INTRODUCTION

Feminist theoretical approaches and gender studies have clarified that inequality between men and women is the result of a socio-cultural construction and not the result of differences in natural capacities (1). Higher education was, precisely, the appropriate context for the reproduction of gender differences, being for more than a century the exclusive space for the professional training of men, which has now ceased to be so, in line with current social dynamics (1). Public universities in our country are not only central spaces for knowledge and knowledge production, but also the main engines of social mobility and social ascent (2). Despite achieving, on average, higher educational levels than men, women continue to show lower participation in the labor market and, when they do, they are more prone to situations of hourly underemployment and unemployment (3).

In terms of vertical segregation, it is observed that women are promoted to positions of headquarters in a lower proportion than men, although women represent 45.0% of employees, only 30.1 % of the employees who hold leadership positions in the work processes are women (4.5).

Equality between men and women is a fundamental human right, protected by international and national norms and legislation. At the international level, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (6) stand out, which, in its 2023 report, states that it would take 140 years for women to be equally represented in positions of power and leadership in the workplace (7).

Egalitarian ideology is impeded by a primary and principal split in our society; the well-known private life/public life dichotomy and the fact that women have access public life without being able to abandon the material and psychological burdens of private life, finding it more difficult both to access and to integrate into groups of power and academic influence (8).

Belonging to the academic world means being part of a system of prestige and power that particularly hierarchizes the professional work of its subjects.

The percentages of female scientists are always significantly lower than those of their male peers; the recognition and awards given to female scientists are infinitely less numerous and important than those given to their male peers. In addition, women are also numerically underrepresented in the hierarchical structures of scientific bodies worldwide (9).

Although it was in the academic field where the concept and perspective of gender and where most research using this perspective is generated, higher education institutions have not necessarily embraced the issue to develop changes within the institutions, which may explain the unequal situation that continues to be observed in these working spaces (10).

Data from 136 accredited medical schools in the USA show that only 15% of deans are women and 18% in the role of vice deans. Women are more often employed in positions focused on education and mentoring, but not in those related to corporate and political strategy, finance or government relations (11).

Times Higher Education magazine reports that, among the best universities in the world, those led by women have increased for the first time in three years, but still represent less than one-fifth of the main institutions (12). In a cross-sectional study conducted at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires, when analyzing the distribution of teaching positions by gender, there is little female representation in the highest positions associated with academic recognition, decisión-making and higher salaries (13).

The concrete practices of creating a protocol, mainstreaming the gender approach and training are the actions that are establishing a new institutional and social order in universities. Progress still needs to be made in the parity of participation of university governing bodies and in decision-making spaces (14).

The achievement of effective equality between women and men in our society requires public policies that directly affect gender inequalities and, in order to do so, it is essential to have the necessary and sufficient information to highlight them.

If inequality is not visualized and quantified, it is not perceived as a problem and, therefore, the need to intervene on it is not appreciated.

OBJECTIVES

General Objective

To know the role played by the female gender in leadership positions in the Faculty of Exact, Chemical and Natural Sciences (FCEQyN) of the National University of Misiones (UNaM) since its creation until December 2022.

Specific Objectives

1-To evaluate the evolution of the composition of the FCEQyN faculty by gender from its creation up to and including the year 2022.

2-To determine the distribution by gender of the graduates of the FCEQyN undergraduate programs from its creation up to and including the year 2022.

3. To analyze the distribution according to gender, age, teaching seniority and degree of the teachers who served in leadership positions within the FCEQyN as Dean, Vice Dean and the Secretariats: Academic, Research, Development and Innovation, Extension and Technological Linkage, Postgraduate and Nursing School Management.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The School of Exact, Chemical and Natural Sciences is located at 1552 Félix de Azara Street in the city of Posadas. It offers 4 undergraduate courses, 3 doctoral degrees, 4 specialties, 6 master's degrees and the following undergraduate courses: Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Food Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemical and Bromatological Analysis, Nursing, Genetics, Biology, Information Systems, Biology, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science.

