Waikato Uni tops census of women’s participation
Thursday, 11 November 2010, 1:51 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato
Media Release
November 11, 2010
Waikato Uni tops census of women’s participation rates
Waikato University has the highest proportion of female professors and associate professors of all New Zealand universities. The latest report from the Human Rights Commission shows women make up one-quarter of Waikato’s professors, and one-third of its associate professors.
According to the commission’s biennial Census of Women’s Participation report released this week, Waikato University has increased its total proportion of female professors and associate professors from 22.01% to 28.57% since 2007. Waikato now has 48 women in senior academic roles.
The proportion of female professors at Waikato has increased from 18.89% in 2007 to 25% and female associate professors from 26.09% in 2007 to 32.89%.
Waikato jumped ahead of AUT and Victoria University to take the top spot, with five other universities also improving their proportion of women holding senior academic positions. Overall, New Zealand’s eight universities increased their proportion from 19.19% to 22.45%.
Waikato University Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford says Waikato’s achievement is particularly impressive given the declining rate of women’s leadership participation across all sectors. “We take women’s leadership participation across the entire university very seriously. For the past two years we have run a successful Women in Leadership Programme and we recently appointed two women to Assistant Vice-Chancellor.”
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Convenor of the Waikato Women Professors group Professor Delwyn Clark says, “It’s great to see these improvements to the proportions of senior academic women in the university sector and especially to see the University of Waikato in the top position.”
Waikato has shown to be steadily increasing its proportion of female professors and associate professors, up from 20% to 25% in seven years. “However, we still have a long way to go before we achieve 50% gender parity in the professoriate,” says Professor Clark.
The university currently has a total of 162 professors and associate professors.
Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner and a recipient of Waikato University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009, Dr Judy McGregor says, “University-led initiatives to improve women’s leadership and increase the number of senior academic women seeking promotion in New Zealand’s universities are having an impact. With the large numbers of female tertiary students, it is only reasonable to expect a relevant proportion of senior female staff.”
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