Gender in the Academic Elite in a Post-Socialist Society the Case of Montenegro with a Side-Glance at Norway
Gender in the Academic Elite in a Post-Socialist Society the Case of Montenegro with a Side-Glance at Norway

Summary/Abstract: All over Europe there is now a focus on women in sciences. This concern reflects both the perspective of human capital - no nation can afford to base its economic, social and cultural development on only one half of the intellectual capacities of its population – but also the sense that this is a question of justice. Since 1999 the European Commission has initiated and funded reports on women in sciences in all Western European countries as well as in the eight new member states that were formerly communist states. These reports show that although young women now make up at least half of the students in higher education, the participation of women is reduced as we look higher up the academic hierarchy (Osborn et al., 2000; European Commission, 2003a). Even though this is a general phenomenon in all European countries there are important variations. The best documented differences concern the gender distribution in the professoriate. Official figures show that Latvia has the highest proportion of women professors, 26,4 percent; in half of the post-communist states in the European Union there were more than 20 percent women professors (Latvia, Bulgaria, Poland and Estonia) whereas only Portugal and Finland out of 16 Western European countries had passed 20 percent in 2000 (European Commission 2003b, Fig 3.1.b). The main focus of the studies initiated by the European Union has been on member states and associated countries; thus with the exception of Slovenia, there is a need for recent empirical studies in the English language from states within former Yugoslavia. My focus is on Montenegro, characterised as one of the least developed parts of former Yugoslavia (Blagojevic, 1991).[...]

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