Visoke akademske pozicije u Srbiji: mogućnosti za pripadnice nacionalnih zajednica?
High Positions in Serbian Academy: Possibilities for Ethnic Minority Women?

Summary/Abstract: The primary goal of this paper is to analyse the opinions of male and female professors about reaching decision-making positions (dean, departmental head, etc.) within the Serbian academia. The secondary goal of the paper is to analyse the opinions of ethnic minority women about reaching decision-making positions. The analysis is based on twenty-eight semi-structured interviews, recorded with male and female professors of the University of Novi Sad and Belgrade, who belong to Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian minority groups, as well as with the professors from the majority group. The analysis indicates that the majority of the respondents are not motivated to reach the power positions within the university. They explain their lack of motivation by using various “strategies”. The “strategies” differ between men and women: women distance themselves from politics and see themselves as educators, whereas men are not ready to get involved in the politics of the academia at the moment, but do not exclude that possibility in the future. Female members of ethnic groups see their nationality as a primary obstacle on their way towards reaching decision-making positions, while their gender serves as a secondary source of discrimination, whereas ethnic majority women, in their narratives, accentuate gender as the only obstacle they have. Men more often mention gender and ethnicity as obstacles for women from ethnic groups when reaching decision-making positions.

• Details
• Contents