying out such research in three very different types of HEI. This article presents reflections on the methodological and political challenges of such work. We discuss our rationales for initiating these projects, the methodological approaches we employed, the governance structures navigated in pursuing the research and the difficulties that arose in conducting and reporting on the research. This article will be of interest to academics, activists, and policy-makers—domestically and internationally—who wish to carry out such research. By comparing approaches, we draw attention to issues and potential impediments of relevance to others wanting to embark on similar work within their own HEI.
Schlagwörter:campus; climate survey; ethical issues in surveys; GBV; higher education; sexual harassment; student; survey research; violence
Queer Positionality and Researching University Lad Culture
Autor/in:
Stenson, Annis Elizabeth
Quelle: Social Sciences, 11 (2022) 12, 562 S
Inhalt: This paper reflects on my experiences as a queer researcher investigating the relationship between university lad culture and gender-related violence. Gender-related violence is analysed as a useful conceptual tool for considering lad culture, owing to the relationship between lad culture and sexual violence, LGBT-phobia and the privileging of white, young, heterosexual men within lad culture. Using reflections from my doctoral case study research, in which I collected data from self-identified ‘lads’ (5 in-depth interviews), I will consider the challenges and benefits of my researcher position in relation the research methodology. Then, using a re-analysis of interviews, I will argue that my researcher position led to certain presentations of lad culture from my participants. Self-Identified Lad (SIL) participants presented themselves as distant from lad culture, showed queerness/hid homophobia within lad culture and were willing to discuss sexual violence. While the case study yielded only a small sample of SILs, a benefit of my researcher position is that this project was the first to conduct interviews with LGB lads and one female lad. My queer feminist position has therefore produced a unique insight into lads who identify with lad culture but discursively position themselves as fringe members. This contributes to theorisations of a laddish continuum, and allows us to consider why some self-identified lads are on the fringes, and what this tells us about lad culture
Safeguarding and Agency: Methodological Tensions in Conducting Research with Survivors of Sexual Violence in Universities
Autor/in:
Shannon, Erin R.
Quelle: Social Sciences, 11 (2022) 8, 350 S
Inhalt: This paper examines the tension between safeguarding measures and participant agency in conducting feminist interviews with survivors of sexual violence in universities. There is a core contradiction inherent in feminist research of gender-related violence, including sexual violence, because participants have been traumatized: Research with survivors of violence must enact appropriate safeguarding measures to ensure their emotional wellbeing, yet in designing these safeguarding measures, researchers must also ensure that survivor participants can exert agency within the research process. These phenomena are often at odds as safeguarding—the work of protecting participants through limiting their exposure to upsetting stimuli—appears to circumscribe participant agency, or a participant’s ability to make informed choices for themselves that respond to and change the structures in which they are situated. Using part of my doctoral thesis research’s methodology, I detail the safeguarding measures I implemented for participants as well as highlight how and where I attempted to build in agential engagement for survivor participants, and whether, or how often, survivors took up these options. The article concludes by suggesting ways gender-related violence research more broadly can reflect on and continue to interrogate how researchers balance safeguarding requirements while enabling survivors to assert their agency in the research process.
Schlagwörter:ethical issues in surveys; feminist approach; sexual abuse; survivor experience; university
Führung in Teilzeit? Eine empirische Analyse zur Verbreitung von Teilzeitarbeit unter Führungskräften in Deutschland und Europa
Autor/in:
Hipp, Lena; Sauermann, Armin; Stuth, Stefan
Quelle: WZB Discussion Paper, 501 (2022)
Inhalt: Teilzeitarbeit in Führungsetagen ist eine Ausnahme, obwohl das Thema Arbeitszeit1reduzierung durch veränderte Familienarrangements und zunehmende berufliche Belas2tung wichtiger geworden ist. Daran hat weder der seit mehr als 20 Jahren bestehende
Rechtsanspruch auf einen Teilzeitarbeitsplatz noch das im Jahr 2019 eingeführte Rück3kehrrecht auf einen Vollzeitarbeitsplatz nach zeitlich begrenzten Arbeitszeitreduktionen
etwas geändert. Dieser Beitrag nutzt Daten der Europäischen Arbeitskräfteerhebung, um
Teilzeitarbeit von Führungskräften in Deutschland sowohl im zeitlichen als auch im inter4nationalen Vergleich einzuordnen und damit ein empirisches Fundament für die gesell5schaftliche Diskussion um Teilzeitführungskräfte zu legen. Die Auswertungen zeigen: In
Deutschland arbeiteten im Jahr 2019 laut eigener Aussage rund 14 Prozent der Führungs6kräfte in Teilzeit. Im europäischen Vergleich gehört Deutschland damit zu den Ländern mit
dem höchsten Anteil an teilzeitarbeitenden Führungskräften. Die Auswertungen zeigen
auch, dass in Deutschland der Anteil der weiblichen Führungskräfte in Teilzeit mit rund 32
Prozent deutlich über dem der männlichen Führungskräfte liegt (rund 3 Prozent) und es
große Unterschiede nach Altersgruppen gibt. Als Motiv für eine Arbeitszeitreduktion geben
Führungskräfte, insbesondere Frauen, zumeist Pflege- und Betreuungsverpflichtungen
Schlagwörter:familiäre Verpflichtung; family responsibilities; Teilzeitarbeit; Teilzeitbeschäftigung; Vereinbarkeit Beruf-Familie; work and family
CEWS Kategorie:Arbeitswelt und Arbeitsmarkt, Wissenschaftspolitik, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Can Wage Transparency Alleviate Gender Sorting in the Labor Market?
Autor/in:
Bamieh, Omar; Ziegler, Lennart
Quelle: IZA Discussion Paper, 15363 (2022)
Inhalt: Wage decompositions suggest that a large share of the gender wage gap can be explained by differences in occupation and employer choices. If female workers are not well informed about these pay differences, increasing wage transparency might alleviate the gender gap. We test this hypothesis by examining the impact of the 2011 Pay Transparency Law in Austria, which requires companies to state a wage figure in job advertisements. For the analysis, we combine vacancy postings from the largest Austrian job board with social security spells that record the gender of new hires. To compare the pay level of vacancies before and after the reform, we predict wage postings using detailed occupation-employer cells, which explain about 75 percent of the variation in posted wages. While we estimate a substantial gender wage gap of 15 log points, pay transparency did not affect gender sorting into better-paid occupation and firms. To study job transitions, we focus on a subsample of workers whose previous employment is also observed. Our estimates show that switching occupations is common, and it often entails significant wage changes. Yet, in line with our main estimates, we do not find that women become more likely to switch to better-paid jobs. We interpret the absence of effects as evidence that limited transparency does not explain the persistence of gender sorting in the labor market.
Inhalt: We study the presence and the extent of gender differences in reference letters for graduate students in economics and how these may affect the start of young researchers' careers. To these ends, we build a novel rich dataset covering ten cohorts of academic job market applicants to two top institutions hiring on the international market. We collect information from the application packages and conduct text analysis of reference letters using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in order to measure gender differences in the style and content of the letters. We then combine the resulting measures with information on the applicants’ subsequent labor market outcomes as extrapolated from the main online repositories. Our results reveal that male and female candidates receive different support from their sponsors and are described in systematically different terms. While female advisors talk more about personal characteristics, only male advisors do so at a different extent for male and female candidates. Such differences in how candidates are talked about affect subsequent career outcomes and explain a non-negligible part (5 to 8% approximately) of the observed gender gaps.