Higher Education: A degree of sexism at Oxford: A battle is under way to give women a bigger share of the senior academic jobs, reports Liz Heron

OXFORD University is launching a review of its promotions and equal opportunities policies following a dons' revolt last month that forced an embarrassing reversal of plans to create 15 new professorships.

Angry female dons and their supporters protested at what they claimed was sexual discrimination in academic promotions at Oxford. On 17 May at a meeting of the Congregation, Oxford's parliament, they won overwhelming support for a resolution to replace the professorships with readerships - a lower grade for which they say more women would be eligible.

The protesters argued that since promotions to professorships came mainly from the pool of readers, and the university's record on promoting women had been so poor, creating more professorships for which women could not realistically compete would be discriminatory. More readerships were needed to provide women with a first step on the promotional ladder.

In a crushing defeat for the university authorities, dons voted 182 to 37 in favour of the resolution. They rejected in similar numbers an amendment put by Oxford's general board, which said it would be too disruptive to reverse the professorships but promising a review of promotions and the number of readerships.

Procedures are being tightened for the new readership appointments, which will be announced in the autumn. Joanna Innes, proctor of Somerville College and a member of the general board, said that feedback from faculty boards suggested that they were not following directions to check that all suitable candidates applied.

The debate on how to underwrite equal opportunities in promotions is about to be triggered at every level of the university by a consultative document on changes to the promotions policy. The document will be issued shortly by the general board and sent to faculties, departments and colleges.

The figures under discussion reflect national trends. At Oxford, women comprise 15 per cent of all academics, 7 per cent of readers and 4 per cent of professors. Nationally they comprise 14 per cent of academics and 4.9 per cent of professors.

Recent ad hominem promotions - personal chairs created using merit pay from the Government or the university's own funds - have gone almost exclusively to men: none of 27 professorships created last year went to a woman, and only three of 60 readers appointed in 1991 were women. Nationally there is a similar trend: a recent survey by the Association of University Teachers showed that 40 per cent of merit pay awards went to professors, who comprised only 10 per cent of the workforce.

But dons are divided over both the nature of the problem and the appropriate solutions. Ms Innes said: 'Equal opportunities monitoring of the university's appointments procedures in 1991-92 found that there was no prima facie case for discrimination. One has to ask to what extent is the under-representation of women in higher posts explained by the age structure of the university.'

For Ms Innes, the crucial first stage in ensuring equality of opportunity in promotions is effective monitoring of the pool of applicants for posts at every level. 'A lot of the problem lies in who applies, and we don't really know enough about the pool of applicants to know at what stage we should be encouraging more applications from women,' she said.

'This latest readerships exercise is hardly going to transform the position of women in the university. If women are appointed to these posts in the same sort of ratio that they are represented in rank-and-file academic life, you would get three or four readerships going to women,' she said.

But David Smith, a professor in the department of pharmacology, believes more readerships are needed to ensure that promotions are made on the strength of teaching and administration as well as research. Increased teaching loads made it difficult for lecturers to compete for higher posts at Oxford. These tended to be awarded to people whose research had international standing. Women lecturers, who frequently had higher teaching loads and family commitments, were particularly disadvantaged.

'As long as there are only a few readerships, I fear it will always end up being research that counts in personal promotions. That is why we need more readerships,' he said.

Ruth Deech, principal of St Anne's College, says that efforts should be concentrated on creating the conditions which allow women to compete on equal terms. 'At least three-fifths of women employed as lecturers are employed in the former women's colleges where the teaching loads are higher and many have to leave at 5pm to look after children,' she said.

'More needs to be done to ensure that women have the time to do research and publish it; for example, by giving them research fellowships and special lectureships and ensuring that libraries are kept open throughout the year. Nurseries and provision for after-school and holiday care of children are also important - we have already made some progress on that front - and I think a more equal allocation of university lectureships between colleges would also help. At the moment one college may have one university lecturer for 30 students, while another has three.'

Oxford's membership of Opportunity 2000, launched two years ago by John Major to increase the representation of women in senior posts, should help to focus the debate. Participation means Oxford must set its own objectives and take part in an annual review.

Draft objectives are being drawn up by the university's equal opportunities committee. Those under discussion include a complete overhaul of the university's code of practice on equal opportunities in appointments; positive action in advertising for posts in areas where women are under-represented (this would involve stating in the advertisement that women are under-represented and encouraging them to apply); and introducing flexible and part-time working arrangements for parents throughout the university, and equal opportunities training for all staff involved in selection and promotion.

Oxford is drawing on the experience of other universities in the scheme - 15 have joined in the past year - and is proposing that an educational sub-group be formed within Opportunity 2000 to address issues unique to them.

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