Page 81 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg

in this phase. The recruitment and selection processes for assistant professors need more scrutiny as these early-career researchers find themselves in strong competition for relatively scarce positions (Nikunen, 2014). Yet, we do not know how gender plays a role in who win or lose in this competition, but we do see that the numbers of women drop at the level of assistant professor (EU, 2016). Therefore, a critical analysis of the recruitment and selection of early-career researchers is needed in order to understand how gender inequalities are constructed.
In this chapter, we apply a practice approach, which enables us to study gender as a social and relational construction (Poggio, 2006). We will examine the gendering process of evaluating assistant professor candidates, an endeavour mainly carried out by the academic elite. We draw on unique information from a qualitative study on gatekeepers across six European countries and reveal how gender practices emerge in the construction of selection criteria when gatekeepers discuss their recruitment and selection practices.
The aim of this study is to contribute to theory on gender in academic organisations by showing which gender practices characterize the evaluation of candidates’ potential for assistant professor positions with a prospect of a more permanent contract. We draw on empirical material of recruitment and selection procedures and criteria, such as job descriptions, HR documents, interviews and focus groups with selection committee members both in social sciences and humanities (SSH) departments and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments of six European higher education institutions. A critical comparative analysis of the data resulted in the identification of two general gender practices in the recruitment and selection of assistant professors: welcoming women and assessing potential for excellence. Additionally, we find that the two general gender practices are composed of six specific gender practices. Our analysis shows that for early-career researchers, judgements are based on potential instead of long track records of academic performance. We provide insight into the way the ‘ideal assistant professor’ is constructed, and how gender inequalities are ingrained in criteria like excellence, international mobility, and academic citizenship.
4.2 Precarious academic positions
Today’s academic labour market is characterized by precariousness in employment, referring to high employment insecurity and possibly low wages (Campbell & Price, 2016). Spurred by financial incentives, many European countries produce more
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