English version – GEA – Gendering Academia

OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The GEndering Academia (GEA) project aims to analyse gender asymmetries in Italian academic careers both in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) disciplines. The main goal is to understand whether and in what ways gender differences and inequalities are (re-)produced at various stages of academic careers and how the micro (individual), meso (organisational) and macro (norms and policies) levels interact in supporting/hindering career success, from recruitment to retention and career advancement.

The GEA project focuses on three main research questions.

i) What is the role of differences at the individual level (between male and female researchers) in terms of aspirations, motivations, constraints and strategies in entering, pursuing or quitting academic careers (i.e. micro level)?

ii) What is the role of academic institutions (i.e. Departments, councils, committees at the national or local level) with respect to final decisions concerning recruitment of young researchers (PhD holders) and promotion of associate professors (i.e. meso level)?

iii) What are the impacts of the national (and supra-national) rules governing recruitment and promotion in the Italian university system on gender inequalities (i.e. macro level)?

METHODS

Given the complexity of factors and levels involved in the construction of gendered academia, a mixed-method approach will be adopted. It will be based on quantitative and qualitative methods:

1) statistical analyses of national secondary sources (ISTAT and MIUR data on PhD holders’ occupational outcomes, as well as MIUR data on academic career progressions);

2) a web survey of all research and teaching staff of the four universities in order to collect objective and subjective data on individuals’ academic careers;

3) in-depth interviews with female and male researchers at early and middle stage of their carreer to identify the “push” and “pull” factors behind the gender imbalance in recruitment, career advancement and decision-making processes;

4) semi-structured interviews with key informants at the centre of governance and selection processes.

WORK PACKAGES

WP1 – Mapping the macro-context

WP1 situates gender asymmetries in academia within the wider societal and institutional setting.

WP2 – Assessing gender imbalances: establishing the phenomena

WP2 provides a quantitative analysis using both available statistical information and by creating a new data set (web survey) in order to assess the magnitude and nature of the two phenomena: Leaky Pipeline (LP) and Glass Ceiling (GC).

WP3 – Analysing the organisational context

By means of desk research and semi-structured interviews with key informants in recruitment and governance bodies, WP3 analyses, on one side, the gendered organisational cultures and the processes by which symbolic gender orders are produced and reproduced; on the other, the gendered organisational structure and the ways in which gender is embedded in the work organisation, the type of (maternity/parental/career) leave available, workplace time schedules, etc.

WP4 – Understanding early career paths: the leaky pipeline phenomenon?

WP4 investigates the mechanisms underlying early career paths by means of in-depth interviews with those who obtained their PhDs after 2005, in one STEM and one SSH department of each university in the network.

WP5 – Understanding career advancement paths: the glass ceiling phenomenon?

WP5 analyses gender gaps in regard to access to apical positions, conducting in-depth interviews with those who became associate professors after 2005.

WP6 – Project Management

The overall project management of GEA is assigned to the university of Torino RU.