Table Of ContentCarmel Diezmann · Susan Grieshaber
Women
Professors
Who Makes It and How?
Women Professors
Carmel Diezmann • Susan Grieshaber
Women Professors
Who Makes It and How?
Carmel Diezmann Susan Grieshaber
Queensland University of Technology La Trobe University
Brisbane, QLD, Australia Melbourne, VIC, Australia
ISBN 978-981-13-3683-6 ISBN 978-981-13-3685-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3685-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018967311
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We dedicate this book to all women
academics who have been challenged by
working in the academy. An excerpt from one
woman’s story:
Early in my academic career I received
several teaching awards at the university and
national level for the innovative use of
(topic) in Higher Education settings.
Typically, these awards were celebrated with
an afternoon tea with any other awardees at
the time. During one such celebration for a
Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching
Excellence I was chatting with a male
colleague who had also received
acknowledgement of his teaching expertise.
At the time I was three days off giving birth
to our second child. As I chatted with my
colleague about his teaching and the receipt
of his award, he kindly asked after my health
and inquired if my contribution to the
celebration had been to organise and bring
the afternoon tea. I smiled and thanked him
for his interest before explaining that I too
was attending the event as a winner of one of
the awards.
(Then, a Senior Lecturer; now, a Professor
with preschool and school-aged children)
Acknowledgments
Sincere thanks to the more than 520 women and men academics who participated in
one or both of the studies, the “Achievements and Aspirations of New Women
Professors” and “Understanding Women Professors’ Work-Life Encounters.” Your
voices are highly valued. Our thanks also to Universities Australia who provided
funding for the “Achievements and Aspirations of New Women Professors” study,
an initiative under the Universities Australia Action Plan for Women Employed in
Australian Universities 2006–2010. We also acknowledge the leadership of
Professor Peter Coaldrake, then Vice Chancellor, Queensland University of
Technology, who championed this project leading to its endorsement by a further 32
Vice Chancellors from Australian universities who encouraged their staff to partici-
pate. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to
Universities Australia.
We are also indebted to Lynn Wilss for managing these projects and for her
scholarly contributions, Paul Shield for his insightful preparation and interpretation
of the statistics, Jim Watters and Jonathan Kinmont for creating some of the figures,
and our wonderful research assistants, Angela Taraborrelli, Elizabeth Vilgan, and
Ellen Kinmont. Special thanks to Mary Lou Rasmussen (Australian National
University), Prasanna Srinivasan (Monash University, Australia), Mindy Blaise
(Edith Cowan University, Australia), and Clare O’Farrell (Queensland University of
Technology, Australia) for their discerning conversations and theoretical acumen.
Our thanks also go to the reviewers of earlier drafts of this book for their helpful
comments and critique.
A special thank you to our families for their confidence and encouragement
throughout our journey exploring the lives of women professors.
vii
Contents
1 Women in the Professoriate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Women in the Contemporary Professoriate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 An International Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Understanding the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 At the Academic Frontier: A Historical Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Gender Equality and Gender Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.1 Gender Equality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.2 Gender Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 The Problem, the Challenge, and This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 The Higher the Fewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 International Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.2 European Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.3 Nordic Countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland,
Norway, Sweden) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.4 Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.5 United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.6 Patterns of “the Higher the Fewer” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.7 Women and Multiple Vulnerabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3 The Pipeline Myth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 Cultural Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4.1 Merit and the Academic Ladder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.2 Masculinities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.3 Postfeminism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.4.4 Neoliberalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.5 Cumulative Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.6 New Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
ix
x Contents
3 Climbing the Ladder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2 Individual Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.1 Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2.2 Race and Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.3 Confidence and Perceived Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.4 Academic Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.3 Academic Work Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.3.1 Balance and Value of Academic Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.3.2 Research Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3.3 Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.3.4 Service and Administrative Duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3.5 Academic Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3.6 Career Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4 Academic Environment Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.4.1 Institutional and Faculty Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.4.2 Promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.4.3 Transparency of Decision-Making Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.4.4 Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.4.5 Discriminatory Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.4.6 The Glass Ceiling and the Glass Cliff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.5 Resource Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.6 Social Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.6.1 Professional Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.6.2 Work and Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4 Research Context and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.1 The Higher Education Context in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2 Research Design and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2.1 Overview of the Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2.2 Study A: Achievements and Aspirations
of New Women Professors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.2.3 Study B: Understanding Women’s Work-Life
Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5 Research Kaleidoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.1 Theorists, Concepts, and Data Kaleidoscopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.2 Jacques Derrida: Deconstruction, Différance, and the Absent
Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Contents xi
5.3 Judith Butler: Performativity, Vulnerability, and Resistance . . . . . . 94
5.4 Michêl Foucault: Power/Knowledge, Subjectivity,
and Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.5 Gayatri Spivak and the Teaching Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.6 Sue Clark and Work-Family Border Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6 Snakes and Ladders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.2 Career Catalysts: “The Ladders” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.2.1 Catalysts: Individual Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.2.2 Catalysts: Academic Work Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.2.3 Catalysts: Academic Environment Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.2.4 Catalysts: Social Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.3 Career Inhibitors: “The Snakes” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.3.1 Inhibitors: Individual Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.3.2 Inhibitors: Academic Work Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.3.3 Inhibitors: Academic Environment Influences . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.3.4 Inhibitors: Social Influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7 The Boys’ Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7.1 History of the Boys’ Club in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7.2 From Club to Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.3 Thinking with Theories and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
7.4 Plugging into Data: Diane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.5 Plugging into Data: Mary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
7.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8 Luck: The Double-Edged Sword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.2 Luck and Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
8.2.1 Luck and a PhD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.2.2 Luck, Appointment, and Promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.2.3 Luck, Mentoring, and Work Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.3 Luck and the Professoriate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.4 Luck and Family Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
8.5 Luck and Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
8.6 The Discourse of Luck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
8.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
xii Contents
9 Critical Events and Academic Women’s Career Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . 169
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
9.2 The Academic Life Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
9.2.1 Doctoral Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
9.2.2 Academic Career Progression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
9.2.3 Family Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
9.3 Five Career Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
9.4 The Rare Bird and the Continuous Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
9.4.1 Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
9.4.2 Career Progression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
9.4.3 Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
9.4.4 Work-Life Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
9.5 The Juggler and the Linear Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
9.5.1 Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
9.5.2 Career Progression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.5.3 Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
9.5.4 Work-Life Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
9.6 The Re-Inventor and the Delayed Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
9.6.1 Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
9.6.2 Career Progression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
9.6.3 Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
9.6.4 Work-Life Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
9.7 The Professional and Multiple Careers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
9.7.1 Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
9.7.2 Career Progression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
9.7.3 Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
9.7.4 Work-Life Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
9.8 The Follower and the Disrupted Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
9.8.1 Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
9.8.2 Career Progression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
9.8.3 Work-Life Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
9.9 The Heterogeneity of Women Professors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
9.10 The Professoriate and Work-Family Border Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
9.11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
10 Navigating Rush Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
10.2 Provision for Academic Progression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
10.2.1 Strategic Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
