25 October 2018
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Fabianinkatu 24, 3rd floor
17.30-19.00
key note lecture
Marieke van den Brink (Radboud University)
Mobilizing masculinities in academic gatekeeping
This presentation uses the notion of mobilizing masculinities (Martin 2001) to gain a better understanding in the reproduction of gender inequality in academia. I will draw on empirical material from two studies on professorial appointments and early career positions in Dutch academia. I use the notion of mobilizing masculinities to understand the self‐evident identification of men gatekeepers with men in their networks, and to understand how both men and women gatekeepers prefer the male candidates that resemble the proven masculine success model. Furthermore, I will discuss the notion of mobilizing femininities in which women search for and support women candidates showing how the gender practice of mobilizing femininities is a more precarious and marked practice than mobilizing masculinities. Mobilizing femininities in networking is intended to counter gender inequalities, but is only partially successful. Through constructions of ‘who you can trust’ or ‘who is a risk’, gatekeepers exercise the power of inclusion and exclusion and contribute to the persistence of structural gender inequalities.