Research Selectivity and Female Academics in UK Universities: from gentleman's club and barrack yard to smart macho?

Abstract

This article reports the findings of survey data designed to explore the perceived impact of research selectivity (in the form of the Research Assessment Exercise [RAE]) on academic work in UK universities and examines their implications for women academics and gendered cultures in the light of recent writing on the position of women in UK academia. If at least part of women's disadvantage in the academic labour market is to be explained by their invisibility in predominantly ‘masculinist’ institutions, then it is possible that an institutional emphasis on research productivity combined with explicit, independent and standardised monitoring and evaluation of research output might render visible research contributions hitherto overlooked by male-dominated institutional hierarchies. However, the findings would indicate that whilst it might very well be in the short-term interests of some well-placed women (and men) ‘to play the RAE game on alien terms and win’, in the long term the RAE treadmill is unlikely to create either the institutional space or the cultural will to advantage a broad range of women academics as an occupational group.