Academe's glass ceiling: Societal, professional-organizational, and institutional barriers to the career advancement of academic women

• Published in: Comparative education review 2000-11, Vol.44 (4), p.493-514
• Main Authors: Bain, Olga, Cummings, William
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academia; Academic achievement; Academic education; Academic Rank (Professional); Akademikerin; Arbeitsmarkt; Australien; Beruflicher Aufstieg; Berufschance; Berufslaufbahn; Brasilien; Chile; College Environment; College Faculty; Deutschland; Discrimination against women; Discrimination in employment; Educational personnel; Educational sciences; Empirische Untersuchung; Equal Opportunities (Jobs); Faculty College Relationship; Family Work Relationship; Female employees; Frau; Führungskraft; Gender equality; Gender Gap; Gender relations; Gender roles; Großbritannien; Higher Education; Hochschule; Hochschullehrerin; Internationaler Vergleich; Israel; Japan; Korea, Republik; Mexiko; Occupational problem, occupational relations, trade unionism; Polls & surveys; Productivity; Professors; Promotion (Occupational); Sex Bias; Sex discrimination; Social aspects; Sociology of culture; Sociology of education; Teachers; Universities; USA; Women; Women college graduates; Women college teachers; Women Faculty; Women's condition; Womens rights; Womens studies; Work Environment; Working women
• ISSN: 0010-4086; 1545-701X
• DOI: 10.1086/447631

In this study, the authors aks: "Why are there so few women in the senior levels of academia?" Research on this issue is done with two approaches: "barriers that differ among societies and barriers that are intrinsic to particular organizational settings of professional communities, and hence, that are prevalent in most societies. In this study, we highlight a third approach, the role of distinctive institutional traditions; we propose that specific groups of academic systems share (by virtue of intentional borrowing, colonial influences, or other processes) certain institutional patterns that, among other consequences, influence the opportunities of women for advancement. Finally, ... there lingers a fourth approach, one that argues that women do not fare so well in the academic simply because they are the fairer sex. This study seeks to bring these research traditions together by contrasting and combining results from cross- national macrostatistics with those from a recent international survey of the academic profession conducted in 15 societies." This survey is known as the Carnegie International Survey of the Academic Profession. ( DIPF/Bi.)