CC BY
30
УДК 378.113
ББК Ч448.041 ГРНТИ 15.41.21 Код ВАК 19.00.05
Saniye Gulser Corat,
Director, Division for Gender Equality, Office of the Director-General. WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP: CHALLENGES AHEAD
KEYWORDS: leadership; women; higher education; gender diversity; gender equality; human rights.
ABSTRACT. Role models are essential in enabling women to imagine potential ways of envisioning their dreams and to help them gain trust in themselves. There is still a sense of what constitutes a gender-appropriate discipline in many high and low income countries, with worldwide concern about the under-representation of women in the STEM subjects. Men predominate in subjects related to engineering, manufacturing and construction, math and computer science. Yet two-thirds to three-quarters of graduates in the fields of health, welfare, and education are women.
The reason women are so under-represented in higher education is that too few women hold the advanced degrees necessary to qualify them for prestigious leadership positions. Moreover, education materials often perpetuate the gender-bias that some careers and certain responsibility levels are more suitable for males. Women frequently share these stereotypes and accept uncritically roles which leave them marginalised and with limited career prospects.
The data in the paper describe balance and degree of gender equality in the community, in the work place and in politics.
Сание Гюлсер Корат,
директор Отдела по вопросам тендерного равенства, ЮНЕСКО, Франция. ЖЕНЩИНА И ЛИДЕРСТВО: ИСПЫТАНИЯ НА ПУТИ К ВЕРШИНЕ
КЛЮЧЕВЫЕ СЛОВА: лидерство; женщины; высшее образование; гендерное разнообразие; гендер-ное равенство; права человека.
АННОТАЦИЯ. Ролевые модели имеют большое значение, так как они помогают женщинам представить потенциальные пути воплощения своей мечты в реальность и поверить в собственные силы. По-прежнему существуют представления о гендерно приемлемых должностях в странах с высоким и низком доходом, а в мире существует обеспокоенность малой вовлеченностью женщин в некоторые сферы трудовой деятельности. Так, например, мужчины доминируют в сфере машиностроения, производства и строительства, математики и точных наук. В таких областях, как здравоохранение, социальное обеспечение и образование доля женщин составляет от 60% до 75%.
Причина малочисленности женщин на руководящих должностях в сфере высшего образования заключается в небольшом количестве женщин, имеющих необходимое для этого образование. Кроме того, в сфере образования существует стереотип, что некоторые должности подходят исключительно мужчинам. Женщины зачастую разделяют такую точку зрения и принимают на себя роли, которые не дают возможности реализовать свой карьерный потенциал.
Материалы, представленные в статье, описывают баланс и гендерное равенство в обществе, как в сфере профессиональной деятельности, так и политики.
The dearth of women leaders in tertiary education is not a new story to any of us. For many years, there was the assumption that the reason women are so under-represented in higher education is that too few women hold the advanced degrees necessary to qualify them for prestigious leadership positions, the so-called "Myth of the Pipeline" [3].
Clearly, this is not the case anymore. Participation rates for women in higher education have increased between 1999 and 2005 in all regions of the world, with a global gender parity index of 1.05, suggesting that there are now more undergraduate women than men in higher education [7].
However, these numbers only tell half of the story.
For one thing, the increase in women's participation is unevenly distributed across national and disciplinary boundaries. Women's participation rates are higher than those of men in North America and Europe, but lower in regions
© Saniye Gulser Corat, 2018
such as East Asia and the Pacific, South and West Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa [9].
Female students are highly concentrated in non-science subjects. There is still a sense of what constitutes a gender-appropriate discipline in many high and low income countries, with worldwide concern about the under-representation of women in the STEM subjects. Men predominate in subjects related to engineering, manufacturing and construction, math and computer science [14] while two-thirds to three-quarters of graduates in the fields of health, welfare, and education are women [6].
But an even more striking picture is seen in the leadership of higher education, and this is where the biggest problem lies.
Country after country, despite the number of female graduates available for leadership positions, women do not hold associate professor or full professor positions at the same rate as their male peers. They remain, woefully under-represented at the top.