Regarding the historical background, on April 16, 1973, National Law No. 20,286 was enacted, creating the National University of Misiones. The School of Exact, Chemical and Natural Sciences was created in 1974, being its closest antecedent the School of Chemical Engineering, created on August 6, 1957 and depending on the Northeast National University (https://www.fceqyn.unam.edu.ar/facultad/historia/).

On November 17, 1980, the School of Chemical Engineering of the National University of Misiones became the School of Exact, Chemical and Natural Sciences.

Faculty

Teachers are primarily responsible for fulfilling the actions that the University plans and executes to achieve its objectives. Their specific tasks are the integral formation of students, research, intellectual creation and extension. And when applicable, they are also concerned with the participation in the governing functions of the UNaM and any of its academic units and/or dependencies, in accordance with the provisions of the current Statute(https://www.unam.edu.ar/images/documentos/estatuto_unam.pdf).

Methodology

In order to obtain the gender profile of the graduates of the different undergraduate courses that make up the Faculty of Exact, Chemical and Natural Sciences, the data were obtained by using the SIU Wichi system with data from the SIU Guarani Academic Management Information Cubes, provided by the Department of Informatics and Communications of FCEQyN.

To know the distribution by gender, age, teaching seniority and degree of the individuals who served in leadership positions within the Faculty, we analyzed the election periods and direct appointments from 1973 to 2022 inclusive.

The data on the designations of authorities were extracted from the books of Provisions and Resolutions in the Human Resources Department of this institution.

Once the list of teachers who participated in the leadership positions had been drawn up, the data on gender, age, teaching seniority and degree were obtained from the Faculty Records Office.

For the authorities that exercised their functions before the creation of the UNaM, the data published in the Faculty of Chemical and Natural Sciences/UNaM/1957-2007, 50 years of history, were considered. It was a produced by the Social Communication career of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, with Professor Liliana Maya as the responsible editor. The data published in the digital book FCEQyN were also used.

A history under construction (https://www.fceqyn.unam.edu.ar/fceqyn-libro-historia/), developed by Dr. Luz Irene Pyke and the communicators Lara Schwieters and Miguel Riquelme, from the FCEQyN Communication program.

Variables analyzed

The data corresponding to categorical variables (gender, function and degree) were recorded according to what was reported by each teacher in his or her file, resulting in a dichotomous variable for gender and a polytomous variable for the remaining variables. They are described by means of bar graphs, and the proportions of the dichotomous variables are also expressed. In the case of the age variable, it was obtained by the difference between the date of birth and the date of access to the position or function, being recorded in years fulfilled, as a discrete quantitative variable. Teaching seniority was recorded as a discrete variable and corresponds to the difference between the year of admission to the institution and the year in which the position was taken up. The Mann Whitney test was used to compare medians between genders, with a statistical significance level p <0.05.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1-Evolution of the composition of the FCEQyN faculty according to gender since its creation until 2022 inclusive.

>Table 2 presents data on the gender composition of the teaching staff of FCEQyN faculty since its creation. In order to interpret this table, we must point out several important events in the history of this institution that was born as the School of Chemical Engineering in 1957.

In 1974, the Biochemistry career was created and, in 1978, the Industrial Chemical Laboratory. The School of Nursing, created in 1974 under the Rector’s Office, became dependent on the FCEQyN 1980.In 1985, the School of Pharmacy was created and the careers of Professor of Biology and Bachelor of Genetics were transferred from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.In 1995, Mathematics and Physics Teaching became part of the faculty. In 2003, the Bachelor's Degree in Information Systems was created in the city of Apóstoles, under the FCEQyN. Ok The Chemical and Bromatological Analysis career was created in 2004 and the Food Engineering degree in 2007. Finally, in 2014, the University Professor's Degree in Computer Science was created at the Apóstoles campus.

Table 1 shows that at the beginning of the creation of the FCEQyN, there is a large predominance of the male gender (96%), which declines over the years until reaching 40% in the year 2022. This could be explained by the incorporation from 1974 of careers belonging to health sciences, which have a gender distribution with predominance of female gender.

