Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Changing Role of Women in Higher Education pp 173–191Cite as

Women’s Place in Academia: Case Studies of Italy and Switzerland

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

During the last few decades, massification of the higher education systems in Europe has given women access to the academic profession. This quantitative improvement of access for women has been widely emphasized (Carnegie 1992 survey, Altbach 1996; Kogan and Teichler 2007, etc.), but important differences remain regarding the levels of status achieved (in other words, where women stand in the academic hierarchy) and the types of professional activities (the gendered division of work) (Goastellec and Pekari 2013; Goastellec and Crettaz Von Rotten forthcoming, 2016). Globally, large differences remain between academic markets and the dependent societies. Based on the EuroAC survey and additional research, this chapter is an attempt to reveal some of the mechanisms favouring gender (in)equality in the academic profession by comparing women in the Italian and Swiss University academic contexts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The EuroAC research – “The Academic Profession in Europe: Responses to Societal Change” took place between 2008 and 2011 in 10 European countries. A survey that was common across these counties was undertaken to characterise the academic profession. In the case of Switzerland, an online questionnaire was conducted in February and March on the basis of the questionnaire that has been used 2010. The questionnaire was constructed in the CAP (“Changing Academic Profession”) project which has been slightly adapted to the Swiss context. All Swiss universities and universities of applied sciences (including universities of teacher training) were asked to participate in the project and the questionnaire was sent out to approximately 18,000 academics. A total of 1471 questionnaires were completed. In addition, 2206 questionnaires were started but not fully completed. After a detailed check of the completed questionnaires, 1424 of them were considered for further analysis. In the case of Italy, the “Changing Academic Profession” (CAP) data survey referred to the years 2007–2008 conducted on a sample of 1716 academics.

  2. 2.

    The category « other teachers » is employed by the Swiss Federal Office for Statistics to cover the heterogeneity of non-professorial academic statuses in Swiss Universities. Those are characterised by the fact that they tend to work part time (less than 50 %) and on teaching-oriented contracts.

  3. 3.

    An odds ratio is the probability of occurrence of an event to that of the non-occurrence of the event i.e. the rates of the probability of something that is true to the probability that it is not true.

References

  • Altbach, P. G. (Ed.). (1996). The international academic profession: Portraits of fourteen countries. Princeton: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bianco, M. L. (2002). Effetti della riforma dei concorsi universitari sulle carriere accademiche e dinamiche di genere. Polis, 16(2), 417–441.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bianco, M. L. (2004). Donne all’università. Studentesse e docenti nell’accademia italiana contemporanea. Annali di Storia delle Università Italiane, 8, 9–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2001). The masculine domination. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission fédérale pour les questions féminines. (1998). Femmes, pouvoir, Histoire. Histoire de l’égalité en Suisse de 1848 à nos jours. http://www.ekf.admin.ch/dokumentation/00444/00517/index.html?lang=fr. Accessed 14 Dec 2012.

  • Danell, R. & Hjerm, M. (2012). Career prospects for female university researchers: event history analysis of career trajectories at Swedish Universities. Scientometrics, 228–235. Published online http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-012-0840-4?no-access=true

  • Euronews. (2011). http://www.euronews.com/2011/12/11/thousands-march-for-women-s-rights-in-italy/

  • European Commission. (2007). Study on the remuneration of researchers in the public and private commercial sectors. Brussels: European Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • Facchini, C. (1997). Uomini e donne nell’ università italiana. In R. Moscati (Ed.), Chi governa l’università?Il mondo accademico italiano tra mutamento e tradizione. Liguori: Napoli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fumasoli, T. & Goastellec, G. (2015). Convergence of the Swiss academic markets: E pluribus unum?. In U. Teichler & W. Cumming, Forming, recruiting and managing the academy: A varied scene Springer, 145–161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goastellec, G. & Crettaz von Rotten, F. (forthcoming, 2016). The societal embeddedness of academic markets: From sex to gender in the Swiss context. In Soares M., Teichler U., Amaral A., Machado-Taylor M., Approaches to the academic career in Europe: Challenges, issues and developments. Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goastellec, G., & Pekari, N. (2014). Gender in the academia between differences and inequalities, findings in Europe. In U. Teichler & E. A. Höhle (Eds.), The work situation of the academic profession in Europe: Findings of a survey in twelve European Countries. Dordrecht: Springer, 55–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Istat. (2001). Donne all’università. Bologna: Il Mulino.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kogan, M., & Teichler, U. (Eds.). (2007). Key challenges to the academic profession. Paris/Kassel: UNESCO Forum on Higher Education Research and Knowledge and INCHER, Kassel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Musselin, C. (2003). « Academic markets. How they work », Conference paper, Women in European Universities, Training and Research Network. Accessible on-line: http://csn.uni-muenster.de/women-eu/

  • OECD. (2012). Education at a glance, highlights. OECD: OECD publishing. Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • OFS. (2010a). Personnel des hautes écoles universitaires. Neuchâtel: OFS.

    Google Scholar 

  • OFS. (2010b). La formation et la situation professionnelle des titulaires d’un doctorat. Résultats issus des données du Système d’information universitaire Suisse et de l’enquête 2007 auprès des personnes nouvellement diplômées. Education et Science, 15. Neuchâtel: OFS.

    Google Scholar 

  • OFS. (2011). Femmes et hommes dans les hautes écoles suisses. Indicateurs sur les différences entre les sexes. Neuchâtel: OFS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wanner, P. (1998). Les changements de nationalité des étrangers en Suisse. Revue Européenne des migrations internationales, 14(3), 185–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. OSPS, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Gaële Goastellec

  2. CIRSIS, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Massimiliano Vaira

Authors
  1. Gaële Goastellec
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Massimiliano Vaira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gaële Goastellec .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

    Heather Eggins

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Goastellec, G., Vaira, M. (2017). Women’s Place in Academia: Case Studies of Italy and Switzerland. In: Eggins, H. (eds) The Changing Role of Women in Higher Education. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42436-1_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42436-1_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42434-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42436-1

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation