Fixing the Women or Fixing Universities: Women in HE Leadership

Abstract

Abstract:The lack of women in leadership across higher education has been problemitised in the literature. Often contemporary discourses promote 'fixing the women' as a solution. Consequently, interventions aimed at helping women break through 'the glass ceiling' abound. This article argues that the gendered power relations at play in universities stubbornly maintain entrenched inequalities whereby, regardless of measures implemented for and by women, the problem remains. The precariousness for women of leadership careers is explored through two separate but complementary case studies (from different continents and different generations) each one illuminating gender power relations at work. The article concludes by arguing that it is universities themselves that need fixing, not the women, and that women's growing resistance, particularly of the younger generation, reflects their dissatisfaction with higher education leadership communities of practice of masculinities.

“The Ones Who Move Things Along”: How Women Mid‐Level Managers Navigate Academic Landscapes

“…These types of experiences have been shown to increase stress among women in management especially when coupled with family responsibilities (Kersh, 2018). This stress can deter women from pursuing professional advancement (Burkinshaw & White, 2017; Eddy & Ward, 2017).…”

“…Burkinshaw and White (2017) utilized an understanding of both gender and leadership fit as fluid and largely determined by members within the communities of practice. The researchers investigated whether women in higher education leadership fit the leadership community, often grounded in masculine structures and practices.…”

Empirical Evidence Illuminating Gendered Regimes in UK Higher Education: Developing a New Conceptual Framework

“…Accordingly, more recent research has moved away from blaming women for their absence from these undoable jobs towards a recognition that their under-representation stems from their ongoing resistance to how senior roles play out within gendered leadership cultures [29]. In this sense women's voice literature becomes an explicitly political and transformational act [30].…”

“…Individual, institutional and societal issues combine to produce leadership cultures which are defined by masculine norms of leadership whereby the 'ideal employee' (the disembodied worker) thrives [29,48,49]. This tends to disadvantage women (and men) who do not easily 'fit in' with hegemonic masculine leadership communities.…”

“…Table 2 details the title, content, approach and participation used for each of the three institution-based seminars as well as the final dissemination event held at the conclusion to the study. Interviews were guided by life history approaches, which sought to elicit accounts of working lives, career histories and future plans [29,48,[64][65][66] and included a discussion of both career barriers and success stories. Transcripts from all seminar events and individual interviews were analysed through immersion in the data involving close reading and re-readings, resulting in the emergence of several related themes.…”