Women Constructing their Identity as Lecturers and Researchers in Inequality Contexts: The Case of Catalan Universities and Research Institutions

Author(s):

SANCHO JUANA MLaura DomingoAmalia Susana CreusSANDRA MARTINEZ

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 02 D, Gender issues in Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-28

11:15-12:45

Room:

HG, HS 45

Chair:

Mari Karm

Contribution

Statistics of 70 Spanish universities show that in the academic year 2005-2006, 54.25% of registered students were women. By area, women represented 74.2% of Health Sciences students, 63.07% of Law and Social Sciences, 62.64% of Humanities, 59.29% of Experimental Sciences and 27.34% of Technical careers. In this same scholastic year women made up 60.59% of the total graduate students. Their distribution by areas of knowledge was: 78.09% in Health Sciences’, 68.35% in Law and Social Sciences, 66.33% in Humanities, 65.18% in Experimental Sciences and 29.61% in Technical careers. These figures reveal a high degree of female success in terms of retention and finalisation of studies. The increasing presence of women in the university and in scientific research is not affecting, however, the access of women to power and socially relevant positions. As it has been repeatedly shown by the increasingly more frequent studies on the inequality of the woman in higher education and research institutions, the presence of women in positions of power and scientifically and socially meaningful roles is very far from being satisfactory (European Comission, 2000, 2005; Pérez et al, 2004; Rock, 2003; Fernández, 2003; Álvarez and Campabadal, 2004; de Pablo, 2001, 2004, 2006; Gonzàlez, 2005; FECYT, 2005). The problem seems so large that data collected in the ETAN report of the European Commission (European Comission, 2000; 2005) put in evidence the need to devise reliable and clear statistics that illustrate the real dimensions of the problem and serve to establish pertinent corrective policies. However, in addition to statistics more micro-studies are needed to explore the consequences of this persisting inequality in women’s lives. This paper addresses the process and the results of the research project: Women in the Science and the University: The construction of the professional identity in contexts of inequality (2007 RDG 00001), financed by the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca of the Catalan Government. The purpose of this project is to explore and reconstruct the personal and professional experience of three generations of women in the process of becoming lecturers, researchers and managers in public universities and research centres. To achieve this purpose we are elaborating on 9 professional life histories, in order to understand their work and to ascertain how they became the kind of women teachers, researchers or managers they now are, as well as the relations between their personal experiences and the development of their professional paths.

Method

The method that has allowed us to explore the macro/micro gender-related problems experienced by women in higher education institutions and research centres has been the analysis of professional life histories. This research perspective has allowed us to reconstruct the paths and biographical posicionalities, the lived experiences related to historic drifts and social circumstances, of the nine women who have participated in the study. This epistemological and methodological approach is based on the recognition that the past influences the present, and that its exploration, by means of a dialogical reconstruction, can facilitate self-awareness and lead to the resignification of earlier representations and actions. Rescuing the professional life histories of 9 women teaching, researching and managing in Catalan universities, from three different generations, has been a fundamental step towards gaining a better understanding of their personal evolution in relation to the processes of the construction of their identity and subjectivity.

Expected Outcomes

In this research we have generated an experiential map of the situation of women in higher education institutions and research centres that has allowed us to glimpse their struggle, determination and agency, even in contexts of manifest and sometimes aggressive inequality. The knowledge generated by this study is a significant contribution to the comprehension of the problems faced by academic women and represents an aid for finding ways for renewing a system eroded by persisting gender inequality. New ways should inject credibility and hope in young women within the science and the university systems. The transformation of this situation represents an ambitious and very important challenge in a crucial moment for universities. In this transformation we will have to deal with social, economic and political conditions and endemic power relationships that prevent the creation of a culture where gender no longer implies inequality.

References

• Álvarez, Joaquina y Campabadal, Francesca (2004) La posición y producción de las Investigadoras del CSIC en Cataluña, estudio comparativo". http://www.amit-es.org/publicaciones.htm • Bertaux D. (Ed.) (1981): Biography and society: the life history approach in the social sciences. London: Sage. • De Pablo, Flora (2001) Las Científicas y el Techo de cristal". http://www.amit-es.org/publicaciones.htm • .----- (2004) En la Ciencia todavía no existe el tanto monta-monta tanto". Torre de los Lujanes, 53: 81-89. • .----- (2006) Científicas y Tecnólogas: Especies a proteger. En C. Lara (Ed.) Desequilibrios de Género en Ciencia y Tecnología. Sevilla: Editorial ArCiBel. • European Comisssion (2000) Science policies in the European Union: Promoting excellence through mainstreaming gender equality. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Research Directorate-General. A Report from the ETAN Expert Working Group on Women and Science. • European Commission (2005) Women and Science: Excellence and Innovation - Gender Equality in Science. Commission Staff Working Document. http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/pdf/sec_report_en.pd • FECYT (2005) La situación de las mujeres investigadoras en el sistema español de Ciencia y Tecnología. http://www.amit-es.org/publicaciones.htm • Fernández, Valentina (2003) "Formación Igual, Trabajo Desigual". Presentación durante la II Asamblea de AMIT. Noviembre 2003. http://www.amites. org/publicaciones.htm • GOODSON, I. (Ed.) (2004) Historias de vida del profesorado. Barcelona: Octaedro. • Gonzàlez, Roser (2006) Gens, gènere i ciència. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. • Gonzàlez, Roser (coord. (2004) Document sobre dones i ciència . 200 Observatori de Bioètica i Dret. Parc Científic de Barcelona. http://www.ub.es/fildt/bioetica.htm • Guil, Ana (2005) Mujeres, Universidad y cambio social: tejiendo redes. I Jornadas de Sociología. Sevilla: Centro de Estudios Andaluces. http://www.amit-es.org/publicaciones.htm • KELLER, Evelyn Fox. A feeling for the organism. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1983. • LAWRENCE, Peter A. (2006) Men, women and ghosts in science. PLos Biology 4, 13-15, 2006. • MADDOX, Brenda (2003) Rosalind Franklin. The dark lady of DNA. London: Harper Collins Publishers, • Pérez¸ Eulalia (Coord) (2004) La situación de las mujeres en el sistema de educativo de ciencia y tecnología en España y su contexto internacional. http://www.amit-es.org/publicaciones.htm • Roca, Encarna (2003) "Paraules d'Agraïment". Premi Narcis Monturiol. http://www.amit-es.org/publicaciones.htm • WENNERÅS, Christine; WOLD, Agnes (1997) Nepotism and sexism in peer-review. Nature 387, 341-343.

Author Information

SANCHO JUANA M

Universitat de Barcelona

Didàctica i Organitzativa Educativa

BARCELONA

Laura Domingo

University of Barcelona

Didatichs and educative organitation

Vilafranca del Penedès. Barcelona

Amalia Susana Creus

University of Barcelona

Education

PORTO ALEGRE, RS

SANDRA MARTINEZ

Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

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