Female professors: rebels in the traditional scientific order?

Abstract

Access to higher education has gradually become more equitable between the sexes since the 1970s and thanks to extensive university reforms, both nationally and internationally, more women than men enrol at the universities. However, women remain a minority in leading positions in the sciences. The higher the level of academic qualification, the lower the proportion of women. Although female professors do important scientific work, it is often their male colleagues who take credit for their success or whose voices appear in public and in the media. Repetitive and unquestioned practices as well as the allocation of social roles play a decisive role in this respect. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and social field, the study analyses power relations and positionings within the scientific field. Through six narrative interviews with female professors at a public university in Quito, Ecuador, it highlights the ruptures with the established order and underlines the subversive practices they develop to manifest themselves as subjects in the sciences.