2-Gender distribution of graduates from FCEQyN undergraduate programs since its creation.

We can observe that in most of the undergraduate programs there is a predominance of the female gender. The exceptions are the Bachelor's degrees in Information Systems, Chemical Engineering and Physics.

Currently, there is greater access of women to higher education, however, this situation has been called an 'illusory advantage'. Although there is greater access to higher education, women are underrepresented in science, engineering, mathematics and technology disciplines, which are precisely the fields in which job opportunities are increasing, while they are overrepresented in feminized careers linked to caregiving (15).

This situation has an impact on wage gaps that translates into women earning lower salaries, where the selection of degrees and fields of study explains between 15 and 25 percent of the difference in earnings between males and females among higher education graduates. Male students continue to choose higher-paying degrees and receive higher earnings after graduation than females (12).

3- Distribution according to gender, age, teaching seniority and degree of teachers who held leadership positions at the FCEQyN.

Gender

Total leadership positions: 117

Male: 80 (68%)

Female: 37 (32%)

Therefore, throughout the history of the Faculty, 3.2 out of every 10 leadership positions were held by women.

When analyzing the distributions by gender for each management position, the following relationships are observed:

Dean's Office/Delegate Organizer: total. 24, male: 24, female: 0.

No women

Vice Dean's Office: total: 14, male: 10, female: 4.

2.5 times > male/female

Academic Secretary's Office: total: 23, male: 14, female: 9.

1.6 times > male/female

Research Secretariat: total: 28, male 18, female: 10.

1.8 times > male/female

Extension Secretariat: total: 13, male: 10, female: 3.

3.3 times > male/female

Postgraduate Secretariat: total: 1, male: 0, female 1.

Newly created, 1 position only, 1 female

School of Nursing Management: total: 14, male: 4, female: 10.

2.5 times > female/male.

Engineer Félix Salvador Tabbia was the first Organizing Delegate (1958), Engineer Alfredo González was the first Dean appointed by the National Executive Power (1970) and Engineer Antonio BarónViana was the first Dean appointed by the Rector of the UNaM (1973) (See Annexes).

At the national level, the report on Women in the Argentine University System, published by the Secretariat of Public Policies of the National Ministry of Education, states that in 2022, 39% of the Dean positions were held by women (16). However, in the 65-year history of the FCEQyN, no woman has served as Dean.

If we make a cut to the 25 years of creation of the National University of Misiones, we will have 2 periods, 1957-1997 and 1998-2022 inclusive. When analyzing the distribution by gender, we observe the following relationships:

Period 1957-1997: out of a total of 62 positions, 11 were occupied by the female gender (18%).Period 1998-2022 inclusive: out of a total of 55 positions, 26 were held by women (47%). In other words, if we consider the first period of life of the institution, every 10 positions of leadership, 1.8 were occupied by the female gender; while, in the last period it was 4.7.

In general, there has been an increase in the frequency of women occupying managerial positions in the last 25 years in our Faculty. At present, out of the 7 leadership positions, 4 are held by women. The predominance of the male gender in the early years is understandable because of the largely male composition of the teaching staff.

Of the leadership positions analyzed, the one in which there is a marked increase in the number of women is in the Academic Secretary's Office.

One plausible explanation is that in the early years, the majority of those who worked in this position were chemical engineers, most of whom were male; while during the last 25 years, we have also found biochemists, genetics graduates and mathematics or education science professors, careers in which the female gender predominates.

Regarding this last point, Del Rosal points out that women in the university usually occupy positions related to care tasks, or where the needs of students and teachers are managed, such as academic secretariats. This could reinforce and reproduce gender differences in terms of the appointment of higher authorities, women in care-related positions and men in more executive positions (17).

When analyzing the data from the Research Secretariat; in August 2022, 104 research projects were in force. Of the 104 project directors, 70 were female (67%) and 34 were male (33%). However, when analyzing the distribution by gender in the leadership positions of this secretariat, out of a total of 28 directors since its creation in 1983 up to and including 2022, 18 were men (64%) and 10 were women (36%), i.e., the proportions are reversed.

