Gender inequality in Russian Academia: dynamics, insights, and explanations

Abstract

Whereas Europe currently pursues reform and transformation of academia in the context of New Public Management, Russia seeks to regulate the processes of modernization of the latter one, thus addressing its excellence and effectiveness. In both cases, the processes underlying social change in academia impact on female scholars’ occupational advancement. By doing so, they contribute to reproduction of existing gender inequalities and certainly create new ones.

Russia stands in front of the paradoxical situation: while women represent a majority of (scientific) staff in academia, they face persistent discriminatory experiences on the part of their colleagues – both male and female (Sillaste, 2004; Pushkareva, 2014). Still, our knowledge on gender disparities and discrimination in academia is only scarce and needs extensive investigation. This paper aims at reducing the existing gap by analysing gender inequalities from a dynamic approach.