“It will be difficult for you to move on from this…” An Autoethnographic Study of Hitting the Glass Ceiling in an Academic Recruitment Process

Abstract

This narrative is an autoethnographic study of how discrimination and prejudice counteract the academic meritocratic system. In Sweden, which is one of the most gender-equal countries in the world, opposition to gender equality and prejudices against what is considered the Other can be hidden and thus reproduced in decision-making processes and structures. This narrative shows how a professorial recruitment process bypassed the meritocratic system i.e., the system in which qualifications and educational results in combination with the individual’s achievements should play the greatest role in the promotion process. This is a story about how the supposed meritocracy is twisted and manipulated within university contexts and how the “temperament” of a foreign female researcher is utilised to exclude her from entering through the coveted doors of academic departments. Different experiences, characterised by demanding conditions, have been analysed with the help of gender theoretical perspectives, opposition to gender equality, intercultural perspectives and a number of social psychological perspectives linked to prejudice. The description is interwoven with previous experiences from younger years, which together contribute to an increased understanding of the individual narrative and its specific context.