I have sometimes thought that a marker of gender equality will be when, on boarding a plane and making one's way to the back, one observes that there as many women as men in the club class section.
Twice before in my acacdemic life I have been in situations where the gender tables have been turned. I was once a member of a research group at one of the Paris universities (Paris IV, occupying an outbuilding of the Sorbonne, further up the rue Saint-Jacques) in which women outnumbered men. We were all working on the ways in which social marginality often translates in to spatial marginality - the most excluded groups in society being relegated to the poorest and least attractive spaces (urban peripheries, or next to noxious factories and motorways, for example). But the actual leader of the group was a man.
Secondly, and more recently, I have been involved in research groups in two Portuguese universities. In these cases women have been in positions of authority as well - heading research units, and as Pro-Rectors: indeed, there is a female rector of one of the universities I have been involved with. I sought an explanation once and was told that women managed to get a foot on the acacdemic ladder in the early 1970s when many Portuguese men were conscripted to fight in the ill-fated African wars to hold on to the colonies, and they have managed to stay ahead throughout their careers. Whether the next generation of women will be able to maintain that position is another matter.
But these days I am once again often in a room with a majority of women. Last week I was at a regular meeting at HEFCE. There were 21 of us present - 13 women (including the chair) and 8 men. This week I have been at a meeting in another university: 12 were present, with 7 women and 5 men. So in what areas are women now coming to the fore?
These have been meetings about teaching. The HEFCE meeting was the strategic advisory group on teaching; the Birmingham event was the regular meeting of the Russell Group Pro-Vice-Chancellors for Learning and Teaching. Of that latter group (in total of 20 - I won't count in the newcomers quite yet), 10 are men and 10 are women.
Yet in relation to other areas of university business there is a very different balance. Among Russell Group PVCs for Research 18 are men and 2 are women. Among Russell Group VCs Nancy Rothwell (Manchester) is the only woman.
So teaching seems to be an area where women and men enjoy some equality, at least in the UK context. Yet it doesn't stretch to senior roles in other spheres. And actually it doesn't really go right to the very top in the teaching area either. Admittedly there are four VCs on the HEFCE teaching committee - 2 men and 2 women (among whom, as I said earlier, is the chair). Yet over the last week I have been in the presence of the chief executives of all the main bodies affecting English universities - HEFCE, the Higher Education Academy, the Quality Assurance Agency, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, and UCAS. Only one of those is a women (Mary Curnock Cook, the Head of UCAS).
Nevertheless, my gender performance indicator of an equal distribution of men and women in the club class section of a plane could be more easily achieved with a gathering of PVCs for Learning and Teaching, than with a gathering of PVCs for Research or of VCs. Thoughts and comments on this would be welcome.
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