P5 Women are more likely motivated than men by feelings of empowerment at work to
accept a senior academic management position
The gathered interview data show that female interviewees sometimes feel less taken seriously within the university. Various examples substantiate to this issue, such as: “Male colleagues are not even aware of their behavior themselves. There is this one
professor, and every time I talk to him, he gives me the feeling that I do not belong here. And that really annoys me. Also, another professor, a male dean, stated - during a general meeting together with the head of the university - that women are not
physically capable of the professorship or the deanship! I mean…. this did not happen years ago. No, he said it last year!” (female respondent 7).
The data confirms that women, due to the male-dominated culture, receive less support or even experience resistance from their male colleagues. They acknowledged that the male- domination was sometimes unpleasant. At the same time, some women also reported that the culture within the university is changing (slowly) nowadays. Explained, for instance, by: “The generation that says: ‘a woman’s place is running the kitchen’ is almost gone
are still present. It is still shocking that they really believe that everything changes for a female academic after she has had birth. What, does she suddenly loses her brains? On the other hand, I notice that they often apologize for their response, because they now see good representative examples of women who can be a professor, an academic manager, and a mother at the same time” (female respondent 4).
Female interviewees stressed that women should focus on the quality of their work and what they are worth as a female academic and not linger in the man-woman discussion and how this might negatively affect their academic careers: “do not complain, just participate and show them that you know what you are talking about” (female respondent 10). Moreover, as
issued before, some female interviewees even acknowledged the advantage of being a woman in a male-dominated context:
“You can also make use of the advantage of being a woman. People seriously said to me: ‘you look so sweet.’ I just thought: ok, if people think I am sweet, I can probably achieve a lot more than others. I already have the ‘goodwill,’ which means that people are more willing to share information. I can use this as a powerful tool”
(female respondent 4).
Despite the fact that some women felt more disadvantaged than male colleagues within their position, the desire to ‘empower the individual position within the university’ has not been shown as a determined motivation for female professors to accept a senior academic management position. As mentioned in previous paragraph, only one female professor indicated that she somewhat felt socially pressured to meet the expectations to contribute to management, before she could work on her individual career (female respondent 4). This indicates that she somehow was motivated to accept the position by the desire to ‘be recognized for meaningful contribution to the organization’ and subsequently continue to work on her academic success. In other words, by accepting a senior academic management position, she ‘empowered’ her position to later fully commit her time in writing a book. As mentioned various times, also other female respondents accepted the senior academic management position motivated by the desire to take the responsibility to contribute to the university. However, rather than ‘empowering their position,’ it appeared that these women were more motivated by feelings of social obligation. The position is a few times referred to as a ‘corvée task.’ In addition, it is stressed a few times by female interviewees that they were
motivated to accept the position in order to show their capabilities as being a female to succeed as a senior academic manager.
Considering the answers of the male interviewees regarding the concept of
‘empowerment,’ the most decisive reason to accept a senior academic management position was to ‘empower the faculty’ due to, for instance, poor financial circumstances. And, to show their management capabilities to solve the issues the faculty faces and be the ‘heroes’ who ‘save’ the faculty from disaster. Rather than being motivated to empower their position:
“It is some kind of ambition that you think that you are capable of doing something about it. That you can really offer something to the faculty” (male respondent 2).
Male interviewees indicated similar responses as female participants considering the “moral obligation” (male respondent 5) to do something for the university (see paragraph 5.3.1: 57). However, even though they also perceived it as their duty to take the responsibility to improve the situation, they did not recognize the position as ‘corvée.’ It is mentioned that
administrative tasks lower in the organizations are more seen as ‘corvée tasks,’ but that the role of deanship is too “big and heavy” (male respondent 9) and that you should be willing
and be capable to accept such responsible position. Further, they indicated that their motivation was influenced by the desire to show that they could succeed as managers.
Moreover, the literature suggested that men are more likely driven by the desire to gain power and control over others. In the interviews, the motivation to “being able to play the boss” is
mentioned (male respondent 9). However, the desire to control others was not intended to empower their position, but rather to enforce a change to improve the situation within the faculty.
Conclusion
In general, it can be concluded that the concept of ‘empowerment’ did not fully apply as a motivational factor for female professors. As described before, female professors often
contributed to the faculty at a later stage in their career. Accepting the position was, therefore, not intended to empower their position, as they already had proven themselves as excellent scientists. At the same time, some women were motivated by the willingness to prove their ability to succeed within management. Male professors did not particularly indicate their desire to have power over others, but rather to have the authority to improve the situation in
the interest of the organization and to show that they ‘can manage’ internal issues. Likewise, they were motivated by the willingness to prove their capabilities.