1. Women Academics’ Career Advancement at Nottingham and Birmingham: Examining research processes and practices
Prof Laurie Cohen, Nottingham University Business School
Prof Jo Duberley, Birmingham Business School
Leticia Cortes Ferreira, Nottingham University Business School

2. UoB/UoN Equality project
Aim: To offer insights into the impact of UoN and UoB’s research practices and processes on women academics
Focus groups with junior staff; mixture of focus groups and interviews with senior researchers; interviews with key stakeholders
follow up: 3 questions on emergent issues
Recognition that there is no ‘one best way’, but that there may be best practice to be shared

3. What do successful academics look like?
Esteem (respect of peers)
Extensive networks
Mobility
Proactive – make opportunities
Work in teams but the teams pursue the individual’s interest
People who sell themselves
Seen to be working at the right things
Ruthless and strategic
Stubborn and tenacious
Political players
Work long hours and out of hours
No kids or primary caring responsibilities
Seen to be utterly committed
Generate extensive research funding
Produce significant numbers of high quality publications
Make an impact
Have a good REF status
Accumulated advantage: success breeds success

4. Structures Internal Flexible working
Recruitment (incl use of headhunters)
Workload allocation
Promotion
Committee membership (related to power)
Maternity (esp problematic for contract researchers)
Pay
External
Grant panels and committees
Research councils
Where to publish interdisciplinary work
International mobility
Family

5. Allocation of roles and tasks
Processes lack transparency
High status jobs get higher allocation, low status get lower – even if they are more time consuming
A lack of women in high status jobs. Men are given strategic jobs, women operational ones
For women, taking on leadership positions is risky because women themselves are seen as risks, and thus are very exposed. They also have further to fall, bringing other women with them
Some men’s ‘wilful incompetence’ in administrative roles v women’s striving to be seen as competent. Women pick up the pieces
Women expected to take on ‘caring’ jobs, or caring elements of jobs

6. Promotion Organisational Criteria Composition of panels
Need for sponsors/mentors
Acting up roles: men and women seem to negotiate different deals
Maternity as constraint
Easier to go external
Individual
Women don’t apply
Too modest
Lack strategic approach
Lower remuneration expectations

7. Perceived differences between men and women
Men and women seen to differ on:
Strategic manoeuvring
Competitiveness
Conscientiousness
Desire to please
Self promotion
Desire for balance
Ambition
Mobility
Breadth v depth

8. The role of others: mentors, sponsors and role models
Mentors, sponsors and role models seen as crucial for career development
Lack of access to useful mentors
Need for different sorts of mentors (eg research, teaching, returners)
Male sponsors have been very important
But, are women ‘over mentored and under sponsored’?
Lack of female role models (and not always attractive as seen to work very hard)

9. Unchallengeable assumptions and other permeating issues
Maternity is the problem
Science is 24/7 and there’s nothing we can do about it
Academia is a meritocracy
Current inequality is a pipeline problem which time will take care of

10. Unconscious bias Women are not men’s intellectual or technical equals
I was asked if I received my PhD for bed-making and my colleague who is a female professor was assumed to be an administrator… there is a strong need to always demonstrate your competence
‘Are you the girl from HR?’
Women are better at pastoral care
Women are seen as the carers, and they are given the pastoral roles. These are often really time consuming and distract you from research.
Women are better at teaching than research
Women often seem to get more/more lower level teaching… later not many PhD students, as the students do not perceive them as researchers but teachers.
Women’s top priority is (and should be) their family
The expectation that you will not be interested in your job or career advancement once you have children, or that you are a bad mother if you do admit that you are ambitious
Women are supposed to be nice, and women who aren’t nice aren’t likeable
Being expected to be polite at meetings and “wait your turn” in everything from speaking to promotion

11. Ideas for change: some possible interventions
Organizational
Mainstreaming of gender/diversity through school targets and reporting – with consequences
Empower HR to challenge decisions
Mandatory unconscious bias training
‘Acting up’ opportunities: but look at the deal
Greater imagination re maternity arrangements (eg post mat study leave)
Publicising success
Funding for caring
Individual
Promotion workshops
Women only professional development programmes
Career conversations
Leadership training
Importance of pro-active behaviour and negotiation skills: from PI on grant application to ‘acting up’ positions

12. And on-going challenges
Intersectionality: what of the intersection of gender with class, ethnicity, national cultural background?
LGBT issues: did the study reinforce binarisms?
Homophily dies hard. Can the formal organization offer women the same benefits that the informal one offers men?