WOMEN FACULTY MEMBERS’ PRESENTATION AND ACTIVATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC FIELD: A REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGICAL SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

Anna Asimaki, Gerasimos Koustourakis, Maria Varsami, Archontoula Lagiou

Abstract


The aim of this paper is to investigate and present the position of women faculty members in the international academic field, as well as the challenges they face in their professional careers, within the framework of a review of contemporary sociological scientific literature. In addition, the representation of women academics in administrative positions and positions of power in the academic field is investigated along with the potential existence of sex discrimination. The findings from related scientific studies are in agreement on the following: (a) women faculty members in the international field continue to be found lower down the academic hierarchy compared to their male counterparts. This is due to the fact that they face various challenges, the most significant of which is the lack of balance between their professional and social roles. These challenges hinder their progression and permanence in the academic field. (b) Women academics globally are under-represented and are in a minority in administrative positions within the university field. The factors that deter women faculty members from taking up or going after administrative positions are mainly linked to gender stereotypes and attitudes that predominate in the academic field regarding leadership style. And (c) gender inequality and sex discrimination continue to exist in the international university field. However, their extent is linked to the national–cultural factors of the various nations.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


women faculty members, academic field, scientific capital, gender habitus, career

Full Text:

PDF

References


Alexander, J., Thomson, K., & Edles. L. (2016). A Contemporary Introduction to Sociology: Culture and Society in Transition. Athens: Gutenberg.

Almukhambetova, A., Torrano, D., & Nam, A. (2021). Fixing the Leaky Pipeline for Talented Women in STEM. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-021-10239-1

Anastasaki, Α. (2019). The position of women in the Greek academic community: the gendered dimension of research and publishing productivity of university teaching and research staff (Ph.D. Dissertation). Rhodos, University of Aegean, Greece.

Asimaki, A., Katsigianni, M., & Koustourakis, G. (2008). The defining factors of the evolution of women in the academic (University) hierarchy. Case study: the University of Patras 1964 – 2007. In 5th International Scientific Conference. History of Education: ‘Education and Social Justice’. Conference and Cultural Centre. University of Patras. Patras, October 3-5, 2008. Available online from http://www.eriande.elemedu.upatras.gr/?section=985&language=el_GR&page706=1&itemid706=1073

Asimaki, A., Koustourakis, G., & Papaspyropoulou, K. (2012). Female Faculty Members in the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering: The case of Greek Universities. Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 39, 15-28. https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/12.39.15

Asimaki, A., Zenzefilis, V., & Koustourakis, G. (2016). The Access and Development of Female Academics in the University Field in Greece: University of Patras Case Study. Open Journal of Social Sciences,4(3), 150-162. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.43021

Bagilhole, B. (2007). Challenging women in the male academy: think about draining the swamp. In Challenges and negotiations for women in higher education (pp. 21-32). Dordrecht: Springer.

Barrett, L., & Barrett, P. (2011). Women and academic workloads: Career slow lane or cul-de-sac?. Higher education, 61(2), 141-155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9329-3

Bourdieu, P. (1993). Sociology in question. London: Sage.

Bourdieu, P. (2000). Practical reason: On the theory of action. Athens: Plethron.

Bourdieu, P. (2005). For science and its social uses. Athens: Polytropon

Bourdieu, P. (2015). Masculine domination. Athens: Patakis.

Bourdieu, P. (2018). The forms of capital. In The sociology of economic life (pp. 78-92). New York: Routledge.

Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. (1992). Réponses. Paris: Seuil.

