Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Sexism and university administrators

If you are currently in one of the few university departments that are hiring, you are probably getting frustrated by all the hoops you need to jump through to prove that you are not discriminating against various populations. These exercises imposed by the university administrations are sometimes silly, like asking you to figure out whether job candidates have certain characteristics, while you are supposed to take decisions while being blind to these characteristics.

Now, it is then a good question how the practices of the administrators are. Information on hiring practices of administrators is hard to come by, but it is easier to figure out how much they are paid. This is what Alison Booth and Jeff Frank set out to do with British university administrators, looking and gender differentials as well as the influence of sexual orientation or marital status. It turns out academics exhibit no bias in wages, but male administrators are significantly more paid than females. Hmmm. Do as I say (not as I do).

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