Only 3% of vice-chancellors in India are women; six of the 13 female vice-chancellors are at women-only institutions. The figure for the UK is 14% [4].
Recently, at the Fostering Women's Empowerment and Leadership Conference, which was the first in the series of "UNESCO's Soft Power Today," the former Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson said in her keynote speech, "There are 50% of medical students that are women but when you go and look at who are the heads of the departments of medicine, you do not find that proportion continuing. There is still a man's world that was made by men, for men and for their needs."
The phrase "the higher the fewer" can be aptly used in this situation where even though women have higher education attainment levels than men, this is not reflected in the number of women holding positions with high faculty rank, salary, or prestige. Women deans and professors are a minority group and women vice-chancellors and presidents are still a rarity.
Unfortunately, this is not just the case for academia. Similar realities are witnessed in the public and private sector.
• On a global scale, on average, women only hold 15% of the posts of presiding officers in houses of parliament. In MENA countries, while women's representation has increased by 5% between 2008 and 2015, it still remains stagnant at about 13% on average in lower and single houses of parliament [8]. Available data from EU countries also shows that, in 2015, on average, only 17% of leaders of major political parties were women [5].
• According to a ten-year survey with Fortune Global 200 companies, there has been less than a 1% increase of women on boards per year since 2004 [2].
• In 2016, the number of women holding CEO positions is just 4,2% among Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and only 9% globally; only 21 companies in the 2016 Fortune 500 list include women at the helm, down from 24 in 2015; only 4,2% of the 500 largest US companies by revenue are led by female CEOs [12].
• In South Korea, women represent only 16% of members of parliament and 8% of public sector leaders. As for women on private sector boards, they are only 2%. In Japan, these figures fall at 1% only for leadership positions in the private sector, and 2,5% in the public sector. China, India and Indonesia show similar trends, with especially low representation of women in both public and private sector leadership roles.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, the average proportion of parliamentary seats held by women is quite low, with 22%.
Russia
• At the beginning of the post-socialist period female academics accounted for the ma-
jority of teaching staff at Russian universities: their share reached 67% in institutions of tertiary education in 2000. However, as we move to higher positions (deans, rectors), these numbers fall considerably. The ratio of the average nominal monthly wage of women doing research amounted to 68% of that of men.
• The Russian Academy of Sciences, the most important scientific institution of the country performing research, consisted of 456 full members (academicians) in 2008. Only three of them were women.
• In 1992-2000, the number of male students rose by 327,000 or 25%, while the number of female students, by 763,000 or 50%. In 2004, we are observing a feminization of higher education with 57% of women and only 43% of men.
• According to a recent report on the worldwide gender pay gap by the International Labor Organisation, the two countries where women's pay differed the most from what would be expected were Russia and Brazil. Women earn an average 32,8% less than men in Russia, even though "observable factors" like education, experience and job role should mean they should probably make 11.1% more.
• Although it has the highest number of women working in the public sector (71%) only 13% of leadership roles are held by women. Women ministers, members of parliament and board members are thin on the ground.
We are still a long way from participating on the same footing as men. This is true for business, this is true for public service, this is true for academia - it is true for sociey as a whole.
So, the pressing question before us is "wha can be done?"
Based on my work at UNESCO, I have identified five streams of action that we as a community can engage in, and when taken together, could lead to greater representation of women in leadership roles of higher education:
• Review Appointment and Promotion Procedures;
• Provide Legislative and Infrastructure Support;
• Tackle Stereotypes;
• Become Role Models for Other Women;
• Engage Men.
1. Review Appointment and Promotion Procedures:
A groundbreaking research from Yale had scientists presented with application materials from a student applying for a lab manager position and who intended to go on to graduate school. Half the scientists were given the application with a male name attached, and half were given the exact same application with a female name attached. Results found that the "female" applicants were rated significantly
lower than the "males" in competence, hirea-bility, and whether the scientist would be willing to mentor the student.
