“In public universities it is not that there is a glass ceiling, there is a glass labyrinth. Throughout the career there are obstacles that harm women in the consolidation of their career”, stated yesterday the researcher Elena Martínez Tola, coordinator of the study Gender Wage Gap in Spanish Public Universities, commissioned by the Ministry of Universities in agreement with the Rectors’ Conference (Crue) and the Assessment and Quality Agency (Aneca).
The study, the first of its kind, was presented by Minister Joan Subirats, who emphasized that if universities proclaim equality they must evaluate what is happening there and be “exemplary”. Subirats recalled that LOSU already establishes plans for equality and measures to correct salary differences on campus.
According to the study, the gender pay gap between teachers (PDI) in Spanish public universities is 12.7% to the detriment of women. There are campuses where female teachers earn 30% less. The difference in the basic salary is not relevant, but it is not so in the supplements (three-year, five-year, six-year, projects…). These can weigh up to 80% of the salary. The difference between what men and women earn is 19.1%.
The study shows that the salary gap is different depending on the age, the academic field, the profile of the university or the category of the teacher.
The gap worsens in the periods of maternity and family care (between the ages of 30 and 49).
According to the authors, researchers from the University of the Basque Country, their academic careers progress more slowly, due to family care, and women tend to self-exclude themselves in obtaining research degrees (“the key to promotion of the academic career”) due to lack of time, as well as in access to management positions “because to get them they have to expose themselves personally”. Once these ages have passed, the gap tends to relax, and stands at 5%.
The majority of these (52%) report a difference of more than 20%, while almost a quarter of the total (23% of campuses) show differences of less than 10%.
In terms of academic fields, 27.4% of women earn less in health sciences, a highly feminized branch with a high degree of associate professorship. In sciences 20%, and in arts and humanities almost 17%.
On the other hand, in engineering and architecture and in social sciences, the distances drop to 7%. According to co-author M. Luz de la Cal, this is due to the behavior of female teachers more similar to male teachers. This conjecture was disputed in the panel discussion when it was pointed out that since there are few women in these faculties they are asked to participate in projects and management bodies to avoid the all-male photograph.
For supplements, the gap is greater in the six-year-olds (28.5%) and, above all, in projects (47.3%). In both cases, they are supplements linked to progression in the academic career, to the recognition of merit, not to seniority. In this sense, the director of Aneca, Pilar Paneque, announced that the Royal Decree of Accreditation and Competition, currently on display, includes changes in the design of the six-year calls (now based on models of hyperproductivity), in its procedures and criteria.
“Self-exclusion occurs only when the call is read,” Paneque pointed out. Likewise, in each accreditation commission there will be “a person who specializes in evaluation from a gender perspective”.
