Ethnic minority women in the Serbian academic community

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the position of ethnic minority women (Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian) in relation to their career-building in the Serbian higher education system and reaching decision-making positions (such as rector, vice-rector, dean, head of department, etc.). The author defines two hypotheses: (1) that there are invisible biases (gender-based, ethnicity-based, and segregation-related) in the sciences that put ethnic minority women in a challenging position when attempting to build a career in academia, and (2) that these women encounter a glass ceiling when trying to reach more senior positions. The analysis is based on 16 semi-structured interviews conducted with Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian female teaching staff employed at two Serbian universities. Intersectionality as a theoretical framework and method was used in the analysis of interviews, along with narrative analysis. Analysis of the interviews showed that ethnic minority women adopt specific strategies when discussing and explaining their difficulties and opportunities in the higher education system of Serbia. The intersectional analysis indicates that ethnic minority women struggle with invisible biases at the individual level, and, due to the horizontal segregation in sciences, have to overcome a situation of double jeopardy in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) studies. The findings suggest that women from ethnic minorities face a glass ceiling in relation to obtaining decision-making positions. Namely, such positions are usually only guaranteed to them within their own ethnic enclaves at departments with majority female staff. However, positions higher than these are rarely attainable.

The Yugoslav War that was not theirs: The case of national minority millennials

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Information Ecosystems in Early Academic Career Building:how Do Researchers in the Social Sciences and Humanities Learn the Tricks of the Trade?

“…In their review article of the literature available on academic career development, Zacher et al (2019) underline that research in the eld tends to focus on gender inequality, but not so much on intersectionality (see for example Curtin et al, 2016;Fritsch, 2016;Lendák-Kabók, 2021). Regarding mentoring practices (also happening through social media), all the empirical studies mentioned by Zacher et al (2019) -which are mostly in the health science -attest a positive effect on career success, for the "protégés" but also for their mentors (see for example Feldman et al, 2010;Iversen et al, 2014)…”

Does ethnicity count when contextualizing the low proportion of women in STEM in Serbia?

“…Gender-studies scholars have elaborated intersectionality as a theory for differentiating processes and relations of power and inequality in Europe (Davis and Zarkov, 2017), but sparse attention has been paid to the intersectional analysis of gender and ethnicity among sub-state minorities (Kymlicka, 2007;Lend ak-Kab ok, 2020) in the Western Balkan region, while the intersection of gender and ethnicity in STEM has not been discussed previously. The Vojvodinian context of intersectionality in Serbia allows us to both ethnicity and gender simultaneously (Lend ak-Kab ok, 2016).…”