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Abstract
Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this article highlights the increasing proportion of women in senior academic management positions in Swedish higher education between 1990 and 2010. The article uncovers some of the factors that account for women's successful entrance into these positions. According to 22 interviewed female senior academic managers, the implementation of a gender mix policy was vital in explaining the decreasing male-domination. However, the women also expressed some concerns about the consequences of how the gender mix policy was applied. The article takes these concerns as a point of departure for a critical evaluation of how successful the policy is in promoting gender equality on a structural level.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the women who made this research possible by their participation. The author is also grateful for valuable feedback and helpful comments on earlier versions of this article provided by Ian Dobson and the anonymous reviewers from Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. Agneta Blom and Ingegerd Palmér initiated the study as a part of the IDAS project – a program to increase the number of women leaders in Swedish higher education.