Quality assurance and gender discrimination in English universities: an investigation

Abstract

The present paper argues that university quality assurance (QA) promotes a masculinist culture leading to systemic discrimination against female academics. The analysis relates to the question of what it is about academic life that results in persistent gender inequality. Based on an ethnographically informed comparative study, textual/discourse analysis of 30 interviewee transcripts reveals disguised messages about QA. The interpretation argued draws on a theoretical scrutiny of the covert power of a masculinist QA movement to disproportionately disadvantage female academics. The paper suggests that this has been made possible by a QA presentation discourse harnessed by male academics to manage identities. It argues that dominant definitions of the ‘competent academic’ that discriminate against females are normalised and cemented within a societal conscience.

Keywords:

• QA discourses
• academic identities
• institutional sexism
• gendered QA
• gender discrimination
• presentation discourses