Organisational culture in Romania: The fine line between success and failure for women in academia

George Marian Ichim
Additional contact information
George Marian Ichim: Department of Sociology and Social Work, Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences Faculty, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, Iaşi (Romania)

Stanovnistvo, 2020, vol. 58, issue 2, 23-41

Abstract: Experiences of discrimination in the academic world discourage women from taking part in contests to occupy higher academic positions. People tend to evaluate academic management based on what they consider to be normal behaviour for both women and men. Because of this, women are often perceived as less appropriately equipped to occupy an academic managerial position than men, especially in fields (such as the academic field) where male stereotypes are regarded as more efficient. This research was intended to evaluate the organisational culture and environment within the largest university centres in Iaşi (Romania) in relation to the accomplishment and execution of academic and scientific tasks by academic staff, as well as measuring their personal and professional satisfaction. We used a qualitative method (the ‘life story’ interview), as we wanted to identify certain events and defining traits of women in academia by focusing on their subjective experiences. For this purpose, we took into account the following three indicators: professional motivation and satisfaction, balancing personal and professional life, and success and failure in the academic world. Focusing on the obstacles women meet in their attempt to reach scientific/academic management positions, we have noticed that one of the major difficulties women in the academic world are confronted with when becoming academic managers is creating a balance between family life and their career. The interviewed women are not willing to give up domestic tasks for the benefit of professional tasks, as they are part of the traditional family model. On the other hand, this study shows that these women do not lack motivation to take up a managerial position, but that the norms promoted in the academic environment disadvantage women, despite the fact that the interviewees consider these formal norms to be gender-neutral.

Keywords: personal satisfaction; academic performance; management position; male stereotypes; work-life balance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/view/377 Abstract page (text/html)
https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/download/377/366 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eto:stanov:v:58:y:2020:i:2:id:377

DOI: 10.2298/STNV200218006I

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Stanovnistvo from Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Marko Galjak ().