Regime of Inequality in Aotearoa New Zealand
Regime of Inequality in Aotearoa New Zealand

Summary/Abstract: This article traces the framing and positioning of gender in the Tertiary Education Commission’s (TEC) rethinking of the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) under the aegis of equity, diversity and inclusion. The article begins with the position that gender equity in academia in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond is well known yet little engaged with. The recent Sector Reference Group (SRG) set up to engage with the TEC and the academic community about the PBRF Quality Evaluation 2025 has articulated the most progressive agenda yet for women and Māori and Pacific scholars specifically. The article takes a forensic approach, inspired by Sara Ahmed, to follow gender around in the discursive environment within which the PBRF is placed. The article first provides a brief contextual setting for gender representation in the university. The article then explores the sustained critique of the PBRF, paying particular attention to the work of Brower and James (2019) and Walker et al. (2020) and their examination of the gender disparities evident in academia. The article continues by exploring recent SRG reports of the PBRF and the subsequently announced changes to the PBRF. It is argued that these changes move to realign the PBRF so that it accommodates a series of demands made of it in recent years that coalesce around a thicker social justice agenda. Finally, the extent to which women’s inequality in academia will ever be a significant issue, despite the changes to the PBRF, that drives equity change is questioned.

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