Regarding Stoat’s earlier post On Women in Philosophy and Jender’s earlier post on Critical Mass, I thought this article drawing attention to some recent HESA statistics was interesting. It seems that the numbers of female academics in British Universities has risen slightly. However, the interesting bit:
1) 42% of F/T Lecturer level posts (Assistant Professorships) are held by females.
2) 30.8% of F/T Senior Lecturer level posts (Associate Professorships) are held by females.
3) 16.5% of F/T Professorial posts are held by females.
Assuming, from the Critical Mass article, that what holds for business environments holds for academic ones too, then, although female Senior Lectureships meet (just) the critical mass requirement, I’d expect the need to meet the 30% level is really at the Professorial level. In which case, the 16.5% stat is a bit concerning.