IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v7y2017i3p30-d109122.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fixing the Women or Fixing Universities: Women in HE Leadership

Author

Listed:
  • Paula Burkinshaw

    (Leeds University Business School, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

  • Kate White

    (Faculty of Education and Arts, Federation University Australia, Mount Helen VIC 3350, Australia)

Abstract

The lack of women in leadership across higher education has been problemitised in the literature. Often contemporary discourses promote ‘fixing the women’ as a solution. Consequently, interventions aimed at helping women break through ‘the glass ceiling’ abound. This article argues that the gendered power relations at play in universities stubbornly maintain entrenched inequalities whereby, regardless of measures implemented for and by women, the problem remains. The precariousness for women of leadership careers is explored through two separate but complementary case studies (from different continents and different generations) each one illuminating gender power relations at work. The article concludes by arguing that it is universities themselves that need fixing, not the women, and that women’s growing resistance, particularly of the younger generation, reflects their dissatisfaction with higher education leadership communities of practice of masculinities.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:7:y:2017:i:3:p:30-:d:109122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/7/3/30/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/7/3/30/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anita Göransson, 2011. "Gender Equality and the Shift from Collegiality to Managerialism," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Barbara Bagilhole & Kate White (ed.), Gender, Power and Management, chapter 2, pages 50-77, Palgrave Macmillan.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    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. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Kate White & Paula Burkinshaw, 2019. "Women and Leadership in Higher Education: Special Issue Editorial," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-7, July.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.

    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.

      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:jadmsc:v:7:y:2017:i:3:p:30-:d:109122. 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.