Speaking in a Different Voice: The Gendered Nature of Promotion Applications

The gender pay gap in UK higher education institutions remains high and in 2022 stood at 18.3% sector-wide. This chapter explores a gender-based case study at one post-1992 University Faculty of Business and Law which was undertaken during the course of a successful 2020 Bronze Athena Swan application. Amongst a number of activities undertaken, staff were questioned during a focus group about the perceived impact of gender on promotions. We analyse why, although some progress has been made in terms of promotion, women remain under-represented at professor level, with its inevitable impact on the gender pay gap. Some staff consulted in the gender focus group viewed current promotion criteria as ‘inherently masculine.’ The Feminist Judgments Project, which was led by Hunter, McGlynn, and Rackley in 2010, rewrote legal judgments, applying the law as it existed at that time, but adopting feminist theoretical approaches leading to different conclusions or different reasoning. Inspired by that approach, this chapter applies a feminist approach to current promotion policies, procedures, and management practices, considering their accessibility for women applicants. Many approaches to reform, including the trickle-up theory, have proven unsuccessful. We therefore recommend rewriting promotion criteria and exemplars of excellent successful applications in order to further articulate feminist views of excellence in academia.