Good jobs – but places for women?

Abstract

This article is concerned with men and women's experience of elite positions and with the extent to which such positions are seen as places for women, so as to provide an insight into their commitment to continuing in them. Senior management in universities are elite positions in terms of income; those who occupy them are relatively powerful internally, although relatively powerless in relation to the state and the market. Drawing on a purposive study of those at the top three levels (i.e. presidential, vice-presidential, dean) in public universities, it finds little difference between men and women's perceptions of the advantages/disadvantages of these positions. However in a context where roughly four fifths of those in university senior management are men (O'Connor, 2014), at the level of organisational narratives and at the interactional level, gender differences persist. These differences are reflected in variation in commitment to continuing in senior management positions. (149 words)

The Perspectives of Women Professors on the Professoriate: A Missing Piece in the Narrative on Gender Equality in the University

“…Resonating with earlier research on how women can work within the existing system in order to open up opportunities for other women, she noted that she actively appointed women "to counterbalance the almost entirely male environment" [48]. At the same time, there was a general recognition amongst the participants that the organizational culture of the university was premised on, as O'Connor has elsewhere noted, "male lifestyles and priorities" [48] (p. 310) replete with "strong imprints of masculine domination" [49] (p. 11). This culture, which the majority of participants in this study held, conflicted with their own core values and professional identities.…”

Introduction to Special Issue on Gender and Leadership and a Future Research Agenda

“…Paradoxically such positions, although seen in some countries [37] as unattractive, are in other countries (such as the UK) earning extremely high salaries in a context where an increasing proportion of front line staff are on part-time or temporary contracts. The phenomenon of women seeing such positions as meaningful but not continuing in them [38] needs to be further explored.…”

Sustainable Development and Motivation Opportunities from the Perspective of Women in the Polish Science Sector in the Light of Statistical Data and Surveys

“…The situation is similar also in the academic research sector. Researchers (Savigny, 2014;Fitzgerald, 2018;O'Connor, 2015;Burkinshaw and White, 2017), dealing with gender inequalities across countries, draw attention to significant differences in the proportion of women and men employed in research institutes, the disproportions among those achieving the highest academic degrees and their remuneration levels. Additionally, they underline that, even if the have higher positions, it is in a way perceived as "unnatural" or threatening to the stable order in the hierarchy.…”