Gender (In)equity in academia: the role of informal rules and practices

Abstract

A glass ceiling for women still exists in academia after two decades of EEO legislation in Australia. There are complex factors that when combined make gender inequity in the sector highly resistant to change. In this paper we offer our stories of embedded male patterns of behaviour in academia that operate beneath the facade of policies and rules put into place to counter inequity. Using our stories as reflexive devices to make explicit these hidden behaviours allows us to assuage our feelings of cognitive dissonance. Leader-Member-Exchange theory and social identity theory is used to make sense of the deal-making and rule-breaking behaviours in which males in the in-group engage. The analysis of such behaviours shows that the traditional emphasis of the EEO legislation on formal policies and procedures to bring about gender equity in academia needs to be accomplished by cultural change programs that make explicit and challenge behaviours that reproduce and reinforce male hegemony in academia.