Supporting Women in Research

Abstract

Although women are researchers in other contexts, this chapter focuses on women researchers in academic life. My starting point is the idea that women are outsiders in academia, both in the sense that they are a numerical minority and in the sense that the values that inform academic life can be said to be masculine (Bagilhole 1994; Brooks 1997; Gray 1994; Heward 1996; Kettle 1996; Leonard and Malina 1994). Moreover, as outlined in chapter 1, women are likely to be concentrated at the bottom end of the academic grades and pay scales, which are usually linked more to teaching than research. As teachers in higher education, women often experience a lack of support from male colleagues and sometimes male students (Bagilhole 1994), but the problem is more acute for women in research where they may feel even more marginal and less well supported.