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Increasing Gender Diversity in Senior Roles in HE: Who Is Afraid of Positive Action?

Author

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  • Simonetta Manfredi

    (Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK)

Abstract

This article argues that Higher Education Institutions should adopt positive action in recruitment and promotion to tackle women’s under-representation in senior leadership roles. In a tie-break situation where two candidates are “as qualified as each other”, section 159 of the UK Equality Act 2010 allows employers to give preference to a candidate from an under-represented group. The use of this measure, however, is often contested on the grounds that it is a form of reverse discrimination, it is tokenistic and that it can undermine meritocracy. This article seeks to challenge these objections and suggests that, far from undermining meritocracy, the use of positive action in recruitment and promotion could prove a useful tool to tackle gender bias, unpack stereotypes and re-appraise how merit is defined and assessed.

Suggested Citation

  • Simonetta Manfredi, 2017. "Increasing Gender Diversity in Senior Roles in HE: Who Is Afraid of Positive Action?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:7:y:2017:i:2:p:19-:d:100871
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Raquel Garde Sánchez & Jesús Mauricio Flórez-Parra & María Victoria López-Pérez & Antonio Manuel López-Hernández, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Disclosure of Information on Corporate Social Responsibility: An Analysis of the Top 200 Universities in the Shanghai Ranking," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Eugene Judson & Lydia Ross & Kristi Glassmeyer, 2019. "How Research, Teaching, and Leadership Roles are Recommended to Male and Female Engineering Faculty Differently," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(7), pages 1025-1047, November.
    3. Karen A. Longman, 2018. "Perspectives on Women’s Higher Education Leadership from Around the World," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-6, July.

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