Cracked but not broken: the continued gender gap in senior administrative positions

摘要

Equality for women (and men) was enshrined in the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Legislatively this has meant that women have been treated in the same way as men, and post-feminist theory suggests that equality battles have been won and that women and men now have equal opportunities. However, when looking into the attainment of women in HE, the concept of equal opportunities seems questionable. Female administrative staff have outnumbered male administrative staff in universities for at least sixteen years. However, there is still an unbalanced gender profile at senior, ie above G9 (spine point >51 on the new single pay framework [UCU 2004]). If for professional managers at levels below that of Grade 10 women outweigh men by on average 62% why at levels at G10 and above do women represent on average only 30% of staff?