The cracked glass ceiling: equal work but unequal status

Abstract

The achievement of gender equity in universities continues to warrant attention. Globally, universities have much work ahead of them if they are to redress the gender imbalance in senior positions and remuneration rates. To examine this issue, multiple sources of evidence were used to observe teaching and research workload of academic staff employed at mid-tier business faculties from two urban Australian universities which had more women employed in junior academic ranks. This article argues that although gender equity, in terms of workload, has improved, inequality, in terms of pay and status, still exists. Specifically, while workload differences between genders were largely not evident, fewer women were employed in senior ranks. These results suggest, despite policy reforms, that inequity continues to be a problem in the Australian higher education sector with implications for the recognition (and addressing) of inequity in the global higher education industry. In summary, higher education institutions, senior policy-makers and managers must be cognizant of balancing teaching workloads with opportunities and support systems for research-related activities and directing human resource efforts and promotion opportunities.

Progression through Academic Ranks: A Longitudinal Examination of Internal Promotion Drivers

“…In an era where male domination in senior ranks continues to be evident, gender equity in higher education requires ongoing research attention (Australian Vice‐Chancellors Committee, ). To attain gender equity in senior academic ranks policy would require pro‐active promotion of females to increase the proportion of females in senior academic ranks given there are fewer females in senior academic ranks when compared to males (Dobele et al ., ).…”

“…The research observes the workload patterns for academic staff for the period 2006–2010 to understand which workload variables predict internal promotion and are in line with prior research, including gender. Two mid‐tier universities (hereafter referred to as University 1 and University 2 in order to ensure anonymity), both based in capital cities in two different states of Australia were selected (Dobele et al ., ), and consistent with Probert (), three null hypotheses will be tested:…”

“…The current study extends the case based workload observation methodology employed in previous research (Dobele et al ., ) to a longitudinal case designed to measure academic workloads. The case study method was deemed appropriate for the research question at hand because it describes the context of events (Yin, ) and is grounded in the social setting being studied (Jennings, ).…”

“…Further, it has been suggested that inequity is made possible by the dominant position held by males in senior positions within academia (Knights and Richards, ). One thing remains constant, throughout these changes in workload and the university market, the gap between genders in the higher education sector persists and inequity remains (Hartley and Dobele, ; Dobele et al ., ).…”

“…Three measures of research output are assessed (refer to Dobele et al ., for a complete summary). First, the number of recognised publications, including book chapters (B1), conference papers (E1) and journal articles (C1), are assigned values consistent with the DEST system used by the Department of Education Science and Training (DEST, ).…”