The proportion of women in top university roles varies widely across Europe
When she put herself forward to become the rector of the University of Namur in Belgium, Annick Castiaux recalls being asked a question that should have been consigned to the history books.
As a candidate for the job, Castiaux says she was asked in a meeting: “If you’re elected, as a woman how will you reconcile your private and professional lives? And what is the position of your husband?”
Castiaux, who became the university’s first female rector in 2021, highlights this as just one of the extra hurdles she has had to navigate during her career, due to being a woman. “Even when you arrive at the top, gender seems to still be an issue,” she told a European University Association webinar on 1 March.
For International Women’s Day on 8 March, the EUA has published new data on the proportion of female rectors in its 48 member states. Despite a 73 per cent rise between 2014 and 2022, women still make up just 18 per cent of top university leadership positions across EUA’s members.
Presenting the data at the EUA webinar, Kamila Kozirog, policy and project officer at the EUA, pointed to some positive trends. “The number of countries with no female rectors has been steadily decreasing every year,” said Kozirog, adding that 2021 saw five countries appoint their first female rectors.
Uneven progress
Despite the overall progress, there is a huge amount of variance between countries.
Kathrin Müller, a project manager at U-Multirank in Germany, which compares the performances of higher education institutions, has analysed data on female higher education leadership from more than 1,200 universities in 35 countries worldwide.
According to Müller’s analysis, shared with Research Professional News, Sweden is the stand-out leader for female university leadership, with 55 per cent of top positions held by women. Latvia comes next on 42 per cent and Switzerland on 40 per cent.
At the other end of the scale, only 7 per cent of universities in China, 7 per cent of universities in Italy, and 10 per cent of universities in Poland are led by women.
Overall in the EU, women make up 20 per cent of higher education leadership positions, according to U-Multirank, which is roughly equivalent to the picture in the United States.
Political will
For Castiaux, one of the reasons that progress towards gender parity for university leaders is moving at a glacial pace is the accepted archetype of university rectors. She said the competitive model that universities have followed over recent decades tends to favour those who fit the stereotypical picture of what a university rector looks like.
Even if universities themselves are slow to change, the political will seems to be there. At the EU, gender equality in research and higher education has been a key political priority. Speaking at the EUA webinar, Mina Stareva, who leads on gender issues at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, said that “supporting more women in leadership and decision-making positions is really at the core of the [Commission’s] gender equality plan”.
Stareva said that gender equality “should not be dealt with in isolation” but would be integrated in policies being developed through the European Research Area—long-running, EU-led policy initiatives to join up activities across the EU on research and education.
“We need to change the narrative,” Stareva said, explaining that this could be done by connecting gender equality to the reform of research assessment and support for research careers.
Disciplinary problems
Reflecting on her own research career, Castiaux recalled how, while she was still a student, a flatmate had said she was “not a woman” because she studied physics—a subject that is still male-dominated—and that changing perceptions within disciplines is crucial.
“If we want to obtain…a balanced representation of genders, including at the top levels, the challenge is to change the gender image of those disciplines,” Castiaux said.
A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe