ERIC Number: EJ1097925
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0307-5079
EISSN: N/A
Women as Leaders of Higher Education Institutions: A British-German Comparison
Read, Barbara; Kehm, Barbara M.
Studies in Higher Education, v41 n5 p815-827 2016
Across the vast majority of countries women are a significant minority in senior academic positions, and as of 2013 only 17% of vice chancellors (VCs) of UK universities and 12% of German Universities were women. This paper discusses findings from a study consisting of interviews with eight female VCs of British and German higher education institutions. The paper takes a feminist poststructuralist approach to look at the ways in which characteristics of "ideal" leaders in academia are discursively produced in a myriad of gendered ways, and looks at the influence of dominant academic cultures, status of institutions and national policy landscapes. From an analysis of the findings we argue that in addition to increasing the numerical proportion of women leaders in academia, work also crucially needs to be done to challenge academic cultural practices and dominant gendered conceptualisations of the "leader".
Descriptors: Higher Education, Colleges, Females, Leaders, Comparative Analysis, Foreign Countries, Leadership, College Presidents, Leadership Role, Institutional Characteristics, Differences, Gender Differences, Women Faculty, College Faculty, Interviews
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Germany; United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A