Introduction: The Positioning and Making of Female Academics—A Review of the Literature

Abstract

The main aim of this chapter is to explore the positioning of females in higher education as presented in the literature, with a specific focus on gender equity and obstacles along the path to professorial level, as well as the trajectories across diverse HE systems. It thus serves as an introduction to the plethora of personal narratives of female professors hailing from diverse disciplines and cultural backgrounds, with each unique professional life story contributing to the discourses that constitute these successful academics who made it. Efforts to shift the gender bias in academia at both European and international levels (European Commission 2009) have been addressed both through policy priorities and shifts in governance mechanisms (Teelken and Deem 2013). These changes reflect wider societal changes (Winchester and Browning 2015). However, gender imbalance at professorial level remains (Macfarlane 2012). Consequently, this creates a discursive space in which to problematize the ‘gender question’ in the academy through an exploration of the multiple status differentials and hierarchies, as well as the fluid power relations that render women both subjects and objects (Midkiff 2015). The various scholars who have endeavoured to ‘unmask the rules of the game that lurk beneath the surface rationality of academic meritocracy’ (Morley 2013, p. 116) have revealed various discrimination practices that act as barriers to female academics pursuing leadership in higher education. These barriers, at times identifiable at the recruitment process (Grove 2013), revolve around gendered institutional cultures and practices, individual factors and family responsibilities. Collectively, these ‘stumbling blocks’ have been termed as ‘cultural sexism’ (Savigny 2014, p. 796) due to the pervading ‘chilly climate’ for women in academia. This critical literature narrative provides a backdrop for the subsequent experiences of ‘successful’ women professors in the book, with the ten tales of career progression serving as the mosaic to aid our understanding of these female identities in higher education.