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As noted above, my understanding is that a case study is a useful approach for this study. Particular points of strength are about the ability of case studies to respond to questions of ‘how’ and ‘why’ which corresponds to the critical realist goal of explaining social phenomena rather than attempting to develop universal laws for the purpose of prediction (Yin 2003). As

Vincent (2008) argues, the constant question of how and why a particular phenomenon occurs is the pathway to identifying the generative mechanisms at play that reproduce and transform social structures.

A further reason for using a case study is that the research design can usefully incorporate both intensive and extensive methods as advocated by Danermark and Ekstrom (2001a). As discussed, intensive methods provide evidence about the quality or essence of a particular event or experience. Extensive methods can generate more quantitative data that can reveal the frequency of a given phenomenon either within or across a number of cases. Together, they provide a rich and detailed understanding of a given phenomenon. Both intensive and extensive methods are incorporated in this study.

The design of case studies is also largely guided by practical considerations of what is possible and logical in a given context and situation, a further tenet of critical realist-inspired method. Questions of design, as Yin (2003) points out, are essentially about the logical steps that need to be taken to enable researchers to get from ‘point A’ to ‘point B’ – with ‘A’ referring to the research question and ‘B’ referring to the answers to the question. How that journey is best taken is largely determined by the conditions and context – a point often missed by competing epistemological approaches. A related point is that the role of intuition is acknowledged in the selection of cases to achieve the research ends. As Yin (2003) indicates, the selection of case studies is strategic in order to maximise the extent to which the data collected can align with the research questions and purpose. This rationale resonates for my deliberations about how best to tackle my research questions.

My choice of a case study was, in no small part, guided by practical considerations. As an employee and student at VU, the ability to access data and information was much easier than it would have been had I attempted to research another university or tried to include a statewide or national sample. Arguably, this ‘insider-status’ also contributed to the depth of information and analysis that I was able to access. In addition to this, however, case studies also enable flexibility in design, and the ability to include new information as circumstances change. As detailed in the following chapter, higher education in general, and certainly at VU in particular, has operated in a highly dynamic context over the four years that this study was conducted. In order to explain anything at all, such changes in leadership, policy, economic conditions and government, needed to be incorporated for a full picture to be drawn. As such, I employed a range of methods within the one case study in order to generate a coherent background and context for women’s promotional aspirations in higher education. These are explained below.

Methods used in this case study

The parameters of this case study are drawn around women employed at Level C by Victoria University. This focus arises from the understanding that gendered hierarchies of employment are both generated and transformed by the interaction between agency and structure. As such, the perspectives of this group of women, positioned as they are below the level of Associate Professor, are capable of providing critical insight into how individual decision making and action occurs within the possibilities that are offered within the structures of the university in particular and by the higher education system more generally. Given this understanding, it is not possible to interpret the actions of a group of individuals without attention to the structures in which they operate. The views and experiences of the women in this study are interpreted through organisational, systemic and historical contexts. Similarly, as I have argued in Chapter Three, my understanding is that women, as a group, share some common experiences, despite the extensive differences that are generated by class, ethnicity, sexuality, care responsibilities, religion and other realms of individual difference. It is therefore necessary to understand women’s location through a gendered analysis of broader labour market trends and history. All of these assumptions flow from a critical realist ontology, which in turn lends itself to specific methods as described below.

As discussed, the central method employed in this study is interviews with women employed at Level C which I discuss in detail in Chapter Six. The results and analysis of the interview findings are supported by data gathered through a range of sources. First, the research questions, as discussed at length, were refined through a review of the relevant literature. The questions arrived at responded to identified gaps in the literature and were inspired by central debates. The questions were also grounded in national labour market data in general and national higher education employment data specifically. As put forward in Chapter One, 10 years of higher education employment data was reviewed to show changes in women’s representation and distribution within the higher education hierarchy. The intention was also to locate VU within the national higher education context and to show how gendered employment patterns at VU are very similar to national averages. This profile shows that at least in terms of gendered employment patterns, VU is a general or typical case. This suggests that what is happening at VU in terms of women’s progression is likely to share similarities with other institutions.

The second main method used is to undertake an analysis of VU as an organisation. This includes first a history of the university within the context of the waves of reform that have characterised higher education in recent decades. What this history shows is that while VU is

very much a creature of successive waves of Commonwealth Government higher education policy, and very similar in character to other ‘new technology’ universities across Australia, it has some distinctive characteristics that have shaped the academic employment experience over the past 20 years. Of major significance is its unique and legislated responsibility to provide higher education options for the Western Metropolitan Region of Melbourne. While dynamic and changing, the region is generally characterised by high levels of socio-economic disadvantage, multiculturalism and as having borne the brunt of industrial change in the shift from an industrial manufacturing base to one underpinned by a services economy (Sheehan & Wiseman 2004). This responsibility has been inspired by a broader commitment to social justice and regional development aspirations. This is an important contextual characteristic in shaping employment conditions and the aspirations of individual academics employed at VU. This is particularly the case for those who have been employed for more than 10 years.

The second part of the organisational profile includes an analysis of gender representation by discipline area. What this shows is that while women are being promoted, and their representation is growing at senior levels, this growth is uneven across the university and there are discipline areas where women are almost completely absent above Level B. It also shows that an increase in women’s representation at senior levels is curtailed by the increasing practice of external recruitment, which strongly favours male appointments. As a consequence, the prospect of equal representation by gender is still an unlikely prospect in the short or medium term.

Third, I provide an overview of current university policy that is relevant to employment and equal employment opportunity. As I discuss, this includes policies that flow from the most recent enterprise agreement that applies to university employment conditions, policy that flows down from the Commonwealth about research activity and quality, and equal opportunity policy relating to women and leadership. This demonstrates is the plethora of influences on academic employment, all of which is highly dynamic and gendered in its impact.

This history provides the background to the interviews that I conduct with women employed as Level C academics at VU. The process, results and findings of these interviews are detailed in Chapter Six. In summary, however, I conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 24 out of a potential 58 women. The interviews were one to two hours long and focused on four key areas. These included career history, current employment circumstances, aspirations for promotion and perceptions of the need for and effectiveness of equal opportunity policy and strategy implemented at VU. Interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically using

NVIVO3. A key theme identified is that while each of the women interviewed had a very different story to tell, the overall condition is that most have been ‘slowed down’ in their progress through the academic hierarchy due to the combined influences of gendered career histories, responsibilities for care, gendered, sometimes directly discriminatory organisational practices and excessive workloads. A small number of interviewees were actively aspiring to promotion. Some of these women have been directly inspired by EEO initiatives that encouraged this. Most, however, were not aspirational despite having reached a point in their career where they were qualified and experienced to do so. This was because they were too unwell, too tired, too traumatised, too cynical, considered themselves too old, or were busy making other plans.

It is also important to highlight that each of these methods was implemented from the perspective of an ‘insider’ as a part-time academic, full-time student and a union member over the course of four years. The fact that I live locally is also relevant given the importance of VU to the region. Over the course of the project, I have also been invited to advise on equity policy and to make presentations at various forums on the implications of my research. While these have not been documented specifically, throughout the process, much of my direction was guided by information gathered through informal means. The interest generated from women academics who are colleagues and friends, in no small part encouraged my progress, but also informed my questions and analysis. In this sense, this research has an ethnographic character in that the organisational context of the research was very much part of my lived experience for a number of years.

Together, the aim of this mix of methods is to provide a detailed insight into the conditions that shape the employment aspirations of a group of academic women employed at VU. Combined, the evidence provides the basis for an argument about why women’s progression between Level C and Level D continues to remain, perhaps not a glass ceiling, but a hazardous journey – a journey that many women ‘choose’ not to continue once they have reached a certain point.

Conclusion

The overall purpose of this chapter has been to describe, explain and justify the use of a case study as the strategy to generate evidence necessary to respond to my core research questions. The following chapter flows from one of the key methods of this study, which is to provide an historical and organisational context for the women who comprise my case study. I do this by

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providing a description of VU as a university, a history of its development and a discussion of recent events, how these changes have been shaped by national higher education reform and how this has been implemented at VU. I go on to examine the local and gendered impacts of this reform and how this is manifested at VU. I also discuss how EEO has fared within the context of reform and its potential to support women’s academic employment opportunities. The purpose of this background is to give context to the findings from interviews with academic women employed at Level C.