Women's Empowerment and Leadership in Academia: A Case Study

Gender mainstreaming first appeared on 1985 during the 3rd UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi; in 1995 the study on this subject was reopened in Beijing 4th during UN World Conference on Women and one year later the European Commission emphasized its importance in terms of new policies. Since then, gender mainstreaming has turned out to be an innovative tool to equal opportunity strategies (tinkering-tailoring-transforming the mainstream, Rees 1995) that could put the basis for a "substantial" gender parity through a reconsideration of systems. Women -as widely proved by literature - are often penalized in academic career processes and are also sub-represented in top positions.According to many gender-equality studies, the "Leaky Pipeline" and the "Glass Ceiling" are two of the most well-established phenomena. The former is a metaphor of the progressive women's exit from the academic career paths once finished the period of education, whereas the latter is a metaphor of the invisible barrier measured by a specific index that expresses women's difficulty in accessing to key positions. This paper focuses on data - provided by Universities both in Italy and in Europe about women's careers from 2006 to 2016, and compares them with a qualitative and quantitative survey as well as a focus on the University of Calabria. The data show that changes are irrelevant and not such as to alter the general trend in Italy and Europe. The reasons of this persistent disproportion can be found in literature - at micro, macro and meso levels - and are confirmed by the survey: a too competitive scientific environment that encourages women to "exclude themselves"; a discriminatory behaviors in academic selections, promotions and career that aren't gender-oriented; an absent or with little impact "Welfare State". This resistance towards change needs to implement "follow-up systems" in order to assess the impact or effectiveness of legislative measures and good gender-oriented practices.