Laura E. Padilla-González

Gender Gaps in North American Research Productivity: Examining Faculty Publication Rates in Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.

The present study addresses gender gaps in North American research productivity, which may be influenced by personal and family variables, as well as professional and work-related variables. The study was conducted as part of the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) International Survey, conducted in 2007–08. Using articles as indicator of research productivity, we analyzed the gender gap in publication rates among full-time higher education faculty in our combined sample (Canada, Mexico, and the United States). This analysis has implications for higher education policy. In terms of research productivity, the relative productivity rates of male and female academics have been a policy priority for many years to increase the cumulative rates of research activity. We found that the variables related to research intensity varied by country, providing a more nuanced understanding of the gender gap between male and female faculty.

Gender and Faculty Internationalization

This chapter addresses the issue of gender imbalances in the internationalization of higher education and research. In all countries, male academics tend to be generally more involved in international research collaboration and also tend to have more international publications. To some extent such gender disparities can be explained by academic rank and gender disparities among fields of science. While men more often teach abroad, women seem to be more involved in internationalization at home. We find, however, a correspondence between the gendered modes of internationalization and family-related variables as women academics with full-time working partners and children are less likely to take part in international research collaboration than male academics in similar circumstances.

The Divergent Worlds of Teaching and Research Among Mexican Faculty: Tendencies and Implications

This chapter analyzes the relationship between teaching and research for the case of Mexican academics. The chapter is organized in four sections. In the first one, and in a brief manner, we will discuss the way in which teaching and research might be related as well as the way in which such relationship might be studied. In the second section, we will provide a brief historical and contemporary context of Mexican higher education, paying particular attention to current public policies relevant to academic work. In the third section, we will deal with the way in which Mexican academics view their work, and data will be presented on faculty activities, use of time and productivity, academic preferences and notion of academic work, recognition and compensation, personal characteristics, and, finally, job satisfaction and commitment. It will be argued that teaching and research activities serve to differentiate two academic worlds that, in the case of Mexican higher education, are increasingly drifting apart. The chapter ends with a recapitulation of the information presented and a small set of reflections based on it.

México: A Portrait of a Managed Profession

On the basis of a national survey on academics, this chapter discusses their perception of the governance and management within the institutions in which they work. With some variation according to institutional type, academics reported moderate to less than appropriate working conditions and yet, at the same time, they expressed that such conditions have improved somehow during the last years. Mexican academics perceived an absence of clear academic criteria in academics’ appointment and promotion, as well as a relatively low influence, on their part, in key professional decisions; this situation speaks of Mexican academics as managed professionals. Academics also reported low levels of communication between management and academics, a top-down administrative style, relatively low involvement in collegial decision-making, cumbersome processes, and a low appraisal of top-level administrators as competent leaders. Nevertheless, Mexican academics expressed a high appreciation of their career, as well as high levels of job satisfaction, whose sources could be found in other aspects, more intrinsic to their work, than to the governance and management of their institutions.

Intention to Leave Academia and Job Satisfaction Among Faculty Members: An Exploration Based on the International CAP Survey

This chapter addresses the importance of faculty job satisfaction as a key variable for understanding the intention to leave academia. It highlights the importance of working conditions and organizational variables that might influence the academics’ decision to work outside the higher education sector. As higher education has become increasingly more diverse, for both, students and professors, the academic profession has become less satisfying and more demanding, particularly for junior academics, within a context of constrained budgets and greater accountability. According to the CAP results, the 19 countries that participated in the international survey were organized into four groups depending on the percentage of academics who reported they had considered working outside higher education/research institutions, ranging from 45 % in the first group to 7 % in the fourth. In 11 out of these 19 countries, this percentage was significantly higher for junior faculty. A binary logistic regression model was built to explore the variables related to this issue. Results showed that the intention of faculty to leave their institutions was related to job satisfaction, which in turn was mediated by job stability, as well as the existence of adequate working conditions. Young faculty members were more prone than seniors to leave the academic profession. Although results of the study point only to a small and limited number of organizational variables that were significantly related to the intention to leave academia, it is contended that they are central in explaining academic job satisfaction (AJS), which in turn is related to leaving academia.

The Mexican Academic Profession Between Centuries: Who are the Actors?

During the last four decades Mexican higher education has changed quite significantly both in quantitative and qualitative terms. In this chapter such changes are briefly described as the context within which a reconfiguration of the Mexican academic profession has taken place in various important aspects. On the basis of the 2007 Mexican CAP (Changing Academic Profession) project, but also using information from the 1992 Carnegie International Faculty Survey, such reconfiguration is addressed in terms of gender, highest degree and age of full-time academics. Additionally, the educational background of academics’ parents serves as a reference for the identification of Mexican academics as “heirs” or “pioneers,” depending on whether their parents did or did not had a higher education experience. Changes are related to public policies, largely in the form of conditioned monetary transfers, put in place during the period discussed, as well as to the structure of the Mexican higher education system (type of institution) and the ethos of the different disciplines within which academics work.

Gender Gaps in North American Research Productivity

The under-representation of women in the academic profession can be observed in several countries. In North America, female faculty account for little more than one third of all full-time university faculty (AAUP, 2006; CAUT, 2007; Galaz-Fontes et al., 2008). Academic women also tend to occupy lower ranks and hold fewer upper-level administrative positions than their male counterparts (Bain and Cummings, 2000; Marschke et al., 2007). This is particularly troublesome at a time when North American women are earning doctoral degrees in record numbers (Schoening, 2009; Xu, 2008).