Gender Inequality in Universities: A Comparative View

Abstract

Universities play an important role in the transformation of societies as they contribute to social, economic, cultural and political change. Gender is a self-evident aspect of societal diversity and is as such a major source of creativity, exploration, discovery and innovation acting as an important factor in quality. From a larger societal perspective, a balanced gender representation contributes to excellence in research, positively influences research outcomes and impact, and promotes the acceptance of scientific insights, thereby reaffirming the credibility of universities and strengthening their societal role. Evidence suggests that academic assessment systemshave traditionally ignored factors particularly affecting women. This paper aims to analyse the current situation in European universities regarding Gender (In) Equality. The analyse is based in secondary data of different institution and reports of the field. The evidence shows that While the majority of university graduates in Europe have been women, there is a large misbalance regarding the decision- making and research bodies as well as the leadership position. From the PhD (45% females) onwards, women drop out at successive turns and for various reasons, albeit with discipline- /country-specific exceptions. Only 13% of heads of higher education institutions in Europe are women. In the same time Evidence suggests that academic assessment systemshave traditionally ignored factors particularlyaffecting women. For instance, men tend to producemore publications and assessment protocols tend to value quantity over quality. The scarcity of women in senior positions, and as a result in bodies such as scientific boards, inevitably means that their individual and collective opinions are less likely to be voiced in policy and decision making processes, which may lead to biased decision-making on topics of future academic area . There are many factors that caused such a situation, starting from the decreasing of the numbers of Phd graduated students that obtain the professor title, the recruitment procedures, the special gender quotas, the policies of child care, and the taxation rules connecting to the double income families ect.