Do globalization and internationalization influence the gender composition of academia? And, if this is the case, how? What is the effect of internationalization when it comes to research priorities and preferences between and within different disciplines and how is this influencing the gender composition among the academic staff in the research- and higher education institutions (RHE) in Norway? And does gender influence the degree of internationalization within a research field? These are some of the questions the research project Gender, citizenship and academic power (GAP) will answer. The project emerges from knowledge gaps pertaining to three tendencies in today?s Norwegian RHE-sector:
? Recruitement and career development within the RHE-sector has for a long time been subject to national, and often local practices, preferences as well as formal and informal rules and regulations. This has led to a high degree of internal recruitement in the sector. This may explain the significant male dominance at the top-level in Norwegian academia ? in country otherwise characterized by gender equality; male professors has over the years been able to recruite and consolidate the career of homegrown candidates resembling themselves ? both in terms of discipline and gender. This practice is now challenged due to a gradually rising degree of recruitment of academics from outside Norway. Internationalization and globalization might thus influence the gender composition of the academic staff in the institutions in the RHE-sector. The question is whether and how this is actually happening.
? An academic career is often idealized as a meriocratic, straight line towards a specific target ? i.e. the professorship ? passing a few stations underway ? i.e. ? from PhD candidate to post-doc, through to associate professor (førsteamanuensis)? We do not know much about the effects of organizational cultures and processes on gender balance in academic career trajectories and practices. And we know even less about how foreign female and male academics experience and navigate organizational cultures, work conditions and academic career conditions in Norwegian RHE-institutions.
? In academia both in Norway and globally, there is a gender imbalance horizontally ? with pronounced underrepresentation of women in STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) ? and vertically, with fewer women in top (professorial) positions. The question is how internationalization and academic mobility influences these two forms of gender imbalance.
GAP will investigate how globalization and internationalization influence the gender balance in research and higher education. Moreover, we will explore how changes in academic demography (in terms of gender and international recruitment) influence local research agendas and organizations, practices and power structures. We will do this with climate researchers at four different research and higher education institutions in Norway as a case. GAP is designed in three work packages (WPs) combining qualitative and quantitative methods and analyses. Through these WPs we will explore and analyze a) the gender imbalance in Norwegian Research and higher education in the light of the complex intersections between global and national structural developments, and b) the impact of internationalization on institutional and disciplinary dynamics, work conditions and organizational, cultural and epistemic practices. A WP dedicated to policy relevant capacity building on gender equality in a context of internationalization, will be developed, based on the knowledge produced in the two other WPs.
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Gender, citizenship and academic power (GAP) is a research project that will contribute with new knowledge about the impact of globalization and internationalization policies for gender equality through empirical studies of foreign-born women and men in senior positions in the Norwegian research and higher education sector. GAP will investigate how globalization and internationalization influence the gender balance in research and higher education, and how changes in academic demography (in terms of gender and international recruitment) influence local research agendas and organizations, practices and power structures with climate researchers at four different research and higher education institutions in Norway as a case. GAP is designed in three work packages (WPs) combining qualitative and quantitative methods and analyses that will a) explore and analyze gender imbalance in Norwegian Research and higher education in the light of the complex intersections between global and national structural developments, and b) the impact of internationalization on institutional and disciplinary dynamics, work conditions and organizational, cultural and epistemic practices. A WP aiming at policy relevant capacity building on gender equality in a context of internationalization, will be developed, based on the knowledge produced in the two other WPs and through learning platforms and focus group meetings engaging stakeholders in the sector in discussions about the findings in GAP.
