Endogenous and Exogenous Barriers the Reasons for Tokenism of Women Academics in the Upper Echelon of the Ivory Tower

Diachronically there has been an increase in the number of women academics, however, this is not present in the upper ranks of the ivory tower. As of March 2024, women headed a quarter of the top universities around the globe, an increase of 82% in the last nine years. This is a grim picture and a lot worse as far as the rest of the universities are concerned. In Cyprus, for example, there are 13 universities and only 2 of 39 rectorate positions (1 Rector and 2 Vice Rectors) are held by women. Similarly, in the UK, (Jones, 2024) women make up 54% of the higher education workforce and occupy 45% of academic positions but only 28% of academic leaders are women in the positions of Vice Chancellors.

The authors of this paper surveyed the academic personnel of Cyprus’s universities to find whether, and if so, what holds women academics back from holding leadership roles. The research device was an online questionnaire with closed-ended questions administered to all academic staff of the 13 universities in Cyprus.

The analysis of the data indicated that a higher percentage of females (63.8%) felt encouraged by their families to take leadership roles, compared to only 47.2% of males. However, a higher proportion of males (38.9%) than females (24.6%) did not discuss with their families their intention to seek leadership positions. This finding does set the scene for the androgenic societal status quo. Other statistically significant findings point to the endogenous and exogenous factors creating barriers for women to voice their interest in seeking leadership positions in the higher echelons of the ivory tower.

The authors of the paper make recommendations to address this inequality.