Gender equality in academic governance: Organizational approaches and collective attitudes [védés előtt]

In Latin America and the Caribbean region, female presence at governance boards accounts for only thirteen (12.7) percent (Credit Suisse Research Institute, 2021). This dissertation focuses on Colombian public universities, because they have one of the lowest female representations at boards despite being listed as organizations regulated by the national gender quota. Not to mention the notorious mismatch in terms of compliance between official and empirical data. Thus, further assessments were needed to determine the actual state of affairs among these organizations. Also, to inform future organizational practices, the analysis concentrates on cases that have already achieved gender parity. Main Findings • The recurrent designation of women in directive positions that entail supportive rather than leading function reflects an underlying gendered ideology emanating from critical actors in charge of the direct appointment of directive staff. These figures of authority are usually represented by men in U1 as opposed to the state of affairs in U2, which has been historically led by women. • The extended academic and administrative communities of both cases support both policies and non-compulsory gender equality initiatives and actions, but among interviewees (staff members at the directive level) the enactment of equality policies was mainly supported by women. • Findings are a combination of the historical background of the universities, the unintended effects of specific requirements to obtain tenure, potentially biased perceptions of critical actors at the directive level towards female aspirants to directive roles and towards organizational gender policies directive roles. • Gender-differentiated divisions of work and functions persist even inside organizations with high female representation at governance boards. • Women in selected cases do not self-exclude from high responsibility roles, in fact, most of them described a deliberately pursuit of directive roles even at the expense of their household responsibilities. Still, their professional trajectories appear to be more entangled than the trajectories described by the male participants. • In the two observed cases, women’s scarcity at the top of the hierarchy is not truly a matter of inadequacy or lack of interest from female staff members, nor is it a matter of collective rejection towards female leaders – for positions involving public polls. In this sense, the enactment of an organizational gender quota with strong enforcement mechanism, would be an excellent way to make sure that during the next appointment of directive staff, the distribution is more balanced between men and women. But the outcomes would be ever better when combined with other approaches to equality focused exclusively on gender

Are We There Yet? Gender Quotas in University Hierarchies: The Case of Colombia

The year 2022 was set as deadline in the Colombian national development plan to reach gender parity in all public directive positions. As we reach the time limit, this study takes the lead on revising the impact of the national gender quota by comparing official reports and empirical data. Official records show a progressive growth in the rate of female representation among reporting organizations’ maximum decision level. Yet, closer analyses of quota regulated universities’ performance, show divergent results. Moreover, records of job positions filled by women are systematically omitted despite being required by the law, which raise further questions about the quota’s potential to foster gender equality at the organizational level. This research addresses this data gap, examines whether a higher proportion of women among various organizational bodies influence their election’s rate to decision-making roles, and explores current corporate equality strategies for a more comprehensive analysis of the quota’s impact

Women’s scarcity in academic governance. Gendered identity or gendered processes?

This article contributes to the empirical evidence for women’s scarcity in academic governance. The study evaluates to what extend women lean towards non-management careers and dismiss opportunities to attain executive roles in Colombian public universities, as well as the support received when they break the paradigm. The purpose was to determine whether gendered practices are ingrained in the designation process or whether women’s scarcity is the outcome of individual attributes/choices and collective perceptions of inadequacy. Data was collected from universities’ proceedings, opinion polls of rectors’ designations, and candidates’ curricula. Findings show low female candidacy rate but high public support for female candidates to the rector’s seat among all universities examined. Also, curricula’s in-depth analyses display women’s preference for male-dominated careers and analogous academic/administrative experience to that of male candidates. Hence, the results challenge explanations presented by human capital and congruity prejudice theories, while leaning towards gendered processes and identities

The Production of Apologies by Colombian Learners of English A Study of Pragmatic Acquisition in an EFL Context

There have been multiple research studies focused on cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics in general, as well as specific studies analyzing the production of apologies from different native languages and from English learning contexts. However, the research related to Hispanic learning contexts of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is more limited. In Colombia, only two pragmatic studies have been conducted about the production of speech acts and both of them focused on the pragmatics of Spanish as mother tongue. This project analyzes the pragmatic competence development of Colombian EFL learners in a pedagogical environment where English pragmatics is not reinforced, comparing the selection of apology strategies used by EFL learners in role play situations in order to determine the variation between proficiency levels. Finally, retrospective verbal reports from the EFL learners and perception forms of American native speakers of English were collected in order to assess cross-cultural perceptions regarding the intelligibility, appropriateness, and politeness of the apologies. The results of the study show that even without explicit pragmatic education or immersion opportunities in the target culture, these Colombian EFL learners have acquired some pragmatic competence in English. However, their general selection of apology strategies do not approximate either English or Spanish. Also, their discourse reflects the Colombian patterns of social behavior and preserve many features of Spanish pragmatics, which reinforces the idea of a transitional stage of inter-language pragmatic development