A similarly structured study published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) looking just at academic science jobs found that application materials from female candidates received lower rankings and lower starting salaries than male candidates, even when a job application reviewer was female.
In country after country it has been shown that when traditional appointment and promotion practices are put under a microscope it becomes clear that women are being excluded for reasons that are peripheral and unrelated to their capacity to do the job.
Sound personnel management policies are needed to increase the number of women employed as academics or administrators in higher education institutions.
Again it has been shown that when formal procedures are introduced to ensure that irrelevant criteria are excluded from the process, women are much more likely to be selected for positions on merit. This is to the benefit of the organisation as much as to the woman concerned.
2. Provide Legislative and Infrastructure Support:
Dealing with multiple roles admits no easy solution. In one group are those who have sacrificed the role of wife and mother to the professional career. Another group struggles with competing tensions of home and career, giving priority to one over the other. And some try to do it all; to be the committed professional and the perfect wife and mother. This is the superwoman model of the 60's and 70's in the western world.
Twenty years later we see that many who attempted this without the benefit of infrastructure support and in the face of extensive opposition from both institutions and families, found that something had to give; health, relationships or the job itself.
The way to resolve the tension between personal and professional roles is for both roles to be accepted by the organisation and the family.
The provision of legislative and infrastructure support is a tangible expression of organisational recognition and undoubtedly
can make a great difference to the capacity of women to manage multiple roles. The importance of institutional arrangements for maternity leave, child care facilities and mobility allowances cannot be emphasized enough.
3. Tackle Stereotypes:
Stereotyped notions about women constitute major barriers. Assertiveness of women is frequently interpreted as aggression while the same attributes are considered as
strong leadership skills for men. Women in advanced industrialised societies as well as those in the developing world still suffer from the myth that women are too emotional or too illogical for senior management, or best suited to the domestic maintenance aspects of administration.
From a young age education materials such as textbooks, and teachers often serve to perpetuate the gender-bias that some careers and certain responsibility levels are more suitable for males. It does not make it any easier that women frequently share these stereotypes and accept uncritically roles which leave them marginalised and with limited career prospects.
This is why UNESCO has been actively engaged in tackling stereotypes especially in the realm of education. Through the UNESCO-HNA Partnership for Girls' and Women's Education, it has been continuously working with teachers and curriculum developers to identify and remove gender stereotypes from textbooks learning materials.
4. Become Role Models for Other Women:
As the World Bank wrote: "even if it is feasible for women to aspire to leadership positions, they will not know this - or be motivated to try - unless they see other women filling similar positions, or are otherwise informed that these positions are open to them ... Women face an additional barrier to entry from the lack of female predecessors and role models demonstrating that it is a place where women can be successful."
Role models are essential in enabling women to imagine potential ways of envisioning their dreams and to help them gain trust in themselves.
UNESCO has done particularly well in this area, championing the breaking of gender stereotypes and showing the importance of role models in changing cultural norms.
Initiatives like the UNESCO-L'Oreal programme for Women in Science provide role models and boost the visibility of women in science and have a huge impact on how girls see scientific careers. We need more of these efforts in other spectrums of society so women around the world can share with others the outstanding work they do and inspire as well as be inspired by other women.
5. Engage Men:
In order to achieve sustainable change, we have to engage men, as partners and as colleagues, to create a collective effort in making sure women are given equal chances to hold leadership positions.
While an increasing number of men may be personally engaged, there is a great deal of scope to encourage them to make their commitment to gender equality explicit and public.
Male support is essential to ensure that both parents enjoy work-life balance and to guarantee gender equality in the community, in the work place and in politics.
UNESCO has been vocal in its belief of including all boys and men in the struggle for human rights and gender equality as can be seen in its involvement of the HeForShe campaign.
There is a quote from what Baroness Beeban Kidron, Member of the House of Lords, said in her keynote speech at UNESCO's Soft Power Today Conference.
"What makes people strong is imagining what is possible, understanding what they are due, borrowing confidence of those who have overcome - these are lightning rods for change."
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