Equality, justice and gender: barriers to the ethical university for women

Abstract

Academic women experience working in higher education differently to their male counterparts. This article argues that the unequal position of women academics is unethical, irrespective of whether one takes a consequentialist or deontological ethical position. By drawing on a range of international studies, the article explores the reasons for this inequity, suggesting that the 'cult of individual responsibility', the positioning of women academics as 'other' and the impact of having a family are significant factors. Having identified the reasons why university women experience the system differently, the article then reflects on how the ethical university can move towards bringing about greater equity between male and female colleagues.If there is anywhere that women professionals should be successful, it is in the universities. We think of teaching as a woman's forte and universities as meritocratic institutions. Yet there is ample evidence that the career patterns of women university teachers differ to those of men. (Acker 1994, 125) Introduction Women academics experience working in higher education differently to their male colleagues. Despite reports that women appear to be 'taking over' at the lower levels of the academy, women face discrimination and struggle to break into the 'top jobs'. In the UK, in 2007-2008, men were just over three times more likely than women to be in the most senior grades (i.e. Professorial or Head of Department levels). Women had a lower representation in science, engineering and technology and were more likely than men to be working part-time. Furthermore, men were more likely to be earning a higher salary, with a median pay gap of 10% (Equality Challenge Unit 2009). The unequal position of women in the academy is not unique to the UK, but is an issue of international concern. This article will argue that this inequality is unethical, irrespective of whether one takes a consequentialist or deontological

Women academics and research productivity: an international comparison

“…Similarly, Grummell, Devine, and Lynch (2009) found that the language interviewees used about balancing childcare and work responsibilities in a study of senior appointments in Ireland was significant. Caring was assumed to be a woman's problem see Aiston (2011) for a fuller discussion of this point).…”

Mentoring for Female Academics in the 21st Century: A Case Study of a South African University

“…Researchers such as (Aiston, 2011;Ogbugo, 2006) side with the above authors and opine that the scarcity of mentors for female academics and their being quarantined in networking circles has cemented the existing organisational culture in universities. Cognisant to the foregoing, it is clear that there is a need for serious change of mind set such that mentoring of academics also matches strategic goals of a university so mentoring is not understood as an unformulated idea (Shaw, 2005).…”

Affecting solidarities: Bringing feeling into feminism, empathy in employment and compassion in academic communities of crises

“…We need to further unpack and make sense of such experiences that shape a profoundly gendered academia as a workplace lacking equity and diverse representation. Such an unequal position of women academics is inherently unethical in it exacerbates inequity through a 'cult of individual responsibility' that positions women academics in an 'othering' process (Aiston, 2011) that can have deeply traumatic and damaging consequences for women professionally and emotionally. This kind of workplace is a 'psychotic University' (Sievers, 2008), 'unethical' (Aiston, 2011) and inherently 'dehumanising' (Christou, 2016) in viewing 'the Academy as an object of subjugation in the multipolarity of an oppressive logic of neoliberal governance…and liminality of learning' (ibid, 36) when it does not practice the principles of ethics that it purports to advance.…”