Creating gendered change in Irish higher education: is managerial leadership up to the task?

Abstract

Using a Feminist Institutional perspective, this paper suggests that the explanation for the slow pace of change in the gender profile of the professoriate lies in the gender awareness of managerial leadership. In Irish universities, women now constitute 51 per cent of the lecturers, but only 24 per cent of those at full professorial level and have, on average, a three times lesser ‘chance’ than men of accessing a professorship [-The context is one where power is concentrated at (male) presidential level and where managerial leadership is seen as driving change. Using an ex-post facto research design, involving a re-analysis of qualitative interview data collected from those at presidential, vice-presidential and dean level 10 years ago, it differentiates between four categories of gender awareness: denial of the existence or relevance of gender (mainly men); stereotypical awareness of gender (mainly men); awareness of gender inequality (both men and women) and gender competence (both men and women). Only a minority were in the latter category, which is seen as most likely to be associated with change in the professorial gender profile. Finally, the question of whether the under-representation of women in the professoriate across the EU could be similarly explained is raised.

Keywords:

• managerial leadership
• higher education
• gendered change
• gender competence
• Irish

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the Women in Higher Education Management Network (WHEM) who were involved in the development of the interview schedule for the cross-national qualitative study and whose influence was crucial in stimulating the study.

Notes on contributor

Pat O’Connor is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Limerick, Ireland and Visiting Professor at the Geary Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland. She previously held Visiting Professorships at the Universities of London, Aveiro, Linkoping, Deakin and Melbourne. Her 120 publications include seven books and over 80 peer reviewed articles. Her current research interests are in the area of gender and higher education, with a particular focus on leadership, management and stealth power, excellence, organisational culture, masculinities/femininities in STEM, micro-politics and sponsorship. She has been involved in a number of international research consortia including FESTA and WHEM and was editor of a Special Issue of Education Sciences on Gender and Leadership (2018).

ORCID

Pat O’Connor http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3465-5390