Gendered Academic Careers: A Comparison of Indonesia and New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis aims to describe and better understand the gender gap in academic careers in Jakarta (Indonesia) and Auckland (New Zealand). The thesis is intended to measure and explain the operation of the gender gap, while also interrogating the construction of such indices as essentially Western in their assumptions. For example, The Global Gender Gap Report (World Economic Forum, 2015), rates New Zealand 10/145 and Indonesia, 92/145 of countries surveyed. A review of the global rankings shows a patterning of Western and non-Western countries and clearly invites deficit-based explanations in terms of development, culture, religion. As an Indonesian woman, such patterning also invites unease and disquiet. While I have experienced the everyday processes that produce the gender gap in academia and societally, I am also aware of the complexities and countervailing elements that reports like The Global Gender Gap Report might miss. One result of unease with a simple notion of the gender gap index, is to enrich research through the use of mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. This thesis explores and contextualises issues around the gender gap in academic careers, by using mixed methods across institutional cases based in Jakarta and Auckland. The methods used include: (i) secondary research, including analysis of promotion policies; (ii) an autoethnographic account, in which I discuss issues of gender, marriage, religion, patriarchy, motherhood, class, and social status; (iii) a quantitative analysis of differing datasets drawn from Indonesian and New Zealand institutions, using descriptive statistics, binary and ordinal regression; (iv) the non-comparability of datasets and of quantitative analysis reinforced my decision to include qualitative approaches in the mix of methods. Accordingly, I interviewed 30 academics in Auckland and Jakarta. The main findings of the research are: (i) It confirms the literature that male domination in academia is hidden and female academics who are mothers are marginalised. For academics who are also mothers, there is a collective understanding that the barriers are significant; (ii) Racial discrimination exists, but is largely invisible. Participants of colour acknowledged it and indeed had experienced it, though other participants, in the same universities, believed that it no longer occurred. Arguably, gender and race are rendered invisible in academic careers under a neo-liberal system, especially when using statistical analysis, as such elements are considered non-meritocratic factors; (iii) Understanding the academic gender gap in Indonesia is better framed by considering the fact that career progression follows civil servant regulation, and is not perceived as very prestigious in terms of income. Rather, being an academic, according to some Indonesian academics, is about a “calling” and devotion to knowledge development; (iv) On the other hand, studies in liberal, Western countries emphasise that family life, children, and domestic work are serious problems for female academics. To be single or childfree is considered to enhancefemale academic careeradvancement. In conclusion, comparing the scale of the gender gap index between liberal countries such as New Zealand and non-liberal countries such as Indonesia is very challenging due to cultural and structural differences. My research underscores that it is important to measure women’s conditions beside indicators developed in the Gender Gap Index (economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment). It is necessary to include indicators which are accepted in all cultures and nations, such as the index of happiness, life satisfaction; indicators must align with desires and hopes for the future. Critique is essential to create the conditions for transformative change but that change should align with individual and collective aspirations.