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

O’Connor, Pat

doi:10.3390/educsci8030093

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In answering the research questions, our paper provides both theoretical and practical contributions to the literature (Barone, 2011;Fisher et al, 2010;Macarie and Moldovan, 2015;Pingleton et al, 2016;Redmond et al, 2016), the academic community and policymakers. In particular, our paper illustrates how the data on the inequality between women and men in the academic context show that gender bias is a relevant issue that extends the discussions and findings in the existing literature (Bagilhole and White, 2011;Barone, 2011;Burkinshaw and White, 2017;Currie et al, 2002;Kouta et al, 2017;Kreitz-Sandberg, 2013;Maamari and Saheb, 2018;O'Connor, 2018;O'Connor et al, 2015;O'Connor and O'Hagan, 2016;Ovseiko et al, 2017). The information presented in sex-disaggregated data is considered one of the tools that can be used to support mainstreaming gender.…”

Section: The Academic Gender-gap By Geographical Areasupporting

confidence: 70%

“…In particular, scholars are finding an under-representation of women at each stage along the academic career ladder and at senior levels (Bagilhole and White, 2011;Barone, 2011;Burkinshaw and White, 2017;Currie et al, 2002;Kreitz-Sandberg, 2013;O'Connor, 2018;O'Connor et al, 2015;Ovseiko et al, 2017). In this scenario, the real issue is the phenomenon of a vertical segregation (Kouta et al, 2017;Ovseiko et al, 2017) that shows a similar qualitative pattern across several countries (Le Feuvre, 2015).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The academic “glass-ceiling”: investigating the increase of female academicians in Italy

Roberto

Rey

Maglio

et al. 2020

IJOA

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Purpose This study addresses gender composition in universities. The purpose of this study is to define the vertical and horizontal gender segregation in both public and private universities. In particular, it measures the gender distribution throughout academic careers across levels and time, and among fields of science in Italian academia. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopted the framework of Blackburn et al. (2002) as a theoretical lens through which they examine and explain occupational gender segregation in the university context. A mixed methodology of both document analysis and examining some statistical indicators was used to create gender-disaggregated measures to help the authors answer their research questions. The data collected represent academia in Italy for the period 2010-2018. The data were obtained from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. Findings The authors show the gendered nature of academic institutions in Italy. In particular, the authors acknowledge that hierarchies of power exist that privilege men and the masculine and devalue women and the feminine within academic institutions. Practical implications This paper provides theoretical and practical findings that support the literature on gender issues in universities and other public and/or private institutions. The academic community, practitioners and policymakers can use the results to design measures to address gender inequality in academia. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is novel because it provides gender-relevant insights on the gender composition in universities in the Italian context. These insights are also relevant for academic institutions that operate in an international setting.

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Section: The Academic Gender-gap By Geographical Areasupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The academic “glass-ceiling”: investigating the increase of female academicians in Italy

Roberto

Rey

Maglio

et al. 2020

IJOA

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“…Vertical segregation is defined by Reskin and Roos (1990) as the tendency to find women's concentrated in clerical and low-level management. In fact, despite the feminization of universities in terms of the number of female students, formal positions in top management and/or leading positions, academic leadership in higher education remains concentrated in male hands (O'Connor 2018;Carvalho and Diogo 2018b;Ryan and Haslam 2005). Additionally, and although the representation of women in leadership roles has increased, this happens mostly in administrative areas (Burkinshaw and White 2017)-at the technostructure level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nomination vs. election: do they influence women’s access to institutional decision-making bodies?

2020

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Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs) are excellent case-studies of women representation in academia, considering their significant presence and rapid growth in HEIs. Nevertheless, and despite efforts to minimise gender gaps, women are still underrepresented in top management and leading positions, contributing to increment the phenomenon of vertical segregation. Based on the reality of the Portuguese academia, and focusing on an in-depth case study of a Portuguese university, this paper analyses if and how the way decision-making bodies are constituted, influence the gender balance of their members. Recently, within the New Public Management (NPM) context, HEIs have been subjected to external pressures to create a new organisational environment aiming at substituting the collegial model of governance with a managerial one. In this context, there has been a trend to replace the election by the nomination as the dominant process to occupy decision-making positions. The opening hypothesis of this study is that the way decision-making bodies are constituted, impacts on their gender balance. More specifically, it is argued that the nomination process tends to be more advantageous to women than the election. However, although it is possible to conclude that the gender balance decreases with the increasing importance of the decision-making body, it is not accurate to say that there is a direct relationship between the way actors are chosen to these bodies and their gender balance. In other words, the way actors are chosen can not be seen as the only factor influencing the gender constitution of decision-making bodies. The study provides a relevant contribution to the literature on mechanisms and strategies to improve gender equality in institutional decision-making processes and bodies.

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“…Studying women in the role of chair deepens existing research on women leaders in higher education (Acker, 2010;Airini et al, 2011;Dunn et al, 2014;Burkinshaw and White, 2017;O'Connor, 2018). Future research should focus on the ways women in the academy experience their work and on how universities and colleges might counter intrenched systemic barriers.…”

Section: Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Additional research suggests that few women attain presidencies, chancellorships, or vice chancellor roles (Shepard, 2017), that women of color experience even greater barriers to leadership attainment (Davis and Maldonado, 2015), and that women are likely experience both a "glass ceiling" (Eddy and Ward, 2015;Wroblewski, 2019) and a "glass cliff " (Ryan and Haslam, 2005;Peterson, 2015;Glass and Cook, 2016). Consequently, women often find themselves trapped in low-level managerial roles (Airini et al, 2011), unsupported when they do attain leadership positions of White and Burkinshaw (2019), and underrepresented on powerful committees and in meaningful decision-making bodies (O'Connor, 2018). This article addresses how women chairs make sense of individual and organizational challenges they face and, in the end, whether they see their service as chair as irredeemably marked by organizational discrimination or as an opportunity to contribute and achieve.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I am the Chair”: Women and Department Leadership in the Academy

Kruse

2022

Front. Educ.

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The paucity of women in leadership roles in the academy has been the focus of the literature in higher education for several decades. The discussion has lamented how few women attain presidencies, chancellorships, or vice chancellor roles, that women of color experience even greater barriers to leadership attainment, and that women are likely to experience both a “glass ceiling” and a “glass cliff”. As a result, women often find themselves trapped in low-level managerial roles, unsupported when they do attain leadership positions, and underrepresented on powerful committees and in meaningful decision-making bodies. Drawing on data from a large study of the department chair, this qualitative study explores the experiences of twenty women who hold the position. Findings suggest that women department chairs continue to face ongoing gendered challenges to their leadership and that barriers to their success are still very much present in the academy. Coping with these challenges requires a balancing act within oneself, with others, and within the institution. Each challenge is then reflected in tensions that must be negotiated rather than resolved. Recommendations for structural and cultural changes are offered.

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

Abstract: Despite the feminisation of universities in terms of their student intake [1,2], formal positions of academic leadership in higher education remain concentrated in male hands[…]

Cited by 7 publications

References 30 publications

The academic “glass-ceiling”: investigating the increase of female academicians in Italy

The academic “glass-ceiling”: investigating the increase of female academicians in Italy

Nomination vs. election: do they influence women’s access to institutional decision-making bodies?

“I am the Chair”: Women and Department Leadership in the Academy

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