Careers in Training—For Female Scholars?

Abstract

The still relatively small number of women in leadership positions at institutes of higher education and research centers provides the basis for the programs for the promotion of women documented in the volume at hand. The study identifies the male-oriented culture of science and the gender-specific expectations placed on performance as the most influential barriers standing in the way of women’s path to professorship. The authors in this volume banish the wide-spread belief that the academic elite work their way up the ladder of hierarchy merely due to their own excellence is placed to the realm of myth. Instead they suggest that personal training and coaching will raise the quotient of women in the upper levels of the academy. Early career planning, networking, development of social competence, good time management, and special preparation for tenure procedures are all of particular import to women. The proposed programs should be utilized as a political instrument for equality and should be institutionalized and established for the long term. However, the collected volume does not reflect on the premises or implications of such an instrument.