Category: Diversity

Articles and resources on diversity and inclusion in universities and more broadly.

The Gender Gap in Malaysian Public Universities: Examining the ‘Lost Boys’ | Journal of International and Comparative Education (JICE)

The Gender Gap in Malaysian Public Universities: Examining the ‘Lost Boys’

Author: Jonathan Yong Tienxhi

Comment: Argues that lower rates of boys/male students at Malaysian public universities, a “reverse gender gap”, affects men from lower income groups. In STEM subjects except Engineering, the gender parity index is higher for women. The author suggests reasons are more men choose alternative careers, and can afford to enrol in private universities. The gender parity is more equal in private universities and the author  argues this is a class issue and that addressing the gap will improve social equality overall.

Abstract: This paper examines the growing gender gap between men and women in Malaysian public universities, using the Gender Parity Index (GPI) to measure gender disparities over time. It considers the gender gap in University of Malaya with other prominent overseas universities, and compares the GPI between all twenty public higher education institutions for the years 2009-2013. It also compares the GPI of public universities in Malaysia with local private education institutions, and examines the gender disparities in public universities in terms of subject segregation. Particular attention is paid to the gender segregation in terms of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects; gender segregation in STEM subjects in Malaysian public universities is compared to East Asia Pacific averages. Lastly, various causes and explanations for the gender gap are explored.

Source: The Gender Gap in Malaysian Public Universities: Examining the ‘Lost Boys’ | Journal of International and Comparative Education (JICE)

Caught at the crossroads?

Authors: Laurence Hopkins and Viola Salvestrini for the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UK), November 2018

Notes: Report examining pay disparities across three broad groups in UK academia (black, asian, white) and with respect to gender. Finds significant disparities that are more significant than gender gaps and that gender gap in pay is greatest for white staff. Differences are seen across academic and professional staff but the differences are greater when academic staff alone are considered.

Abstract: Caught at the crossroads? An intersectional approach to gender and ethnicity pay gaps takes an ‘intersectional’ approach to pay gaps by looking at ethnicity and gender together, rather than in isolation. The report shows that ‘pay penalties’ for ethnic minority groups are significant, with Black men and Black women earning the least on average relative to White men. The report includes recommendations for employers to consider when looking at gender and ethnicity pay gaps and when developing action plans.

Source: Caught at the crossroads? – Publications

Adding the diversity dimension | Wonkhe Australia

Author: Julie-Hare

Summary: A description of a new report on Australian HE regulation and financing and its relation with diversity. The report argues that a more dynamic system that offers real student choice can be constructed within the current structural framework that includes the Australian Qualifications Framework, as well as regulation and funding responsibilities. But in order to do so it would have to take on some very sacred cows: primarily the teaching-research nexus and the subsequent cross-subsidisation of research from teaching grants.

Abstract: There is a long history of Australia and the UK shadowing each other in HE policy; it’s almost as though one acts as a testing ground for the other’s upcoming reform agenda.

The Labor opposition has already put its cards on the table for an overarching review of the post-18 sector should it win government next year and certainly there will be a lot of interest in the findings of Philip Augur’s impending report.

The case for a radical revamp of Australia’s HE regulatory and funding systems as a structural means of adding to diversity to the current monochromatic mix is the subject of a paper presented last week at the inaugural seminar of the Monash Commission.

Hare J. Adding the diversity dimension | Wonkhe | Australia [Internet]. Wonkhe. [cited 2018 Oct 3]. Available from: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/adding-the-diversity-dimension/

Source: Adding the diversity dimension | Wonkhe Australia

Publishing while Female. Are women held to higher standards? Evidence from peer review.

Author: Erin Hengel

Comment: Very strong article looking at the burden of publishing and peer review for women vs men in economics. Shows that not only do women do more work and improve their manuscripts more from the perspective of readability but that they also internalise this and produce more readable manuscripts in the first place.

Abstract: I use readability scores to test if referees and/or editors apply higher standards to women’s writing in academic peer review. I find: (i) female-authored papers are 1-6 percent better written than equivalent papers by men; (ii) the gap is two times higher in published articles than in earlier, draft versions of the same papers; (iii) women’s writing gradually improves but men’s does not-meaning the readability gap grows over authors’ careers. In a dynamic model of an author’s decision-making process, I show that tougher editorial standards and/or biased referee assignment are uniquely consistent with this pattern of choices. A conservative causal estimate derived from the model suggests senior female economists write at least 9 percent more clearly than they otherwise would. These findings indicate that higher standards burden women with an added time tax and probably contribute to academia’s “Publishing Paradox” Consistent with this hypothesis, I find female-authored papers spend six months longer in peer review. More generally, tougher standards impose a quantity/quality tradeoff that characterises many instances of female output. They could resolve persistently lower-otherwise unexplained-female productivity in many high-skill occupations.

Hengel, E. (2017). Publishing while Female. Are women held to higher standards? Evidence from peer review. (University of Cambridge). https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/270621

Source: Publishing while Female. Are women held to higher standards? Evidence from peer review.