Is the university gender gap a barrier to free expression?

Article here. Excerpt:

'At the University of Bristol the stagnating number of female academics in multiple degree subjects has become an increasingly important and concerning issue. Over 65.4% of Bristol students, according to my March 2014 survey, perceived a noticeable imbalance of female to male lecturers. I agree. My research led me towards an obvious concern for Bristol students: gender inequality of academia in all subjects.

With The Independent reporting that 63.9% of female undergraduates are leaving universities with “good” degrees, a lack of visibility of female academics at the University of Bristol — especially in the more scientific faculties — is in stark contrast to the number of undergraduates in the same subjects. More and more articles are appearing asking “Where are the men?” seeking to discover why the gender gap of undergraduates is weighted in women’s favour, but few have even commented on the fact that women are still struggling for visibility as academics. Women are avoiding the academic world and important questions must be asked about whether this is evidence of institutional laziness on the part of universities.
...
Without an equal amount of female lecturers and tutors, female students are hindered in their progression through academic ladder. We need female lecturers teaching at an undergraduate level on an equal basis with men otherwise young women will continue to find the idea of achieving equal academic freedom with men in their subject simply unachievable. It’s a cyclical system: a minority of women teach, a minority of women become academics. Freedom of expression in academia involves an equal standing at all levels, and if we’re teaching equality at undergraduate level we need to clear the career path of gender obstacles for women from the grassroots up.

It’s obviously a more complex topic than can be covered in my brief assessment but the debate needs to be breached, universities need to answer questions about their hiring process and work together to close any forms of gender imbalance that still exist in higher education – including the wage gap. The statistics referred to above appear to support the conclusion that women are still experiencing sexism, especially when applying for jobs in STEM departments.

Universities would be well advised to address the issue swiftly so that the gender balance of academic, at the very least, reflects the gender balance of their undergraduates. Research support gender equality, so why aren’t universities?'

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

Teaching pays squat. You work really hard correcting ridiculous endless papers and after a time, like that teacher in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", come to the conclusion that "everyone is on drugs". Probably not far from the truth, too.

There was once a time when as an academician you could count on getting paid decently and have a fairly secure job. Not so anymore. "Tenure" is fast becoming a stodgy old relic of days past. Entire departments in colleges are being filled by "adjuncts" with maybe one or two professors (over age 55, of course) left, with the college just waiting to boot them when they hit the mandatory retirement age and replace them with someone they can pay 70% less -- and not guarantee a job for any particular length of time.

And pensions? Ha! Pension plans are a thing of the past. Replaced today by 403(b)s, pensions are virtually unheard-of.

Between all that and the fact that all it takes is one disgruntled student to accuse you of feeling up her (or his) knee and you're toast, why the hell would anyone want the job? And yet even female teachers can be so falsely accused because remember, on a college campus, one is guilty even when proven innocent.

The girls know this. Besides, they have better career prospects than giving up their 20s to become a Ph.D. and spend the rest of their lives trying to find ways to get out of teaching 101-level classes.

You couldn't pay me enough to work at a college these days, even if my entire job was to collect the parking tokens in the "A" lot swing-arm entry toll box twice day.

Well, sorry if I am off the mark on the details here, as this article is about a UK university. But I am *guessing* things there are about like they are here in the U.S. If there are any college teachers in the UK reading this and need to set my a$$ straight, fire away!

Like0 Dislike0

so now what is the plan to gain gender equality in biology, psychology, the arts, and women’s studies? Oh wait, I forgot it’s perfectly okay that women dominate those fields, but we can’t have men dominate anything, now can we?

You know, the reason why women gain more degrees than men, but don’t have equal representation in STEM is because, wait for it. . . women don’t get as many STEM degrees as men. Part of the reason why is because they’re busy fighting an invisible and ficticious patriarchy to focus on getting degrees which lead to good employability. Ironically enough, feminism actually keeps women out of STEM by distracting them with this. In addition to this, it tells them that they can’t do STEM as well as a man without special help, thereby inhibiting women’s confidence in their abilities in this field. Then compound that by telling those women who can do STEM that if they choose it, they’ll have to deal with potentially being raped, and harassed, and subjugated by all those horrible, evil, men they’ll have to work with.

Feminism is its own antithesis.

Like0 Dislike0