Gender and Academic Work

Gender and Academic Work

24th April 2012Venue: NUI Galway Moore Institute Seminar Room1-5pmThe experiences of women in academic work have long been a source of debate.Research over the previous thirty years has shown us that, for example, aspects of workplace culture in higher education organizations effectively constrain women’s career advancement. Issues including homophily and related difficulties in findinghelpful mentors and role models, along with unintended exclusion from informal social groups. These act to hamper women’s participation in important networks. Moreover, commentators have argued that academia itself is founded on inherentlypatriarchical systems and structures, and that these emerge in the gendering of the division of labour in relation to teaching, research and administrative roles, along with working practices that present obstacles to fulfilling familial responsibilities and caring roles. In contrast to this, for others, universities remain ‰Û÷gender blind’, with career advancement and participation ostensibly open to all. In this seminar we are fortunate to bring together scholars from Ireland and the UK who will present recent empirical findings and new theoretical insights in this area.

All are welcome. Please contact Kate Kenny kate.kenny@nuigalway.ie to reserve a place.

The seminar is organized by NUI Galway’s Work Society and Governance cluster, and the Public Policies and Gender cluster (Gender ARC).

Schedule

1.00 WelcomeMarianna Fotaki, Reader in health policy and organisation studies.Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.Of women, gender and inequality in academe: Bringing feminism back to dispel yet another wicked issue

2.00 Tea and Coffee

2.30Kelly Coate, Lecturer in teaching and learning in Higher Education and Vice Dean (Graduate Studies) in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, NUI Galway.Indicators of esteem: Gender and prestige in academic work

3.30 Pat O’Connor, Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Limerick.Organisational Culture in University Senior Management: A Cross National Perspective

4.30 Discussion and reflection: Anne Byrne, Lecturer at School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI Galway.

5.00 Close

Please join us for an informal dinner after the workshop

PAPER ABSTRACTS:Of women, gender and inequality in academe: Bringing feminism back to dispel yet another wicked issueMarianna FotakiWomen’s underrepresentation in senior ranks across academic disciplines is welldocumented. Yet, the majority of analyses of women’s discrimination in academiacontinue to focus on the institutionally-oriented approaches, and the importance ofstructural barriers of patriarchy. This leaves the issue of subjectivity untheorised andimpedes our understanding of gendered academic institutions at work. The aim of thisarticle is to apply psychosocial approaches enabling us to think differently about thesocially situated subject. First, I draw on conceptions of women’s ‰Û÷otherness’ viaIrigaray and Kristeva, and then turn to Butler’s (1997) idea of subject-ion, which issustained and reproduced as an instrument of the subject becomingness and theprecondition for her agency. Second, I apply the critique of post-feminism byMcRobbie (2009), with an intention to rehabilitate the demands of feminism aspertinent to dispelling the logic of inequality and subordination of women inacademia as yet another ‰Û÷wicked issue’. The findings of a study looking into theexperiences of women in management and business schools in England are thendiscussed in light of the proposed theory.

Indicators of esteem: Gender and prestige in academic workKelly CoateThis paper draws on recent work on the prestige economy in relation to academicmotivation by developing a gendered notion of prestige. Blackmore and Kandiko(2011) have proposed a framework for interpreting aspects of academic work whichmotivate academics to achieve success. Aside from financial gain, they propose thatacademics are motivated by the work itself and factors related to prestige. Given thatwomen are less well represented at senior levels in academia, there is a question as towhether there are gendered aspects to these motivational factors. Far from suggestingthat women are less motivated than men, I will use a feminist materialist analysis toargue that women, for a number of socio-cultural reasons, find it harder to enter theprestige economy in order to gain the indicators of esteem that they can trade forfurther advancement to their careers. Data from a recent survey of academics atNUIG on career progression will be used to illustrate how the prestige economyoperates to the advantages of those who have access to the masculine, homosocialculture within this context.

Organisational Culture in University Senior Management: A Cross National PerspectivePat O’ConnorOrganisational culture is typically presented as meritocratic in universities. In thatcontext the under-representation of women in university senior management can beseen as reflecting that absence of merit. It will be suggested that such a conclusionignores the gendering of definitions of merit in academia and the importance of socialcapital in accessing such positions. Using data collected in a cross national study, anddrawing on Sinclair’s (1998) analytical model, the paper will present a typologyinvolving denial; identification of women as ‘the problem’; incremental adjustmentand commitment to a new culture. It will be suggested that, using this model, it ispossible to position the eight countries in the cross national study (i.e. Australia; NewZealand; Portugal; UK; Turkey; South Africa; Sweden and Ireland). The paper willconclude by suggesting that the organisational culture of Irish universities at seniormanagement level is not unrelated to the disinterest of the state in this issue. Thewider implications of the study for the perpetuation of gender as a social structure(Reisman, 2004), with a particular focus on Ireland will be briefly discussed.

The event is supported by the Institute for Business, Social Sciences and Public Policy at NUIGalway, and