Institutionalizing Gender Equality or Resisting It? A Cross-National Analysis of First Women University Presidents, 1970–2024

• In Event: Sociology of Human Rights Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

Worldwide, most countries have been making progress toward gender parity in all levels of education, including higher education. The underrepresentation of women in the highest executive offices at universities worldwide is not a pipeline issue. Why then, as women far exceed men in higher education enrollments and strive to gain higher status as faculty and leaders, are their numbers not keeping pace with those of their male counterparts?

In this study, we will describe where and when universities worldwide have had women presidents. We will conduct descriptive analyses of approximately 202 countries from 1970 to 2024, using a novel longitudinal dataset with the dependent variable coded as a binary indicator of whether a university in that country had a first woman president in a given year. Second, we aim to explain whether and when a country has had a woman university president by conducting an event history analysis with regional and national-level explanations.

We argue that the global and regional diffusion of norms and expectations around women’s rights may explain the growth of women leaders. A world society perspective has been useful for explaining progress in women’s status in other domains. Conversely, a movement against the liberal world order has arisen among countries advancing illiberal alternatives, resulting in a global antifeminist backlash. Using the same tactics employed by liberal networks, countries with illiberal orientations have established INGOs and IGOs and organized global convenings—some with the support of the United Nations. Several of these INGOs advance “pro-natal rights” and traditional women’s roles. More than two dozen such organizations currently exist, with rapidly increasing membership worldwide. The effects of such illiberal orientations are also affecting higher education, as evidenced by declining enrollments and funding. We expect the illiberal revolt against gender rights and higher education to negatively relate to women’s academic advancements.

Authors

• Christine Min Wotipka, Stanford University

• Hannah K D'Apice, Stanford University