Perspectives from below the ceiling: conceptualising gender inequality in higher education leadership in the context of change.
Joanne Pyke
Victoria University
Contact Email: Joanne.Pyke
vu.edu.au
Women remain under-represented within the Australian professoriate despite more than twenty years of equal employment opportunity policy and initiatives.This is in the context that women’s participation is now equal or becoming equal at lower academic levels. This paper discusses findings of doctoral research that explores the conditions that operate to constrain women’s transition from senior lecturer level (Level C) to Associate Professor (Level D). In particular, the research explores whether or not women are pulling out from promotion to the professoriate just when they have the human capital to be eligible and potentially successful.
Using critical realism as a theoretical perspective, the questions posed by the research rely on a case study of one Australian university. In particular, the research draws on interviews with women academics who are currently appointed at Level C. A key focus is on the relationships between structure and agency and how gendered processes operate to shape the ‘choice’ of whether to aspire to promotion to Level D. Findings show that while the pathway is clear for some, the cumulative effect of multiple delays experienced over the course of an academic working life combine to make the aspiration to Level D either untenable and/or undesirable.
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