Teaching staff and their perception about gender equality at university

Abstract

The article makes important contributions in order to clarify if we can continue talking about a situation of gender inequality in the universities. We performed a systematic literature review, which includes from pioneers in the field to the more recent work. From this review it appears that even though universities have taken steps in recent years to promote gender equality in their structures and practices, there is still inequality, in that it confirms the low female presence in some of the areas of university life in our country. The second contribution the results are derived from research conducted in two Spanish universities, using qualitative methodology in order to delve into the perceptions of academic people in relation to gender equality. The methodology is qualitative and is based on 22 interviews. The participants are academics from two Spanish public universities.

The need to balance work and family life, which is still a need associated with female gender, despite the greater involvement of men in family responsibilities, for men still the family responsibilities don not requires an effort comparable to the women involved, that still bears the bulk of the workload, beyond motherhood, which directly determines who can get the same merit than men during their academic career. Also the organizational culture of our universities, which has been and remains very masculine, is a reason for female exclusion.

Finally, our results of our investigation warn about the lack of gender equity in different academic fields, especially present in research and management.