How can gender-specific differences in higher education be overcome?

Introduction

Measures to support women’s and men’s working lives have been implemented on a large scale to eliminate gender-specific differences in the labour market, including career prospects and salaries. In the academic sector, the under-representation of women in leadership roles is a persistent problem. From an economic-theory perspective, the gender gap in academia is due to women’s lower investment in education and gender differences in competitive behaviour. Discrimination against women can also contribute to the gender gap by creating a so-called ‘glass ceiling’ that constrains women’s career opportunities.

In attempting to tackle this problem, many policymakers have focused on positive-discrimination measures. Launched in 2007, the Female Professors Programme (abbreviated to WPP below) in Germany is a unique, incentive-based support programme aimed at the academic labour market. The WPP sets out three objectives, two of which – promoting gender equality and increasing the proportion of women at all academic career levels – can be seen as long-term and difficult to quantify. The third goal of the WPP, on the other hand, is to expand the proportion of females in the most senior academic positions (i.e. professorships) at universities. As the WPP provides direct funding to achieve this objective, this is the most important and tangible goal – in the short term, at least. Funding amounts to a maximum of €150,000 per year per professorship over the five years of each programme round. Universities can fund up to three professorships for women, which they can apply for following the appointment of a woman. This means that a university can receive up to €2.25 million in one programme round.

Research questions and methodology

A study by Mario Fernandes, Andreas Walter (both Justus Liebig University Giessen), Simon Hilber and Jan-Egbert Sturm (both KOF, ETH Zurich) entitled ‘Closing the gender gap in academia? Evidence from an affirmative action programme’ focuses on the programme’s effects on business administration professors in Germany. The study aims to answer two key questions. First, does the programme increase the likelihood that newly appointed business administration professors at programme universities are female compared with non-programme universities? And, second, does the programme influence the publication-related hiring criteria for newly appointed professors, especially women, compared with non-programme universities?

In order to answer these questions, the study uses a difference-in-differences approach based on a dataset of 827 business administration professors who received their first appointment at a German university between 1996 and 2017. This natural experiment is based on the assumption that programme universities and non-programme universities would have developed in parallel without the WPP. The researchers conducted three different tests for the assumption of parallel trends, and the results confirm their suitability in this setting.

Programme's impact on gender representation

The study shows that universities that participate in the WPP are significantly more likely (approximately 10 percentage points more) to appoint female professors than universities that do not participate. The extent of this effect is considerable, given that the percentage of female professors in the sample is relatively low (roughly 20 per cent). The programme has evidently been successful in increasing the proportion of newly appointed female professors in the field of economics.

These findings are consistent with previous research, which also found that the programme had a positive impact on the overall representation of female professors in all academic disciplines (Löther, 2019). However, the study by Fernandes, Walter, Hilber and Sturm contributes additional insights by providing more precise estimates of the programme’s impact on newly appointed professors and can tell us more about the underlying mechanisms.

Mechanisms behind the WPP’s success

The study explores the mechanisms behind the WPP’s success by analysing the publication portfolios of newly appointed economics professors. Publications in peer-reviewed journals are a major aspect of academic achievement and thus a key factor in the recruitment process.

This analysis shows that the universities participating in the programme have lowered the publication requirements for newly appointed female professors without this having any effect on the entry barriers for male professors. This indicates that the programme’s success in increasing the proportion of female professors is at least partly achieved through positive-discrimination measures. By lowering the entry barriers for female junior academics, the programme universities create a more conducive environment for women to obtain professorships.

This study builds on previous research showing that publications are important for recruitment and promotion in academia (Ayaita et al., 2019; Röbken, 2009). Although the authors of the study cannot rule out the possibility that other aspects such as changes in the weightings of teaching performance or the acquisition of third-party funding also played a role, their high-quality data led them to focus on publication portfolios as a measure of academic performance.

Implications

The findings of this study have important implications for gender-equality policy in the academic labour market. The success of the Female Professors Programme shows that financial incentives can be effective in encouraging universities to implement gender-equality measures. The programme motivates academic institutions to address gender-equality issues, thereby creating a more gender-equitable working environment.

The positive results of the programme in the field of business administration offer valuable insights for policymakers seeking to promote gender equality in academic labour markets. Unlike many previous initiatives, which have yielded mixed results, financial incentives such as the Female Professors Programme appear to be driving positive change at institutions. Furthermore, the programme’s high level of acceptance within the academic community in Germany – as evidenced by the large number of universities that have applied to participate – underlines its potential as a model for future measures to promote gender equality worldwide.

Like any study, this one has its limitations. There is a lack of detailed information on individual appointments, which would provide a better insight into the direct impact on specific subject areas within business administration. In addition, analysis of longer observation periods would allow a better understanding of the programme’s long-term effects.

Conclusion

This study contributes to the literature on gender equality in academia and on policy measures to reduce the gender gap. Despite some limitations, the findings of this study emphasise the potential of financial incentives to drive positive change in academic labour markets and close the gender gap in academia.