Gender, Power and Managerialism in Universities

Kate White, Teresa Carvalho and Sarah Riordan
Our research compares higher education in Australia, South Africa and Portugal, which has to varying degrees moved from a collegial to a managerial model. Its objective is to explore the role of senior managers in consolidating and interpreting new managerialism and perceptions of potential effects on gender.
The reasons for comparing gender, power and managerialism in these three countries are that they offer different historical perspectives of higher education.
Australian and South African universities were traditionally based on the British model and have national Equal Opportunities (EO) legislative frameworks. Australia has had equal opportunity legislation since 1984 and affirmative action in the workplace legislation since 1986, and South Africa introduced EO legislation and policy after the first democratic election in 1994.
While equal treatment of men and women has been guaranteed since 1976 in the Portuguese constitution, and specific legal frameworks have been developed to promote equality in the workplace, there are no affirmative action plans in higher education.
Despite different academic structures, these countries have relatively higher levels of participation of women in senior leadership positions when compared with other developed countries, although the percentage of women at rector-vice-chancellor levels remains low.
Australia has a higher female to male ratio of economic participation and opportunity (participation, remuneration, advancement of women as technical-professional workers and in senior positions) - while Portugal and South Africa are significantly lower. All three countries have similar ratios of females to males in educational attainment, and health and survival. But there is much higher political empowerment (women in parliament) in South Africa than in Australia and Portugal.
More on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0165, 03 April 2011