New challenges for women seeking an academic career: the hiring process in Portuguese higher education institutions

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the potential impact of changes in recruitment and hiring processes in Portuguese higher education institutions – under the New Public Management framework – on the representation of women in academia. Based on official data from the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, two major conclusions emerge. First, Portuguese higher education institutions reproduce the same inequalities in career structures that are dominant in other occupational spheres, with the same phenomena of horizontal and vertical segregation both in universities and polytechnics careers. Second, recruitment and selection processes have an important influence on women in academia with the use of informal procedures emerging as an obstacle for women entrance into academic careers.

Keywords:

• academic career
• Portugal
• recruitment
• segregation
• women

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