Summary across disciplines
Women are faring better in sociology and history than in economics, philosophy and political science with regards to their representation in the academic workforce in Australia. In those disciplines for which we could source historical figures (history, political science and philosophy), women’s representation has increased over time. As figure 2 shows, however, in all disciplines, women remain concentrated in lower ranking positions and underrepresented at professor level.
Figure 2: Women in five discipline in Australia as a proportion of all appointments and as a proportion of professorial appointments, 2017
Source: Australian Research Council, Gender and the Research Workforce. Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2018.
Single figure of women’s representation across disciplines
The Australian Research Council (ARC) is responsible for administering Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), Australia’s national research evaluation framework. In the ERA 2015 evaluation round, gender data was collected for the first time. Gender data was used for aggregate reporting and analysis purposes only and to provide a baseline for analysis in future rounds: it was not made available to peer reviewers or Research Evaluation Committees (RECs) and did not form part of the evaluation process. Figures were published at the two-digit Field of Research (FoR) code level. In 2018 the ARC published data at the four-digit FoR code level revealing figures for individual social science disciplines.
The ARC’s 2018 ERA report enabled, for the first time, a comparison of gender in the workforce figures for social science disciplines. Prior to that GESS researchers used the best available figures: staffing data from academic departments of history, philosophy and political science, association membership for sociology, and a single university department for economics (detailed in the table below). The difference in sources explains the discrepancy in numbers. The ARC’s data counts ‘members of staff’ as defined in the ERA guidelines: FTE figures include staff employed on a full-time or fractional full-time basis; headcount figures include staff who are casually employed, seconded or unpaid visiting staff. GESS researchers used headcount figures.
Figure 1: Appointments of women in five disciplines in Australia, various dates
Source: Various sources as shown in table above.
Economics
Data for 2017 shows that women hold 28 per cent of all academic appointments in economics, but just 13 per cent of professorial appointments. Research by Danielle Wood from the Women in Economics Network found that in 2017 women represented half of all research and teaching fellow positions in economics departments, they made up just over a quarter of senior lecturers, and only 13 per cent of associate professors and professors. The share of women in the top echelons of the discipline across the eight most prominent universities is as low as 10 per cent (Wood, 2017). ARC figures from the 2015 and 2017 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evaluation process indicate that men significantly outnumbered women at all levels (A-E and other), and women were concentrated at level B with far lower numbers in higher ranking positions. Workforce figures for the discipline of economics are available at the ARC two-digit FoR code 14.
History
Women in the discipline of history have almost reached parity with men: they represent a larger proportion of staff in history than the other disciplines in the study except for sociology. Actually percentages of women vary between data sources. ARC ERA figures (using FoR codes 2103 Historical Studies and 2199 Other History and Archaeology) revealed that women held 44 per cent of all academic appointments and 30 per cent of professorial positions. These figures differ slightly from those gathered in two other surveys conducted around the same time. A report commissioned by the Australian Historical Association stated that in 2016 women occupied 50 percent of all history positions in Australia and New Zealand, 48 percent of continuing positions, 38 percent of fixed-term appointments and 71 percent of postdoctoral and other fellowship positions. A survey undertaken by GESS researchers in 2016 showed that at each level from A-E, women represented between 57 per cent and 45 per cent of staff.
Philosophy
While women hold around 34 per cent of all academic appointments in philosophy, they remain unrepresented in professorial positions. The actual percentages, however, differ between data sources. The most recent survey undertaken by the Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) in 2017 showed that 47 per cent of appointments at level A are women, but at level E they held just 12 per cent of appointments. ARC ERA workforce figures, however, showed 20 per cent of professorial positions to be held by women. To ascertain ARC workforce figures for the discipline of philosophy the FoR codes 2201 Applied Ethics, 2202 History and Philosophy of Specific Fields and 2203 Philosophy were used, which may go some way to explaining the discrepancy.
Political Science
A 2011 study into the discipline of political science revealed that despite a large proportion of women undertaking PhD studies, this is not translating into employment opportunities for women in academia. ARC ERA workforce figures for the discipline (using FoR code 1606) show that in 2017 women were concentrated at lower levels in the discipline, holding 43 per cent of Level A appointments, but their numbers declined through the levels, and women held only 21 per cent of appointments at professorial level (E).
Sociology
Prior to the publication of the 2018 ERA report, GESS project researchers used membership data from The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) which showed that women made up a greater share of members than men at all levels except professorial level. ARC ERA workforce figures (using the FoR codes 1608 Sociology and 1699 Other Studies in Human Society) showed that in 2017 women hold 61 per cent of all academic appointments in sociology and 48 per cent of professorial positions.
Gender indicators
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publishes indicators to aid exploration of economic and social differences between women and men over time, using data collected by the ABS and other official sources.
The ninth issue of the product in 2015 updated data in six domains of interest: Economic Security, Education, Health, Work and Family Balance, Safety and Justice, and Democracy, Governance and Citizenship. Latest highlights from each domain were also included. For the first time, data from three of the domains – Economic security, Education and Work and family balance – has been disaggregated by Indigenous status, Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) status and Disability status.
Updates are published annually.
Gender Indicators Australia, August 2020
References
Glenys Bishop, with Helen Beebee, Eliza Goddard, Adriane Rini (2013) Appendix 1: Seeing the trends in the data. In Katrina Hutchinson and Fiona Jenkins (eds) Women in Philosophy, What needs to change? (pp. 231–52) New York: Oxford University Press
Martin Crotty and Paul Sendziuk (2018) The State of the Discipline: University History in Australia and New Zealand. Report to the Australian Historical Association Executive.
Eliza Goddard (2008) Improving the participation of women in the philosophy profession. On behalf of Susan Dodds, Lynda Burns, Mark Colyvan, Frank Jackson, Karen Jones and Catriona Mackenzie. Available on the AAP website.
Danielle Wood (2017, 20 March). ‘Women are dropping out of economics, which means that men are running our economy’, The Conversation.