Gender equality in higher education and research
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Abstract
Higher education and research are key instruments for empowerment and social change. Universities can be powerful institutions for promoting gender equality, diversity and inclusion, not only in the higher education context, but also in society at large. Nevertheless, universities remain both gendered and gendering organizations (Rosa, Drew, & Canavan, 2020). The persistence of gender imbalances and pay gaps at both the top and the bottom levels of the academic hierarchy; gender segregation across academic disciplines and activities; the lack of integration of gender perspectives in teaching and research; and the extent of sexual harassment and assault on campuses, largely silenced and denied until the recent #MeToo movement, reveal the extent to which gender still structures, in very significant ways, the divisions of academic labour and capital (Caprile et al., 2012; European Commission, 2019; Hearn, Strid, Humbert, & Balkmar, 2020; Heijstra, Einarsdóttir, Pétursdóttir, & Steinþórsdóttir, 2017; Husu, 2020; Kachchaf, Ko, Hodari, & Ong, 2015; Paoletti, Quintin, Gray-Sadran, & Squarcioni, 2020; Schiebinger, 1999). Between 2016 and 2019, women just slightly increased their representation at professorial level in the EU (from 24% to 26%) and the proportion of women among the heads of higher education institutions (HEIs) stood at 23.6% in 2019 which is 1.9 percentage points higher than the proportion for 2017 (21.7%) (European Commission, 2019, , 2021a). The discussion about the experiences of tackling gender inequality in higher education and research is timely for two main reasons. First, while men remain at the centre of power in academia, gender binary systems are being politically challenged as never before by the rights of gender minorities, thus subverting hegemonic gender patterns. Nonetheless, the overriding gendered inequalities that result from different normative assignments to men and women should not be underestimated. Although the idea of a single dominant form of masculinity is being increasingly contested (Aboim & Vasconcelos, 2021; Hearn, 2020), it is through both institutional and cultural practices that gender comes to uphold a social order where women, as well as the feminine, remain subordinate (Acker, 1990). Second, the Covid-19 pandemic and the prevention measures imposed have enhanced existing gendered inequalities and amplified enduring privileges and disadvantages in society at large, including in higher education and research (Gewin, 2020). In the competitive context of the neoliberalised university, where gender equality policies are routinely jeopardized by a ‘merit’ system conceptualized as gender-neutral but essentially masculinist (Ivancheva, Lynch, & Keating, 2019; Rosa & Clavero, 2020), social distancing and strict lockdowns, as well as the closures of educational institutions and childcare centres, can hinder academic careers by reinforcing barriers to combining paid work and private life. Recent studies show that when academics faced a reorganization of working time and space amidst lockdowns, women published fewer papers as first/corresponding authors and co-authors than men (King & Frederickson, 2021; Barber, Jiang, Morse, Puri, Tookes & Werner, 2021; Kasymova, Place, Billings, & Aldape, 2021) and that their voices have been heard less in the scientific response to the pandemic (Saglamer, Drew, & Caglayan, 2021, p. 6). The articles gathered in this Special Issue shed new light upon a multitude of challenges for gender equality in academia today, and hence contribute to exploring further avenues for preventing higher education and research from rolling back the progress achieved to date. In tackling gender inequalities in higher education, one mechanism that is being increasingly promoted is the implementation of Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) (European Commission, 2021b). GEPs cover a wide range of thematic areas, depending on contextual/institutional factors and assessment of need, such as recruitment, selection and career progression, work-life balance, JOURNAL OF GENDER STUDIES 2022, VOL. 31, NO. 1, 1–7 https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2022.2007446