EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

74 Equality Guide
1.1. Problem definition
The number of female students has increased faster than the number of male students
over the past few years. Moreover, the students with the highest grades are often
women. In medical and social sciences and human sciences in particular, it is no longer
exceptional for female students to outnumber male students. However, only a few of
the best female students are recruited as academic staff while the smaller population of
male students produces the majority of academic staff members.
Both national and international statistics have proven that the number of female academic
staff decreases as the academic career progresses. In other words, the higher the
level of the academic career, the smaller the number of female staff members (also
referred to as ‘the leaky pipeline’) 74 . Therefore, there is no question about the dissimilarity
in the distribution of the sexes throughout the hierarchical system. The undeniable
consequence of the current reward and recognition systems is a loss of knowledge
and quality. In order to both increase and preserve the level of knowledge and quality
within Ghent University and other universities, this project wants to stimulate the inflow
and through-flow of female academics on all levels and within all disciplines.
This module mainly aims at creating a research methodology and policy tool that will
enable researchers at UGent and other institutions to carry out comparative studies
about the career chances of women, both repeatedly and on a long-term basis. By
providing more insight into the problems of female academics, the reasons why men/
women apply for certain positions/grants and the factors that can stimulate women to
apply more often, will facilitate the implementation of the guidelines which are to
emerge from this research.
1.2. Context UGent
Research into the inflow, through-flow and outflow of women is still in its early stages
at UGent. In 2007, the university’s academic staff consists of 40% women and 60%
men. However, the percentage of female researchers differs strongly depending on the
various academic statutes and ranks. An equal proportion of men (52%) and women
(48%) is found within the pre-doctoral group (this is the total group of junior researchers
who do not have a PhD degree). The percentage of women declines to 36% in the
74
Although the writers of the parts of this chapter have used a very different set of references, there were a
number of studies that could be used as a background for the module as a whole. These studies focus
among other things on the international comparison of the number of women in academic circles, the
influence of scientific excellence, the academic policy concerning publications, the experiences of female
academics and the glass ceiling. A number of these studies are well known and are repeatedly used as a
background for research about the academic world: She Figures (2003, 2006), the Etan-report (2000),
the Enwise-report (2003), the Helsinki-report (2002), Gender and Excellence in the Making (2004) en
the Gender Equality-report (2005).