Page 85 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg

professor positions, a selection process in which the research participants had taken part, and department policies regarding recruitment and selection of early-career researchers. Interviews were conducted with 47 men and women committee members and five focus groups with 35 men and women committee members. In total 55 men and 27 women participated in this study. The majority of our research participants (two thirds) are men. This reflects the number of men on selection committees in the countries of this study. We find in our data that decision-making power regarding the appointment of assistant professors mainly lies in the hands of men researchers. The majority of committee members as well as the committee members in powerful positions (e.g., the chair of the committee) are men. Even though the skewed division of men and women among our research participants reflects the current situation in selection committees for assistant professor positions, it could have influenced our findings. See Table 4.1 for more information on the research participants.
Table 4.1 Number of men and women interview and focus group participants per country and department
THE PERIL OF POTENTIAL 83
Iceland (IS) Slovenia (SO) Belgium (BE) Switzerland (CH) Italy (IT) TheNetherlands (NL)
Total
SSH STEM SSH focus STEM focus Combined interviews interviews group group STEM-SSH focus group
MFMFMFMFMF
41133221-- 22212232-- 3230----23 3 1 2 1 4 2 - - - - 4120------ 2 2 5 0 2 1 4 0 - -
18 9 15 5 11 7 9 3 2 3
The interviews and focus groups were recorded with participants’ permission and transcribed verbatim. Thus, our data are primarily textual accounts that allow us to capture detailed accounts of recruitment and selection practices. It is in these accounts that we found multiple gender practices. Ideally, we would have gathered observational data as well, to be able to capture the practices in the doing. Unfortunately, we were denied access to actual recruitment and selection processes in all but one country because of privacy and confidentiality concerns.
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