Campaign group wants changes to address lack of women professors
More than 50 senior staff members at Cambridge University have called for a rethink on recruitment to tackle gender inequality in academia.
Currently, only 22 per cent of UK professors are women suggesting they face disadvantages throughout the hiring and promotions process.
The group said that changing how a candidates successes are assessed and valued would encourage a more inclusive approach and prevent bias against women.
Campaigners said this would ensure that talented women have a better chance of progressing to senior positions in higher education.
They argued that conventional success in academia, for example a promotion from reader to professor, is often framed by outcomes such as the number of papers published in leading journals or the size and frequency of research grants. While these milestones are important they are likely to benefit men more than women.
Campaigners said recruitment should take a broader, more inclusive approach that valued other academic contributions such as teaching, administration and outreach work. Such a shift would make it easier for women to advance, and for universities to fulfil their potential as institutions that contribute positively to society.
Professor Dame Athene Donald, gender equality champion at the University of Cambridge, said: “Our experience at Cambridge, where we have recently surveyed 126 female academics and administrators on this subject, suggests that this is indeed the case. Women seem to value a broader spectrum of work-based competencies that do not flourish easily under the current system.
“There will always be hardcore metrics for academics, such as grants, or prizes won, and books and papers published - and they are important. But there are opportunities to reward and embed different types of success, such as teaching, outreach and departmental support; activities that lots of very talented women, and indeed men, are involved with, but are not currently a meaningful part of recognition and advancement in universities.
“If universities inhibit the progression of talented female staff, they in turn are unable to reach their full potential. And we know that universities make a huge contribution to society through research, teaching and partnerships with businesses, among many other activities.”
Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that there are four male professors for every female professor in UK universities, despite women making up 45 per cent of the UK academic workforce.