Gender research: women, the academy and the workplace
We are pleased to present this Special Issue, which features research on women's higher education qualifications and career progress, primarily in the academic setting but also through the lens of the wider workplace and society at large. The principal set of papers presents research on questions related to gender equality inside the academy itself, by examining challenges in the career paths and leadership development of women in higher education; major and more rapid progress is clearly required in this context. A second section then describes current authentic aspects of gender equality in situ: graduate employability in a volatile labour market, the social recognition of women's academic credentials in education and science, the growing need for policies to help women balance their domestic and professional commitments, and the macro support provided by UN initiatives in this instance illustrated by UNESCO's action to promote gender equality in the media industry. Taken together, these diverse perspectives suggest that academic research should investigate women's progress inside and after academia, given the ever increasing numbers of women graduates in both contexts. Since the fourth World Conference on Women 'Action for Equality, Development and Peace' 2004) female enrolment in tertiary education has grown exponentially. As a result, the focus has expanded from actual participation in this sector and subsequent academic careers for women, to their advancement in the workplace and their place in decision making circles. It is important to measure progress in women's chosen fields of employment, as well as their presence in leadership roles everywhere. To this end, the Gender Inequality Index (GII) established by the United Nations Development Programme in 2000, has proved a useful mechanism. The GII documents the participation of women in three critical fields: reproductive health, empowerment (notably politics) and the labour market; this includes access to leadership and executive positions, of which the academy is one example. The latest figures from 2015 show Norway in the lead, and Niger ranked last. As this broader perspective unfolds, a concurrent imperative emerges namely, to promote policies and strategies that support women's efforts to balance professional and personal responsibilities, and to document good practice in this area. Research on gender equality constitutes a vital component of this dynamic, as pointed out by Prof. Anne Marie Slaughter, a Princeton academic and CEO of the New America Foundation. Her 2015 book, Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family proposes an agenda for tackling this challenge.