CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE? WOMEN IN ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP IN AUSTRALIA

McGill Journal of Education, Fall 2003 by Chesterman, Colleen, Ross-Smith, Anne, Peters, Margaret

ABSTRACT. This paper analyses interviews with 41 men and women in senior academic leadership roles in five Australian universities. It explores whether management cultures change when women hold power. It contrasts interviewees' conceptions of the role gender has played in career success with notions which posit a gender-neutral organization. It probes the impact of the differentially constructed careers of men and women for appointment to senior positions. It identifies factors that sustain women, specifically collegiality, support from senior colleague and a critical mass of other women in power. Finally, in considering the unwillingness of some women to apply for further promotions, it suggests women are still positioned as outsiders to university management, although there is evidence that this is changing.

CHANGEMENT DE PAYSAGE ? PLACE DES FEMMES AUSTRALIENNES DANS LE LEADERSHIP UNIVERSITAIRE

RESUME. Cette etude porte sur l'analyse d'entrevues menees aupres de 41 hommes et femmes occupant des postes universitaires superieurs dans cinq universites australiennes. Elle cherche a savoir si les cultures de gestion changent lorsque les femmes occupent des postes de pouvoir. Elle oppose aussi les conceptions des personnes interviewees sur le role joue par les femmes et les hommes dans la reussite professionnelle, et sur les notions d'organisation sans distinction de genre. Elle explore les consequences de differents cheminements de carriere des hommes et des femmes nommes a des postes de direction. Elle determine les facteurs qui servent d'appui aux femmes, precisement la collegialite, le soutien de la part de collegues chevronnees et la presence d'une masse critique de femmes occupant des postes de decision. En dernier lieu, si l'on tient compte de la reticence de certaines femmes a poser leur candidature a des postes superieurs, les donnees semblent indiquer que les femmes sont toujours etrangeres a la gestion universitaire, quoiqu'il soit evident que cette situation est en train de changer.

This paper presents selected preliminary findings of an Australian research project that sought to explore whether "the dominance of men and masculinism in organisations appears to be particularly resistant to change of either a micro- or macro- variety" (Whitehead & Moodley, 1999, p. 2). Following some 260 interviews with women and men from organisations with a significant proportion of women in senior positions in the public, private and university sectors in Australia, we aimed to identify if the presence of women in such positions had an impact on the managerial cultures.

In this paper we focus specifically on the university sector, where Morley (1999, p. 87) argued that the "dominant culture positions marginalised groups as intruders, outsiders and this is actively, rather than accidentally, constructed." Thomas and Davies (2002, p. 379) found that in British universities women felt "marginalised . . . referring to the operation of informal male networks, masculine symbols, and the promotion of masculine identities."

Australia's 38 universities have been similarly criticized (Burton, 1997; Probert, Ewer & Whiting, 1998; Brooks & Mackinnon, 2001; Chesterman, 2002). Yet equal opportunity legislation aims to redress gender inequities and the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee introduced in 1999 a four-year plan to advance women staff (see www.avcc.edu.au). Women remain, however, particularly under-represented at senior levels. In April 2002, 8 (21%) of the 38 vice-chancellors in Australia and 36 (24%) of the 153 deputy- and pro-vice-chancellors were women. Women represented 37% of senior staff in the administrative stream (AVCC, 2002).

The research project took place in five Australian universities, all formerly institutes of technology, which demonstrate an explicit commitment to gender equity. They perform over the national average in the promotion of women to senior positions although this varies markedly between the institutions. For example in one, the Vice-Chancellor, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor and four of the eight Deans were women. In another, a woman was Deputy Vice-Chancellor, but there were no women Executive Deans and only 2 women among 37 Heads of School.

This paper draws on ethnographic interviews with 18 women and 23 men holding senior academic appointments at the level of Dean and above. They were concentrated in the age range 50-59, and had witnessed major changes in the gender composition of their workplaces. Overwhelmingly our respondents came from Anglo-Celtic backgrounds and did not reflect the present ethnic diversity of Australia.

Ethnographic interviews provide an opportunity to analyze ways in which action and structure operate simultaneously on the production and reproduction of a gendered sense of self. Participants were invited to reflect on their positions within the organizations, how they got to the executive levels, their current management and leadership practices, any constraints they experienced, and the emotional investments made. Within this study we viewed gender as a matrix of habits, practices and discourses, not always a stable and enduring construct but sometimes fluid and malleable.