Faculty Members’ Perceptions of How Academic Work is Evaluated: Similarities and Differences by Gender

Abstract

A questionnaire about how academic performance is evaluated and the importance of teaching and research was completed by 265 faculty at a UK research university. Factor analysis followed by t-tests showed that male faculty had a more realistic understanding of how their research is evaluated, rate the importance of research to their careers more highly, and are more likely than women to work over hours through choice. Women faculty are more likely than men to work over hours because of teaching workload and rate the importance of a teaching qualification more highly, despite giving similar ratings as men to the importance of teaching to their career. The implications for differential rates of promotion are discussed.

Retaining female postgraduates in academia: the role of gender and prospective parenthood

“…Institutional policies and practices have a strong potential to facilitate improved gender equity. In relation to postgraduate students specifically, and in support of other existing research (Bagilhole & Goode, 2001;Dever & Morrison, 2009;Todd, Madill, Shaw, & Bown, 2008), we find that mentoring can have positive benefits for the very group of HDR students that we found to be least inclined to pursue an academic career. We suggest that mentoring programmes for HDR students, particularly those that model how an academic career can be combined with parenthood, should therefore be further investigated, as a potential means of promoting greater numbers of women developing academic career pathways.…”

Predictors of Gender Inequalities in the Rank of Full Professor

“…Still, Rafnsdóttir & Heijstra's study (2013) shows that academic women in Iceland express feeling more stress and strain than men when discussing the reconciliation of work and family. In light of this discussion it will also be interesting to explore the utilization of overtime by academics in future studies, but, in contrast to Todd et al (2008), to study the qualitative aspect of it.…”

“…On a related topic, a study at a research university in the UK brought to light a gender difference with regard to how academics utilized overtime. The researchers found that even though men and women did a similar amount of overtime, women used the extra hours to overcome their teaching workload, while men worked overtime as a matter of choice and used the time to do research (Todd et al, 2008). Barrett and Barrett (2011) also concluded that a system relying on employees working overtime, such as is the case in academia, tends to disadvantage women in their career-making.…”

More than just story time

“…The same article stated that women with children were the most likely to report stress from family status as affecting travel, research, publishing and other career-related tasks. Todd, Madill, Shaw, and Bown (2008) showed that both women and men felt that having children would negatively impact an academic career. However, they felt that perhaps men overcompensated for children in a way that led them to greater success than women in the same position.…”