Women do not find a glass ceiling in universities but a “glass labyrinth” due to the number of obstacles they encounter to consolidate their academic careers in a situation of equality, has indicated one of the researchers in charge of preparing a study on the difference between what professors and professors charge in universities.
Thus, the salary gap between teachers by gender in all Spanish public universities is 12.7% to the detriment of women. But if the difference in compensation for supplements is observed (three-year, six-year, project…), which can weigh up to 80% of the salary, the difference increases to 19.1%.
This is one of the conclusions of the report presented this morning by the Minister for Universities, Joan Subirats, and the researchers from the University of the Basque Country who have developed it at the request of the ministry. Subirats has encouraged universities to promote mechanisms that act against the gender gap.
The gap increases with age and coincides in the periods of maternity and child care, between 30 and 39 years, and also between 39 and 49 years. According to the researchers, their academic careers progress more slowly and women tend to exclude themselves from the call for six-year research periods, as well as access to management positions. Over time, the gap tends to relax and stabilize, remaining around 5%.
These salary differences in supplements are very different depending on the campuses analyzed (48 public universities). In fact, most of them (52%) report a gap of more than 20% while almost a quarter of the total (23% of campuses) show differences of less than 10%. There are also academic centers whose teachers earn up to 30% less in supplements.
The average gender gap in bonuses is greater in bonuses for six-year periods (28.5%) and, above all, for projects (47.3%). In both cases they are complements linked to the progression in the academic career.
In relation to six-year bonuses, they are not directly and exclusively linked to seniority, but rather to the accumulation and recognition of merits in research and knowledge transfer. “For this reason, the gender gaps appear wider,” the study indicates. Thus, women represent only 29% of the PDI that has 6 or more six-year terms.
At the other extreme, a very significant percentage of the PDI has no six-year term and this is more pronounced in the case of women (65.5% of women and 59.6% of men).
This is the first report of the Spanish university system on the gender gap and has been commissioned by the ministry, after a pilot report was carried out in 2022, to researchers from the University of the Basque Country and the public University of Navarra, Mari Luz de la Cal Barredo, Aitziber Etxezarreta Etxarri, Arkaitz Galbete Jiménez; and the coordination of Elena Martinez Tola. With the supervision of Pilar Carrasquer, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. All were present at the presentation, accompanied by the ministry’s chief of staff, Marta Cruells, as well as representatives of the Conference of Rectors (Crue) and the National Agency for Evaluation and Quality (Aneca).
