Gender equality mainstreaming and the Australian academy: paradoxical effects?

Abstract

Australian Universities consistently rank highly on lists that celebrate the most gender equal higher education institutions in the world. Despite participation in institutional frameworks for gender equity accreditation, what often lies beneath the outward display of gender equality is a lived experience of inequality. Whilst there is relative gender equality amongst academics employed at universities overall, men continue to dominate appointments at the professorial or senior executive levels. At the same time, gender asymmetries make women’s access to the opportunities and resources that are highly valued by the sector difficult. Women who experience intersections with care, mothering, race, sexual identity, class, and ability face additional obstacles. In this paper, three women in Australian academia attempt to disrupt the dominant masculine ideology and value system by sharing our lived experience of gender (in)equality in the academy.

Sexually harassed, assaulted, silenced, and now heard: Institutional betrayal and its affects

“…“Employer of Choice for Women” is a voluntary recognition program that aims to promote an organization's active commitment to gender equality (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2021). This cognitive dissonance has been discussed by others, such as Gilbert et al., who problematized how “the mainstreaming of gender equality initiatives can obscure the deeply problematic gendered discourses and norms that lurk beneath equity value statements” (2021, p. 2).…”

Gender gaps in Australian research publishing, citation and co-authorship

“…The situation in Australia seems to be better than in some other countries. Gender has been in higher education discourse for some time (Gilbert et al, 2021 ). The Australian Government has a strategy to address gender disparity in STEM (Australian Government, 2021 ).…”

“…However, there is still a lot to do to achieve reasonable gender equality. Some argue that institutional policies and Athena SWAN Accreditation haven’t achieved a lot in terms of meaningfully addressing gender inequality in academy (Gilbert et al, 2021 ; Ovseiko et al, 2017 ). Australian Higher Education Statistics, for instance, still shows that while overall the number of female academics is more than males (between 56 to 59 per from 2017 to 2021), the number of senior male academics (above senior lecturers) is twice the number of female senior academics (DESE, 2021 ), which can be an indication of the glass ceiling.…”

Streamlining for excellence discriminates against women: A study of research productivity of 2.7 mln scientists in 45 countries

“…Gender inequality in academic performance, productivity, citation patterns and research recognition has been well documented, yet is persistently di cult to eradicate (Huang et al, 2020;Larivière et al, 2013;Ley and Hamilton, 2008). Disadvantaged position of women in academia is perceived as intrinsically deplorable, and causes an irreparable damage to science and R&D, but policy e↵orts aimed at levelling gender di↵erences bring mixed results (Roos et al, 2020;Clavero and Galligan, 2021;Gilbert et al, 2021). Studies searching for determinants of gender inequality point to the individual and life-cycle factors such as gendered role socialization or family obligations, as well as persistent institutional biases, like role stereotypes and gendered managerial practices (Thébaud and Taylor, 2021;Nielsen, 2016;Cui et al, 2022;Aiston and Jung, 2015;Sabatier et al, 2006;Larivière et al, 2013;Bendels et al, 2018;Huang et al, 2020).…”