Gender Power And Higher Education In A Globalised World

This book examines persistent gender inequality in higher education, and asks what is preventing change from occurring. The editors and contributors argue that organizational resistance to gender equality is the key explanation; reflected in the endorsement of discourses such as excellence, choice, distorted intersectionality, revitalized biological essentialism and gender neutrality. These discourses implicitly and explicitly depict the status quo as appropriate, reasonable and fair: ultimately impeding efforts and attempts to promote gender equality. Drawing on research from around the world, this book explores the limits and possibilities of challenging these harmful discourses, focusing on the state and universities themselves as levers for change. It stresses the importance of institutional transformation, the vital contribution of feminist activists and the importance of women’s deceptively ‘small victories’ in the academy.

"The volume is a must-read for anyone interested in fairness and justice around gender". Professor Patricia Yancey Martin, Florida State University, USA This book examines persistent gender inequality in higher education, and asks what is preventing change from occurring. The editors and contributors argue that organizational resistance to gender equality is the key explanation; reflected in the endorsement of discourses such as excellence, choice, distorted intersectionality, revitalized biological essentialism and gender neutrality. These discourses implicitly and explicitly depict the status quo as appropriate, reasonable and fair: ultimately impeding attempts to promote gender equality. Drawing on research from around the world, this book explores the limits and possibilities of challenging these misleading discourses, focusing on the state and universities themselves as levers for change. It stresses the importance of institutional transformation, the vital contribution of feminist activists and the importance of women's deceptively 'small victories' in the academy. Pat O'Connor is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and Visiting Professor at the Geary Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland. She is a sociologist with a focus on gender equality in higher education institutions: particularly leadership, excellence, micropolitics, gender-based violence, equality related interventions and women's academic careers. Kate White is Adjunct Associate Professor at Federation University Australia and Director of the Women in Higher Education Management Network. Her research focuses on gender equality and leadership in higher education, women's academic careers and women in science.

Gendered Universities in Globalized Economies combines the best in theoretical analysis and practical research in an insightful survey of the organizational culture of the university in today's globalized world. Currie, Thiele, and Harris's qualitative research--narrating the views of academics, general staff, and managers of American and Australian universities--examines the gendered power structure of university life. Gendered Universities describes the corporatized university from the inside, showing how neoliberal globalization has forced it to become more competitive, aggressive, and entrepreneurial. The authors consider why universities seem to preserve patriarchal cultures despite pervasive equal opportunity legislation and feminist activism on campus. This important study is a must read for education, gender, and policy studies scholars seeking a deeper understanding of globalization and the impact of the "new managerialism" on equity issues.

Women are now part of senior management in higher education (HE) to varying degrees in most countries and actively contribute to the vision and strategic direction of universities. This book attempts to analyse their impact and potential impact on both organisational growth and culture

This book draws on interdisciplinary social science and philosophical frameworks to offer new dimensions to debate about intellectual leadership and higher education. The chapters are focused on provoking readers to think critically about intellectual leadership in precarious times. The contributors frame critical questions about the unevenness, ambivalences, and disruptions that now mark everyday life and interactions. Rather than thinking about 'freedom from precarious times and precarity' they consider 'freedom from within' and how the sovereignty and autonomy of the individual to think and speak within the public realm might be retained, if not reclaimed. In the precarious present and in times of precarity, what has changed and why? What might now be the new social reality within which we work? Each of the contributors have been invited to take up their own perspective on what is precarious, and to examine the impacts on intellectual leadership. What does it mean to do intellectual work and be an intellectual leader? What are the implications for intellectual work and leadership if the academy itself is in precarious times?

In this cross-cultural exploration of the comparative experiences of Asian and Western women in higher education management, leading feminist theorist Carmen Luke constructs a provocative framework that situates her own standpoint and experiences alongside those of Asian women she studied over a three-year period. She conveys some of the complexity of global sweeps and trends in education and feminist discourse as they intersect with local cultural variations but also dovetail into patterns of regional similarities. Western feminist research has established that relatively few women hold senior positions in universities and colleges. Using the now common metaphor of the "glass ceiling," this research has developed a range of social, cultural, and institutional explanations for women's underrepresentation in academic life. International studies show that women in non-Western countries are also underrepresented in higher education. Yet do Western explanations and strategies for change hold for academic women working in non-Western universities? The very diversity among women's experiences calls into question many of the analytic tools, terms, claims, and solutions formulated by Western feminism. This is the first study to show how cultural differences figure into the institutional dynamics of "glass ceilings." It raises important theoretical and practical, strategic, and tactical questions about issues of cultural difference and institutional power.

This book explores the significant role education plays in the promotion of human development and gender equality in India, situating this progression in relation to developed nations, the other BRIC countries and the ongoing attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.