Doing (and Undoing) Gender in the Academy: Policy, discourse and academic subjectivity

Part of the Institute’’s Visiting Fellowship Programme.

This paper is a think piece on the place of women in academia today. Whilst the entry of women into higher education is an achievement to be celebrated and women have certainly made their mark on the academy, this is not a simple success story. There is a significant body of feminist research that highlights the ways in which the cultures and practices of universities, and constructions of academic subjectivity, are gendered as well as classed and radicalised. From the traditional university to the neoliberal academy in austere times, gender is, perhaps, rather more ‘done’ than ‘undone’. I draw on recent research with academics in the UK to consider the ways in which contemporary policies, discourses and technologies produce gendered subjects, with a particular focus on the affective. My intention is to provoke a discussion about the implications for women in the academy today and the possibilities for change.

Professor Carole Leathwood is Director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Education (IPSE), London Metropolitan University. With a disciplinary background in sociology and women’s studies, Carole specialises in research related to inequalities in higher and post-compulsory education. She is a Fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) and the international adviser for a research project on ‘Research policy and research practice in the global research economy’, funded by the Swedish Research Council, 2011-2013. She is a consulting Editor for Women’s Studies International Forum, an Associate Editor for Gender, Work and Organisation and on the Editorial Boards of Gender and Education and the Journal of Education Policy. Publications include ‘Gender and the Changing Face of Higher Education: A feminised future?’ co-authored with Barbara Read (2009, SRHE/OUP) and ‘Gender and Lifelong Learning: Critical Feminist Engagements’ co-edited with Becky Francis (2006, Routledge).

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