Call for women to land top university positions
Principals told to increase the number of female academics
MINISTERS have challenged Scottish universities to do more to break the glass ceiling for female academics.
Angela Constance, the Education Secretary, has written to university principals urging them to increase the proportion of female professors on their staff.
Figures collated by The Herald in February show universities are making painfully slow progress in addressing the gender gap in the promotion of female academics.
Just 21.8 per cent of professors at Scottish universities are women, despite the fact they make up 45 per cent of the academic workforce. The figure is just over three percentage points better than the situation in 2010/11.
The variety of barriers facing females in academia include a culture of long working hours, inflexible terms and conditions and pressures on researchers to produce academic papers in a way that can be incompatible with family responsibilities.
Ms Constance said in her letter that it “remains disappointing” that only around one fifth of professors in Scotland are female.
She added: “It remains the case that accelerated progress is needed if we are to remove the glass ceiling and enable women to progress based on talent.
“Direct and indirect barriers that restrict women in terms of seniority and academic posts are not compatible with a 21st century Scotland and a modern and inclusive higher education sector.
“I look forward to hearing what further action universities plan to take to address the gender imbalance at senior academic levels in our institutions.”
Mary Senior, Scotland official for the UCU Scotland union, welcomed the intervention by Ms Constance.
She said: “It is deeply concerning that despite efforts to address the glass ceiling in Scotland’s universities, it remains in place – and we see gender disparities.
“We need to do more to ensure that progressing to the top of academia is not incompatible with having children and balancing family and caring commitments.
“This means addressing the long hours culture and the pressures to churn out publication after publication, as well as making career pathways much more flexible.”
Universities Scotland, which represents principals, said the Scottish Government had the full support of the higher education sector on the issue of gender equality.
A spokeswoman said: “The Cabinet Secretary’s letter acknowledges a couple of positives, including recent progress towards greater gender balance in professorial appointments and the Athena Swan initiative in higher education which is focussed on the career advancement of women in the academic fields of science, technology, engineering and maths.
“Whilst inequality remains universities will continue to work to address it. Universities are compliant with the public sector equality duty which means that equality and diversity is mainstream in their strategic and operational plans.”
The data from February revealed that some institutions have particularly small proportions of female professors – often depending on what subjects they teach.
The lowest is Abertay University, in Dundee, where seven per cent of professors are female, followed by Heriot-Watt, in Edinburgh, with a proportion of 15 per cent.
Queen Margaret University, in Edinburgh, has the best record on female equality with 40 per cent of its professors female.
Across Scotland, there are 2,275 professors, but only 495 are female, amounting to just 21.8 per cent. At the present rate of progress it would take at least two decades to achieve equality of gender in promoted posts.
‘‘ The variety of barriers facing females include a culture of long working hours, inflexible terms and conditions incompatible with family responsibility