Is senior management in irish universities male-dominated? What are the implications?

Universities present themselves as gender-neutral meritocracies, concerned with the creation and transmission of scientific, objective knowledge. Yet such structures are overwhelmingly male-dominated (Husu 2001a). This article outlines the gender profile of those in senior management in Irish universities; secondly it explores the extent to which those in senior management see a gendered organisational culture or women themselves as ‘the problem’; and thirdly, locates these patterns within a wider organisational and societal context. The qualitative data is derived from a purposive sample of forty people in senior management (85 per cent response rate) from presidential to dean level, including academics and non-academics, men and women, and across a range of disciplines. It suggests that organisational culture is seen as homosocial, unemotional and conformist mainly but not exclusively by women; whereas men were more likely to focus on women as ‘the problem’. These trends reflect those in other studies (for example Currie and Thiele 2001; Deem 1999; Deem, Hillyard and Reed 2008). Drawing on Grummell, Lynch and Devine’s (2009) work, it suggests that homosociability is an important process in creating and maintaining these patterns. Furthermore, although university presidents are seen as having the power to affect the gender profile of senior management, there is ambivalence about them actually doing this. The extent to which other stakeholders seem likely to encourage this is also explored.