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Time won't fix universities' gender pay gap, study finds

September 15, 2022

By Joe Wickins 

Listen to the interview 

Achieving gender pay equity in Aotearoa's universities won't happen without bold intervention, a new study suggests. Photo: University of Canterbury.

A University of Canterbury study has found that women will continue to face inequity for decades if universities do not take steps to improve the representation of women at higher levels of academia.

Researchers found that women made up a quarter of all professors, the highest paid academics, at the University of Canterbury. This is up from 3% in 2005 but is still "a long way behind men at the top academic level". 

Women have made up more than 50% of postgraduate students in many disciplines for many years, yet remain over-represented at the lower level positions of lecturer and senior lecturer. 

Study co-author, Professor Alex James, told 95bFM's The Wire that if we carry on as we are currently that 20 years from now, only around 35% of professors will be women. 

"This over-representation of women in the lower ranks, and therefore pay grades, is one of the contributors to the gender pay gap in universities."

James and co-author Professor Anne Bower's previous work published in 2020 found that female academic staff at a New Zealand university can expect to earn about $400,000 less than their male counterparts over their career.

"A common response is that we just need to wait. Our research shows this isn't the case. Without serious and concerted efforts, universities are not ever going to see 50% of people at the highest rank being female."

James said we can fix this long-standing problem by hiring more female researchers and promoting women in the same way as men.

The study was the first to differentiate between moderate and high-achieving researchers. It found that for academics who focused on research, fairer hiring practices would influence pay parity. 

"Research-focused men are far more likely to be promoted, and so they reach the higher ranks quicker than women."

"It is critical that universities ensure women are represented in all aspects of university work. In the research-focused group, we need to concentrate on hiring more women to reach gender parity."

James called on universities to commit to publishing an annual gender and ethnicity pay gap report.

"This is an important issue across universities and across society, here in Aotearoa and internationally. This way we can at least see how big the problem is and track the progress in fixing it."

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air