Work like a girl: Redressing gender inequity in academia through systemic solutions

Abstract

Historically, the professional structure of higher education has provided restricted employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women. This is exacerbated where there is an intersection between gender and race, culture, religion, or age. Women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership positions across a range of disciplines, and this lack of representation of women within the professional structure of higher education itself acts as a barrier for more women reaching senior levels within institutions. More women are needed in higher positions to increase representation and visibility, and to encourage and mentor others to then aspire to follow a similar path. This critical review examines gender equity across the major career benchmarks of the academy in light of the impact of the personal contexts of women, systemic processes, and cultural barriers that hinder career progression. Research-based systemic solutions that work towards improved gender equity for women are discussed. The findings from this critical review highlight the need for global systemic change in higher education to create ethical equities in the employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women.

The Issue of Gender Bias Represented in Authorship in the Fields of Exercise and Rehabilitation: A 5-Year Research in Indexed Journals

“…The higher percentage of women appearing as first authors in comparison to last authors is confirmed by several other studies [ 24 , 31 , 39 , 40 ]. This difference mirrors women’s representation in academic positions [ 3 , 8 ]; first authors are usually PhD students or postdocs, generally positions highly covered by women [ 2 , 41 ], whereas the last author is generally the senior scientist, the professor, or the principal investigator of the project, positions continuously more likely to be held by men [ 4 , 33 , 42 ].…”

“…The lower numbers of women as the last authors could be linked to several factors. It has already been proven that gender disparity exists in the highest academic positions [ 2 , 8 ]. For the same level of responsibility, women receive smaller and fewer research grants [ 58 , 59 , 60 ] and are therefore less likely to lead research projects.…”

“…Regardless of the reasons, the unequal representation of women in the field of sports science could lead to limited views and approaches, which limits the pursuit of diverse, inclusive, and innovative research [ 8 , 69 ]. Moreover, in the current academic system, academic publishing is considered an important measure of academic productivity and is deemed necessary for the progression of an academic career [ 3 ]; therefore, measures should be adopted to understand the reasons behind this gender gap in order to help reduce it.…”

“…Gender disparity in academia, specifically in academic publishing, remains a persistent problem, despite the progress made in the last two decades [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Although many initiatives have been undertaken to shrink the bias (e.g., new policies and regulations, and initiatives taken by individual journals to improve equity, transparency, diversity, and inclusion in the publishing process), and despite the high prevalence of women as undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students in many countries and fields [ 4 ], women reach higher positions in academia in lower numbers than men [ 2 , 5 , 6 , 7 ] and at a slower rate than men [ 8 , 9 ]. Moreover, several studies have shown gender disparities in earnings [ 10 ], funding [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], and patenting [ 14 ], even though they are slowly decreasing [ 2 , 3 , 15 ].…”

Making the invisible visible: Recrafting the discourse surrounding women caregivers in academia

“…-Fradkin, 2020 As three academic mothers-two of whom are still pretenure-across different universities, with distinct household structures, and at different stages of motherhood, our journeys diverge in many ways. Yet, there is one undeniable truth that has forged our bond as coauthors and friends: academia, alongside the current landscape of childcare in America, is simply not built for caregiving mothers (Allen et al, 2021;Lopez, 2019). To this end, we greatly appreciate the call to action put forth by Gabriel et al (2023)-a piece that resonated with us, not only because we are in complete agreement with the dire need to support academic mothers but also, because we each have stories and experiences that mimic those described in the focal article.…”