IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v26y2019i2p107-123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Let the right one in: A Bourdieusian analysis of gender inequality in universities’ senior management

Author

Listed:
  • Michelle Gander

Abstract

This article examines the lack of gender diversity in senior management positions in professional staff in universities. These results are analysed via a Bourdieusian analysis of economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital. Through a purposeful sample of senior professional staff working in universities in three countries: Australia, Canada and the UK, six career‐enhancing strategies needed for career success were determined. The article critiques the resource‐based view of career capital and argues that capitals accumulation for career success can be understood by considering the concepts of symbolic violence and habitus as a way of understanding intra‐cohort differences. It proposes that by considering both the subjective and objective cultural constructs via habitus, and by acknowledging the importance of symbolic capital and symbolic violence towards women, this may be one way of increasing female representation in senior management.

Suggested Citation

  • Michelle Gander, 2019. "Let the right one in: A Bourdieusian analysis of gender inequality in universities’ senior management," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 107-123, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:26:y:2019:i:2:p:107-123
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12327
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12327
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12327?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hancock, Meg G. & Hums, Mary A., 2016. "A “leaky pipeline”?: Factors affecting the career development of senior-level female administrators in NCAA Division I athletic departments," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 198-210.
    2. Sibel Yamak & Ali Ergur & Mustafa F. Özbilgin & Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar, 2016. "Gender as Symbolic Capital and Violence: The Case of Corporate Elites in Turkey," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 125-146, March.
    3. Jyrkinen, Marjut, 2014. "Women managers, careers and gendered ageism," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 175-185.
    4. Juliet Roper & Shiv Ganesh & Kerr Inkson, 2010. "Neoliberalism and knowledge interests in boundaryless careers discourse," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 24(4), pages 661-679, December.
    5. Mathias W. Nielsen, 2016. "Limits to meritocracy? Gender in academic recruitment and promotion processes," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 386-399.
    6. Doyle , Gabriel & Srivastava, Sameer B. & Goldberg, Amir & Frank, Michael C., 2017. "Alignment at Work: Using Language to Distinguish the Internalization and Self-Regulation Components of Cultural Fit in Organizations," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt3z83b0x0, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    7. George Gordon & Celia Whitchurch, 2007. "Managing Human Resources in Higher Education: The Implications of a Diversifying Workforce," Higher Education Management and Policy, OECD Publishing, vol. 19(2), pages 1-21.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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.
    1. Wenxuan Shi & Renli Wu, 2024. "Women’s strength in science: exploring the influence of female participation on research impact and innovation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4529-4551, July.
    2. 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.
    3. Pat O’Connor & Gemma Irvine, 2020. "Multi-Level State Interventions and Gender Equality in Higher Education Institutions: The Irish Case," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Marja Vehviläinen & Liekki Valaskivi, 2022. "Situated gender equality in regional research and innovation: Collaborative knowledge production [Policies as Gendering Practices: Re-Viewing Categorical Distinctions]," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 561-572.
    5. Gaižauskienė Laura & Tunčikienė Živilė, 2018. "Organizational Level Factors of Knowledge Worker-Workplace Fit: Identifying the Key Drivers," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 167-178, December.
    6. Letki, Natalia & Biały, Grzegorz & Sankowski, Piotr & Walentek, Dawid, 2022. "Streamlining for excellence discriminates against women: A study of research productivity of 2.7 mln scientists in 45 countries," OSF Preprints yr8me, Center for Open Science.
    7. Maryam Mahdinezhad & Mohammad Shahhosseini & Sedigheh Shakib Kotamjani & Kuan Wai Bing & Emilda Hashim, 2017. "Emotional Intelligence and Job Performance: A Study among Malaysian Administrators," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(6), pages 953-956, June.
    8. Pat O’Connor & Margaret Hodgins & Dorian R. Woods & Elisa Wallwaey & Rachel Palmen & Marieke Van Den Brink & Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt, 2021. "Organisational Characteristics That Facilitate Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Higher Education?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, November.
    9. Abramo, Giovanni & Aksnes, Dag W. & D’Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea, 2021. "Gender differences in research performance within and between countries: Italy vs Norway," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
    10. Toyin Ajibade Adisa & Chima Mordi & Ruth Simpson & Vanessa Iwowo, 2021. "Social dominance, hypermasculinity, and career barriers in Nigeria," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 175-194, January.
    11. Bleijenbergh, Inge & Gremmen, Ine & Peters, Pascale, 2016. "Timing ambition: How organisational actors engage with the institutionalised norms that affect the career development of part-time workers," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 179-188.
    12. Isaac Nyarko Adu & Evelyn Twumasi & Kwame Owusu Boakye & Michael Kyei-Frimpong, 2023. "Does Organizational Support Moderate the Influence of Family–Work Conflict on Career Progression?," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 12(2), pages 208-220, June.
    13. Jozsef POOR & Andrea BENCSIK & Ivan FEKETE & Gyula LASZLO & Zoltan MAJO, 2009. "Trends and Tendencies in the Field of Improving the HR-Systems of Hungarian Public Universities," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 10(1), pages 61-76, March.
    14. Kim, Dennie & Funk, Russell & Zaheer, Aks, 2020. "Structure in Context: A Morphological View of Whole Network Performance," SocArXiv x6q7g, Center for Open Science.
    15. Joana Vassilopoulou & Mustafa Ozbilgin & Dimitria Groutsis & Janroj Keles, 2022. "Populism as New Wine in Old Bottles in the Context of Germany: ‘Symbolic Violence’ as Collective Habitus That Devalues the Human Capital of Turks," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-16, March.
    16. Sofia Moratti, 2020. "Do Low-Openness, Low-Transparency Procedures in Academic Hiring Disadvantage Women?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-13, May.
    17. van Amsterdam, Noortje & van Eck, Dide, 2019. "“I have to go the extra mile”. How fat female employees manage their stigmatized identity at work," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 46-55.
    18. Amelia Bucur & Claudiu Vasile Kifor & Silvia Cristina Mărginean, 2018. "Evaluation of the quality and quantity of research results in higher education," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 101-118, January.
    19. Hajibabaei, Anahita & Schiffauerova, Andrea & Ebadi, Ashkan, 2022. "Gender-specific patterns in the artificial intelligence scientific ecosystem," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    20. Marina Pilkina & Andrey Lovakov, 2022. "Gender disparities in Russian academia: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(6), pages 3577-3591, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:gender:v:26:y:2019:i:2:p:107-123. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    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.