{"id":61490,"date":"2022-02-11T03:40:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T08:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=61490"},"modified":"2022-02-17T12:44:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T17:44:29","slug":"the-push-for-researcher-entrepreneurs-could-be-a-step-backward-for-gender-equity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/the-push-for-researcher-entrepreneurs-could-be-a-step-backward-for-gender-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"The push for \u2018researcher entrepreneurs\u2019 could be a step backward for gender equity"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nScott Morrison recently\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0a $2.2 billion\u00a0Research Commercialisation Action Plan<\/a>\u00a0for the next ten years. The plan centres on a competitive grant scheme to promote start-ups and industry partnerships. The prime minister\u2019s message to universities was clear:
\n\u201cwe need to find and develop a new breed of researcher entrepreneurs in Australia\u201d.<\/em>
\nThe statement came on the heels of a\u00a0letter of expectations<\/a>\u00a0from the acting minister for education and youth to the Australian Research Council in which he encouraged greater collaboration with industry, particularly the manufacturing sector.<\/p>\n

What might we expect from the rise of researcher entrepreneurs in Australian universities? Who are likely to be seen as exemplars of this new breed?<\/p>\n

Given the male-dominated makeup of the industry partners who are meant to lead the commercialisation of research, what we might realistically expect is a major step backward for gender equity in Australian universities.<\/p>\n

Industry stakeholders\u2019 gender gap<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Workplace Gender Equity Agency data<\/a>\u00a0paint a grim picture. Women hold only 14.6% of chair positions and 28.1% of directorships in Australia. A mere 18.3% of CEOs and 32.5% of key management personnel are women. Gender equity in leadership roles has even\u00a0gone backwards<\/a>\u00a0in recent years.<\/p>\n

Nearly a third of boards and governing bodies<\/a>\u00a0have no female directors. By contrast,\u00a0less than 1% of boards<\/a>\u00a0have no male directors.<\/p>\n

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WGEA, CC BY<\/p><\/div>\n

Sociological research on business culture can shed light on why these statistics at the highest reaches of industry are so skewed. By understanding how the social networks that support business financing operate, we can begin to appreciate how industry partnerships are likely to be funded.<\/p>\n

An investment culture of patronage<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A recent insider account of investment culture in one of the largest hedge funds on Wall Street focuses on the analysts and traders who manage large financial portfolios. In her book\u00a0Hedged Out: Inequality and Insecurity on Wall Street<\/a>, Megan Tobian Neely offers a peek into the highly competitive world of corporate power brokers who make up the financial elite.<\/p>\n

Neely\u2019s ethnography follows those connections through what she calls a system of patronage. That is, using one\u2019s own status and power to invest in, support or promote another person. For financial elite at hedge funds, she\u00a0writes<\/a>:
\n\u201cpatronage is how a select group of white men groom and transfer capital to other elite white men\u201d.<\/em>
\nSo,\u00a0entrepreneurship is not a gender-neutral term<\/a>. The tight-knit networks that are the source of investment capital create a system of patronage that has redefined the capacity to manage risk and insecurity as a masculine attribute.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that women are pushed out of the boardroom on purpose. Instead, it\u2019s about cultivating\u00a0insiders<\/em>. Protecting one\u2019s investment means relying on investors who are like them, think alike, have the same values, who can help them get ahead, and who are overwhelmingly male.<\/p>\n

Research on the professional managerial class in Australia suggests these patterns of patronage are not unique to the rarefied heights of Wall Street investing. Owen McNamara\u2019s Canberra-based\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0of workplace culture in the Australian Public Service underscored the importance of what one of his research participants dubbed \u201cmaking coin\u201d from the industry network.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0integration of the public service with consultancy firms<\/a>\u00a0relies on a business culture suffused with male bonding. It\u2019s not just locker-room talk. Networkers operate through the easy friendships, banter and camaraderie that comes from shared experience.<\/p>\n

Women and gender-diverse people, as well as workers from different socioeconomic backgrounds, struggle to be included. And often they are the butt of the joke.<\/p>\n

What about women\u2019s networks?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

These industry networks are the waters in which academic researcher entrepreneurs are expected to swim. These are the invisible social channels and patronage relationships that open the tap of investment.<\/p>\n

Patronage relationships convince stakeholders in business to take a risk on unproven ideas. No matter how promising the research, it will be difficult to secure funding for researchers \u2013 particularly women and gender-diverse scholars \u2013 relegated to the outer edges of the network.<\/p>\n

My research on women who start small businesses in Latin America indicates these are global challenges. There,\u00a0women face barriers<\/a>\u00a0when trying to leverage their informal interdependencies and social ties, which often fail to convert into individual success and wealth.<\/p>\n

Within universities, women\u2019s informal networks and support mechanisms often translate into\u00a0higher internal service burdens<\/a>. This inward-facing networking includes undervalued work such as serving on university committees, program supervision, student recruitment and so on. Women, LGBTQIA+ and faculty of colour also do most of the\u00a0extra invisible labour<\/a>\u00a0of making universities better and more equitable places to work.<\/p>\n

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I am so jazzed to be back in the classroom teaching students about the beauty and meaning of fluid mechanics, but something in the hallway today took the wind out of my sails.<\/p>\n

A student said the worst thing you can say about a professor, and they meant it as a compliment. 1\/<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jenn Stroud Rossmann (@jenn_rossmann) February 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n