IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v8y2019i6p165-d235775.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Challenges for Gender Equity and Women in Leadership in a Distributed University in Regional Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Janelle Thomas

    (Faculty of Science, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia)

  • Cate Thomas

    (Faculty of Science, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia)

  • Kirsty Smith

    (Faculty of Science, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW 2795, Australia)

Abstract

The barriers to women’s achievement and career progression in the higher education sector have been well researched. It has long been acknowledged that career breaks for child-rearing, and women’s self-beliefs about their abilities can impact negatively on their careers, and many programs and policies have been implemented to redress these around the world. This article is focussed around a regional Australian university, with multiple campuses distributed over 1000 km across two states. Courses, schools, and work teams are often spread across multiple campuses, and travel between campuses is sometimes a necessity; one that is time-consuming and requires time away from family. For some women, travelling is not possible due to family and other commitments or constraints. This paper explores how working in a regional university, with distributed campuses, has an additional impact on women’s career progression. Through auto-ethnographic accounts of four female staff members, we explore the intersection of gender and location through case studies of personal experiences, investigating the effects that distance and travel limitations can have on participation in work team and networking events, access to professional development opportunities, and career progression within the institution.

Suggested Citation

  • Janelle Thomas & Cate Thomas & Kirsty Smith, 2019. "The Challenges for Gender Equity and Women in Leadership in a Distributed University in Regional Australia," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-9, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:6:p:165-:d:235775
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/6/165/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/6/165/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robin Selzer & Amy Howton & Felicia Wallace, 2017. "Rethinking Women’s Leadership Development: Voices from the Trenches," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-20, May.
    2. Paula Burkinshaw & Kate White, 2017. "Fixing the Women or Fixing Universities: Women in HE Leadership," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-14, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cate Thomas & Colleen MacMillan & Merryn McKinnon & Hayley Torabi & Megan Osmond-McLeod & Ellen Swavley & Tamzen Armer & Kimberley Doyle, 2021. "Seeing and Overcoming the Complexities of Intersectionality," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Alan Goodacre & Clive Gaunt & Darren Henry, 2021. "Publication records of Australian accounting and finance faculty promoted to full professor, set within an international context," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 3089-3133, June.
    3. Jennifer Manyweathers & Jessie Lymn & Geraldine Rurenga & Katie Murrell-Orgill & Shara Cameron & Cate Thomas, 2020. "The Lived Experience of Gender and Gender Equity Policies at a Regional Australian University," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-12, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karen A. Longman, 2018. "Perspectives on Women’s Higher Education Leadership from Around the World," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-6, July.
    2. Blessing Kanyumba & Melanie Lourens, 2022. "Career development for female academics in Australian and South African universities: An integrative review," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(2), pages 391-401, March.
    3. Sara Diogo & Teresa Carvalho & Zélia Breda, 2021. "Nomination vs. election: do they influence women’s access to institutional decision-making bodies?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(3), pages 879-898, September.
    4. Polly Parker & Belinda Hewitt & Jennifer Witheriff & Amy Cooper, 2018. "Frank and Fearless: Supporting Academic Career Progression for Women in an Australian Program," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-18, February.
    5. Emma Watton & Sarah Stables & Steve Kempster, 2019. "How Job Sharing Can Lead to More Women Achieving Senior Leadership Roles in Higher Education: A UK Study," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-18, July.
    6. Mónica Segovia-Pérez & Pilar Laguna-Sánchez & Concepción de la Fuente-Cabrero, 2019. "Education for Sustainable Leadership: Fostering Women’s Empowerment at the University Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-14, October.
    7. Izabela Jonek-Kowalska & Marzena Podgorska & Anna Musiol-Urbanczyk & Maciej Wolny, 2020. "Sustainable Development and Motivation Opportunities from the Perspective of Women in the Polish Science Sector in the Light of Statistical Data and Surveys," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 456-473.
    8. Gladys Merma-Molina & Mayra Urrea-Solano & Salvador Baena-Morales & Diego Gavilán-Martín, 2022. "The Satisfactions, Contributions, and Opportunities of Women Academics in the Framework of Sustainable Leadership: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-23, July.
    9. Margaret Hodgins & Pat O’Connor & Lucy-Ann Buckley, 2022. "Institutional Change and Organisational Resistance to Gender Equality in Higher Education: An Irish Case Study," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, May.
    10. Maria Medina-Vicent, 2020. "A Tendency to Essentialism? Discourses about Women’s Leadership," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, July.
    11. Amal Abdellatif & Maryam Aldossari & Ilaria Boncori & Jamie Callahan & Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya & Sara Chaudhry & Nina Kivinen & Shan‐Jan Sarah Liu & Ea Høg Utoft & Natalia Vershinina & Emily Yarro, 2021. "Breaking the mold: Working through our differences to vocalize the sound of change," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1956-1979, September.
    12. Kate White & Paula Burkinshaw, 2019. "Women and Leadership in Higher Education: Special Issue Editorial," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-7, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:6:p:165-:d:235775. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.