Canetto, S. S., Trott, C. D., Winterrowd, E. M., Haruyama, D., & Johnson, A. (2017). Challenges to the choice discourse: Women’s views of their family and academic-science career options and constraints. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 29(1-2), 4-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/08952833.2016.1273174

Carvalho, T., & Santiago, R. (2010). Still academics after all. Higher Education Policy, 23(3), 397-411. https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2010.17

Cervia, S., & Biancheri, R. (2017). Women in science: The persistence of traditional gender roles. A case study on work-life interface. European Educational Research Journal, 16(2-3), 215-229. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904116654701

Chakraborty, A. (2021). “Symbolic violence” and Dalit feminism: possibilities emerging from a Dalit feminist standpoint reading of Bourdieu. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2021.1978854

Danell, R., & Hjerm, M. (2013). Career prospects for female university researchers have not improved. Scientometrics, 94(3), 999-1006. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0840-4

Dehdarirad, T., Villarroya, A., & Barrios, M. (2014). Research trends in gender differences in higher education and science: a co-word analysis. Scientometrics, 101(1), 273-290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1327-2

Elsaadani, M. (2012). Exploration of teaching staff and students' preferences of information and communication technologies in private and academic lives. International Journal of Computer Science Issues, 9(2), 396-402.

Ensour, W., Al Maaitah, H., & Kharabsheh, R. (2017). Barriers to Arab female academics’ career development: Legislation, HR policies and socio-cultural variables. Management research review, 40(10), 1058-1080. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-08-2016-0186

Eslen‐Ziya, H., & Yildirim, T. M. (2022). Perceptions of gendered‐challenges in academia: How women academics see gender hierarchies as barriers to achievement. Gender, Work & Organization, 29(1), 301-308. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12744

Fotaki, M. (2013). No woman is like a man (in academia): The masculine symbolic order and the unwanted female body. Organization studies, 34(9), 1251-1275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840613483658

Gardner, S. K. (2012). “I couldn’t wait to leave the toxic environment”: A mixed methods study of women faculty satisfaction and departure from one research institution. NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education, 5(1), 71-95. https://doi.org/10.1515/njawhe-2012-1079

Gasser, C., & Shaffer, K. (2014). Career Development of Women in Academia: Traversing the Leaky Pipeline. The Professional Counselor, 4(4), 332-352. https://doi.org/10.15241/ceg.4.4.332

Giuffrida, M. A., Steffey, M. A., Balsa, I. M., Morello, S. L., & Kapatkin, A. S. (2020). Gender differences in academic rank among faculty surgeons at US veterinary schools in 2019. Veterinary Surgery, 49(5), 852-859. https://doi.org/10.1111/vsu.13440

Harris, C., Ravenswood, K., & Myers, B. (2013). Glass slippers, holy grails and ivory towers: Gender and advancement in academia. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 23(3), 231-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2013.839084

Hashim, R. A., Noman, M., & Kaur, A. (2016). Women leadership in higher education: Can the glass ceiling be broken. The NIEW Journal, 8, 4-11. https://wkuwire.org/bitstream/20.500.12540/654/1/wku_schlrs_publcn_000167.pdf

Ion, G., Duran Bellonch, M., & Bernabeu Tamayo, M. (2012). Teaching staff and their perception about gender equality at university. Revista Complutense de Educación, 24(1), 123-140. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.5209/rev_RCED.2013.v24.n1.41194

Kanyumba, B., & Lourens, M. (2022). Career development for female academics in Australian and South African universities: An integrative review. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science, 11(2), 391-401. https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v11i2.1576

Kele, T., & Pietersen, J. (2015). Women leaders in a South African higher education institution: Narrations of their leadership operations. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 8(5), 11-16. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2618069

Kemelgor, C., Etzkowitz, H. (2001). Overcoming Isolation: Women's Dilemmas in American Academic Science. Minerva, 39, 153–174. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010344929577

Kemkes-Grottenthaler, A. (2003). Postponing or rejecting parenthood? Results of a survey among female academic professionals. Journal of biosocial science, 35(2), 213-226. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002193200300213X

Kim, Y., & Cryss Brunner, C. (2009). School administrators' career mobility to the superintendency. Journal of Educational Administration, 47(1), 75-107. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230910928098

