Glass ceiling in the University. If I don't see it don't believe it

Abstract

Academic life is not a good example of equality. While in other sectors of employment the so-called glass ceilings have been declining over the years, at the University level nothing has changed. There are many impediments and/or barriers to career advancement for women in higher education. Literature and statistics confirm this phenomenon. Despite this, the perception of the problem is low among academic staff. The present work inquires about this situation and determines if there are different perceptions according to profiles and if these differences are really significant.

There is little literature about the Spanish situation in high-impact journals. National studies have a wide and reputable career. For this reason, this article made a wide review of the national studies related to glass ceiling phenomena and its insertion in the international context. The quantitative methodology used was based on a survey of 35 professors of the Pablo De Olavide University. They were asked to grade their opinion on a few sentences about the glass ceiling. The results were analysed with the nonparametric contrast test for small samples depending on the following variables: sex, age, seniority, category and area.

The results confirm previous conclusions of qualitative studies stated before while rejecting others. First, an underestimation perception of this problem was confirmed. Academic staff believes that glass ceiling occurs more in labour market outside the university environment. Second, differences between women and men are statistically significant but there is no relation between sex and age or seniority. Third, younger or less experienced teachers don’t perceive this problem in its full importance. Therefore they might have difficulties accepting gender-equality policies.