The high proportion of women in higher education does not translate into a greater presence in research. Gender differences in academic publication rates remain and are more marked in high-level journals. During the first wave of confinements due to COVID-19, although submission of scholarly papers for publication increased, this growth was much slower for female researchers, and was especially noticeable among younger cohorts of female academics (12).

The majority of the female gender in leadership positions in the School of Nursing is explained by the composition of the graduates in the undergraduate career, where 81% are women, a career that, from its historical beginnings, was associated with tasks assigned to the role of the female gender, such as the care of the elderly and the sick.

Age

It was observed that the female gender assumed the driving position at a higher age 48 (RI: 42-54) years than the male gender 43 (RI: 36-51.5) years. Although the differences are not statistically significant, they are very close to being so (p=0.055).

Table 3 shows the average age of the teachers according to the function they performed when they assumed the leadership positions. We can observe that the position of Academic Secretary is the one with the lowest average age, 32 (RI: 30-51), where the youngest assumed at 25 years of age.

Teaching seniority

With respect to teaching seniority, the female sex assumed the position of head teacher with more years of experience than the male sex, 23 (IR: 13.5-29) versus 16 (IR: 10-23) years. In this case the differences were statistically significant (p=0.017).

When comparing teaching seniority according to management position, the figure of the Academic Secretary is again the one with the least number of years of experience.

The last two variables analyzed, age and teaching seniority, show that women generally assume the leadership role at an older age and after several years of teaching.

The causes of these findings should be analyzed in further research. Klenk points out that conducting teacher surveys on a regular basis are especially useful for understanding the root causes of gender inequalities, beyond their appearance (18).

Degree

When observing the distribution of all management positions according to the degree, the Chemical Engineering degree is the most frequent. Of the 117 total management positions, 70 were held by Chemical Engineers, representing 60% of the total, followed by Biochemists (14%) and Geneticists (4%).

Additional information: VD: Vice Dean's Office SP: Postgraduate Secretariat SI: Research Secretariat SE: Extension Secretariat SA: Academic Secretariat DEE: School of Nursing Directorate D: Dean's Office / Organizing Delegate Source: Own elaboration.

The fact that chemical engineers were the most frequent in all management positions can be explained by the fact that the School of Exact Sciences was founded as the School of Chemical Engineering, with the incorporation of the rest of the careers that currently belong to this institution.

In the period 1957-1997, out of a total of 62 positions, 46 were occupied by Chemical Engineers (74%), while in the period 1998-2022, there were 24 out of a total of 55 (44%). This also reflects the incorporation of other careers in the last period of the institution's life.

Women Chemical Engineers have held management positions more frequently in recent years. In the period 1957-1997, of the 46 management positions held by Chemical Engineers, 5 were women (11%), while in the period 1998-2022, there were 8 out of a total of 24 (33%). It should be noted that the frequency of female Chemical Engineering graduates also increased over the years, 19% in the first period versus 46% in the last. (Source: FCEQyN Area of Informatics and Communications).

CONCLUSIONS

Since its creation in 1957, in the Faculty of Exact, Chemical and Natural Sciences, 3.2 out of every 10 leadership positions were held by women, higher in the last 25 years, 4.6 versus 1.8. However, no woman has held the position of Dean in the 65 years of the institution's existence. The female gender assumes the leadership position with greater teaching seniority than the male gender and most of the leadership positions were held by Chemical Engineers.

It is important that universities regularly collect and publish data on gender parity in leadership positions, since failure to do so contributes to making the problem invisible in an institution that is a social reference.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To all the non-teaching staff of the Faculty of Exact, Chemical and Natural Sciences, for their valuable collaboration and for making the data search a pleasant task. To Professors Carlos Emilio Galian, Alina Esther Baez and Carlos Enrique Schevezov for contributing with their experience to guide us in completing the data obtained.

Annexes

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Autor notes

* E-mail: scastillorascon@yahoo.com.ar

IR