Hacking through the Gordian Knot: can facilitating operational mentoring untangle the gender research productivity puzzle in higher education?

Abstract

In spite of a number of drivers for change in the pursuit of gender equality in higher education in the UK and beyond, the gender gap in research activity is still widely recognised across most subject disciplines. Over recent years, mentoring strategies have often been seen as the Alexandrian sword capable of cutting the gender deficit 'Gordian Knot'. However, analysis of current practice and dialogue points to a lack of a consistent approach in addressing and implementing HE policy in this area with many initiatives providing standardised nonevidenced based provision aimed at addressing an alleged confidence deficit and exhausting an already fatigued group of successful senior women. This paper seeks to triangulate existing literature with an analysis of data collected from a funded UK based research project ultimately proposing a five-step institutional mentoring approach aimed at providing some inroads into alleviating the gender deficit in research productivity in the academy.

A Developmental Framework for Mentorship in SoTL Illustrated by Three Examples of Unseen Opportunities for Mentoring

“…However, informal mentoring relationships are dependent upon mentees having access to a supportive network, which may be limited by organizational culture, gender, race/ethnicity, or class. Particularly for women and faculty of color, mentorship is an essential part of success and developing a sense of professional belonging within a discipline, department, and institution (Davidson and Foster-Johnson 2001;Davies and Healey 2019;Sorcinelli and Yun 2007).…”

One size does not fit all: the role of mentoring context in proactive individuals' scholarly impact

“…Women protégés with women mentors are more likely to express their proactive personality to augment scholarly output, than those in cross-gender mentoring relationships (Bowles et al , 2007; Tharenou, 2005), because such mentoring contexts are likely to lower women's perceived risks of expressing proactivity. Lack of confidence and belief in academic ability is a cause of gender differences in research outcomes (Davies and Healey, 2019). Women mentors are stronger role models for proactive women, boosting their self-efficacy as scholars (Wu and Parker, 2017; Lankau and Scandura, 2002).…”

Equal Opportunities in Academic Careers? How Mid-Career Scientists at ETH Zurich Evaluate the Impact of Their Gender and Age

“…The higher education sector is taking a leading role for society's transition towards sustainable development, and should therefore be in the vanguard for creating equal opportunities as it is for other facets of sustainability [2][3][4][5][6]. However, barriers to women in science remain common worldwide, despite efforts at levelling the playing field [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…Thus, a long-term goal of the program is to prevent a loss of talent [13,14]. The Swiss Equal Opportunity Program included (i) an incentive (sub-)program a reduced integration of women in professional academic networks, the lower career ambitions of women compared to men, and less self-confidence in their own academic capabilities [9,25,26]. Other contributing factors are negative biases in the perception of female applications [27][28][29], better working conditions for men as compared to females at universities [12,30,31], and a high workload of females with academic service activities negatively impacting research productivity [32].…”

“…A study based on Swiss data confirmed that the reconciliation of family and work-especially with the birth of a child directly after the doctorate-is a factor, which tends to disadvantage women in the development of their academic career, and also identified the poorer integration of emerging female researchers in international academic networks as an important interrelated and contributing factor [19]. Mentoring strategies have been applied to increase self-confidence of female researchers and enhance their embedding in scientific networks to support their careers, but gender imbalances still exist [9,14,25,26].…”