Kathrin Zippel

Gendered patterns in international research collaborations in academia

Although womens representation in higher education nears parity with men at the undergraduate level, this representation diminishes as one ascends the academic ranks. Because gender gaps in the ‘elite’ activity of international research collaborations might contribute to the underrepresentation of women in the upper ranks, we ask if gender differences exist in participation in international collaborations and if family responsibilities constitute a glass fence – a gendered obstacle that keeps women from this engagement. Using an international data set, we find that women engage less in international collaborations than men, and that complex gendered patterns exist regarding the impacts of partner employment status and children. Both men and women benefit from having an academic partner, although men benefit more. Partner employment status matters more than children in certain family arrangements, suggesting that the former constitutes a glass fence, potentially impacting womens access to cutting-edge international knowledge production and elite academic positions.

How gender neutral are state policies on science and international mobility of academics

There are very few studies on the international mobility of academics from an institutional gender perspective, and research on gender and welfare states has so far been primarily nationally focused. This study considers what happens when work arrangements require (temporary) international mobility and the ways state policies can be inclusive or exclusive to caregivers and dual career couples when providing support for work abroad. While policies and practices around the internationalization of science appear to be gender neutral, this research argues that the globalization of science is a gendered process. Even the highly privileged group of scientists engaging in international collaboration and mobility faces national barriers and boundaries due to gendered citizenship. National funding agency practices and visa and immigration rules are designed around academics who are flexible, mobile workers whose “dependents” can easily follow. Such policies affect women scientists in particular because they are more likely to be primary caregivers to children and more likely to be in dual career couples than are their male colleagues.

Strategies of Academic Parents to Manage Work-Life Conflict in Research Abroad

Abstract Purpose This chapter identifies the challenges that faculty with children experience as they engage in international research. We explore how these faculty members manage the competing demands of international research work and parenthood. Methodology Data includes qualitative interviews with 42 faculty members who are parents, in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields from 23 Research 1 universities. Findings The globalizing nature of research poses insufficiently recognized tensions between international travel and caregiving. Faculty reported three main strategies that enable them to manage work-family conflicts when work takes them abroad. These include: (1) opting out of international research; (2) modifying international travel; and (3) merging international research with caregiving. Research implications Work-family conflicts identified at the national level are amplified for international research. Research limitations Interview data are self-reports of what faculty members recalled and elected to share; actual behaviors may differ somewhat. Practical implications This chapter provides insights that academic institutions might use to support faculty engaged in international research. Social implications A failure to understand and support the unique needs of parents in international research settings may compromise active parenthood for faculty, while reinscribing and reinforcing existing gendered disparities in academia. The internationalization of STEM fields, when coupled with a lack of institutional support for parents, presents a mechanism that contributes to the ongoing underrepresentation of women in science and engineering. Originality Although similar questions have been considered in national contexts, little research has explored work-family conflicts for parents in an international setting.

Gender equality in German universities: vernacularising the battle for the best brains

ABSTRACT We examine how global pressures for competitiveness and gender equality have merged into a discourse of ‘inclusive excellence’ in the twenty-first century and shaped three recent German higher education programmes. After placing these programmes in the larger discourse about gender inequalities, we focus on how they adapt current global concerns about both being ‘the best’ and increasing ‘gender equality’ in locally specific ways, a process called vernacularisation. German equality advocates used ‘meeting international standards’ as leverage, drew on self-governance norms among universities, used formal gender plans as mechanisms to direct change, and set up competition to legitimate intervention. This specific incremental policy path for increasing womens status in German universities also mobilised the national funding agency and local gender equality officers as key actors, and placed particular emphasis on family friendliness as the expression of organisational commitment to gender equality.

Gender, Science, and Occupational Sex Segregation

Over the past 20 years, policy makers have been increasingly connecting science and technology to innovation and economic growth. Many nations have made increased public investments in science and technology, as reflected in GDP (National Science Foundation 2012). Simultaneously, the role of diversity within the innovation process, in general, and the potential contributions of women, in particular, to national science and technology enterprises, has received much attention in many nations and international organizations (see, for example, efforts by UNESCO, APEC, the European Union and OECD).