The under-representation of women at the top of the academy is a persistent and fascinating issue, mostly analysed as a result of women's choices or as an issue of personnel management. In this article, the focus is on the functioning of universities as social institutions, where gender is 'done' in a specific way. We analyse how the structural, cultural and procedural arrangements of academic organizing constitute gender relations and are specifically interested in the social construction of scientific quality. The 'normal' standards for scientific quality reflect the traditions of the natural sciences, with the Olympus as dominant image: the excellent scientist as lonely hero at the top, far distanced from everyday practices. This conception reflects a hegemonic position privileging masculinity. Alternatively, in an Agora model, science is not an autonomous institution, but becomes a societal practice tightly bound with other societal practices concerning the production, transmission, translation and exchange of knowledge. The scientific ideal of the Agora entails greater public accountability, social responsibility and transparency. This model reflects to a certain extent the scientific activities and achievements of female scientists, and we expect that gender will be done differently in it. In our view, the integration and mainstreaming of gender issues within the academy will serve as a strong impetus to the necessary modernization of academia and academic organizing. But this implies a critical reflection on the social constructed nature of any conception of 'quality'.

This article discusses the results of a study on gender bias in assessment procedures in the two major institutions for scienti c grants in The Netherlands: the Dutch Organization for Scienti c Research (NOW) and the Royal Dutch Academy for the Sciences (KNAW). The study concentrated on a qualitative sample of one of the prestigious grants. A total of 128 les were analyzed on the basis of a correlation of characteristics of the applicant (sex, age, and scienti c productivity), assessments by the external advisors (peer review), and the decision of NOW. The analysis indicated that women applicants were evaluated differently from male applicants. However, women were not discriminated against in all disciplines. On the contrary, in some disciplines they received a bonus. One of the major conclusions is that gender matters, but in different ways within the different disciplines.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to show that upward mobility of female academics in regular selection procedures is evolving extremely slowly, especially in The Netherlands. This paper aims at a more profound understanding of professorial recruitment and selection procedures in relation to gender differences at Dutch universities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper explores the recruitment of university professors as a gendered process and is mainly based on the analysis of selection committee reports between 1999‐2003 from six large Dutch universities (n=682).FindingsThe research findings give a clear indication of gender differences in selection and recruitment procedures. Although not in all disciplines, the paper observes a disparity in the percentages of male and female applicants who were successful in the selection procedure. There is no confirmation of the predicted relationship with the nature of the procedure (open/closed), but there is a correlation with the number of women on the committee.Research limitations/implicationsAs it was not possible to make any pronouncements about the quality of the applicants, a strict measurement of gender bias is not possible.Practical implicationsThe results show that academic disciplines are gendered in a different way, requiring different measures at the institutional and individual levels.Originality/valueThis is the first paper on recruitment and selection procedures that takes into account disciplinary differences and factors such as the number of applicants for each professorship and the recruitment potential by gender.

In this chapter, we shall present our study of the design process of a videocommunication system that enables parents of premature babies to visit, in a  Diversity and Distributed Agency

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