Kim, Y., & Kim, S. (2021). Being an academic: how junior female academics in Korea survive in the neoliberal context of a patriarchal society. Higher Education, 81(6), 1311-1328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00613-3

Levine, R. B., Lin, F., Kern, D. E., Wright, S. M., & Carrese, J. (2011). Stories from early-career women physicians who have left academic medicine: a qualitative study at a single institution. Academic Medicine, 86(6), 752-758. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e318217e83b

Liu, X., Dunlop, R., Allavena, R., & Palmieri, C. (2021). Women Representation and Gender Equality in Different Academic Levels in Veterinary Science. Veterinary Sciences, 8(8), 159. https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8080159

Llorent-Bedmar, V., Llorent-Vaquero, M., & Navarro-Granados, M. (2017). Towards gender equality in Moroccan universities: Female university teachers from a gender perspective. Women's Studies International Forum, 64, 34-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.09.002

Mair, J., & Frew, E. (2018). Academic conferences: A female duo-ethnography. Current Issues in Tourism, 21(18), 2152-2172. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2016.1248909

Maxwell, N., Connolly, L., & Ní Laoire, C. (2019). Informality, emotion and gendered career paths: The hidden toll of maternity leave on female academics and researchers. Gender, Work & Organization, 26(2), 140-157. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12306

McNae, R., & Vali, K. (2015). Diverse experiences of women leading in higher education: Locating networks and agency for leadership within a university context in Papua New Guinea. Gender and Education, 27(3), 288-303. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2015.1027669

Mitchell, S. M., & Hesli, V. L. (2013). Women don't ask? Women don't say no? Bargaining and service in the political science profession. Political Science & Politics, 46(2), 355-369. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096513000073

Molla, T., & Cuthbert, D. (2014). Qualitative inequality: Experiences of women in Ethiopian higher education. Gender and Education, 26(7), 759-775. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2014.970614

Mushibwe, C., & Simuka, J. (2021). Motivations for Women Leadership Positions in Higher Education Institutions: A case of Selected Universities in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Africa Journal of Leadership and Governance, 1(1), 61-85.

Nikunen, M. (2012). Changing university work, freedom, flexibility and family. Studies in Higher Education, 37(6), 713-729. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2010.542453

Pai, K., & Vaidya, S. (2009). Glass ceiling: role of women in the corporate world. Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal, 19(2), 106-113. https://doi.org/10.1108/10595420910942270

Sanders, K., Willemsen, T. M., & Millar, C. C. (2008). Views from above the glass ceiling: does the academic environment influence women professors’ careers and experiences?. Sex roles, 60(5), 301-312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9547-7

Shah, S. (2018). ‘We are equals’; datum or delusion: perceptions of Muslim women academics in three Malaysian universities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(3), 299-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2017.1343126

Soleymanpour Omran, M., Alizadeh, H., & Esmaeeli, B. (2015). The analysis of glass ceiling phenomenon in the promotion of women’s abilities in organizations. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 4(3), 315-323. https://doi.org/10.33844/ijol.2015.60323

Spiliopoulou, G., Koustourakis, G., & Asimaki, A. (2018). The Impact of gender differences on the formation of young people's aspirations/expectations and choices for their educational and occupational future: A review of sociological scientific literature. European Journal of Education Studies, 4(9), 1-15. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1287599

Toffoletti, K., & Starr, K. (2016). Women academics and work–life balance: Gendered discourses of work and care. Gender, Work & Organization, 23(5), 489-504. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12133

Winchester, H. P., & Browning, L. (2015). Gender equality in academia: A critical reflection. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 37(3), 269-281. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2015.1034427




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v8i3.1381

Copyright (c) 2022 Anna Asimaki, Gerasimos Koustourakis, Maria Varsami, Archontoula Lagiou

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2016 - 2023. European Journal Of Social Sciences Studies (ISSN 2501-8590) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and  Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.


 

Hit counter