Glass ceiling in Spanish universities. Diagnosis and causes

Abstract

In 1996 women accounted for 13,2% of all professors, compared with 86,8% for men at Spanish universities (European Commission, 2000). Twenty years later these percentages are 21,6% and 78,4%, respectively (MECD, 2016). This phenomenon, that consists in the less proportional presence of women in the higher categories, is known as glass ceiling. The aim of this article is to analyze the causes on this phenomenon in Spanish universities. To this was done a systematic review of the literature, published in the past twenty-five years in national and international databases. It was added the review of public institutions reports. Results show a similar diagnostic, however there is not a broad consensus on the causes. Among the causes are identified problems of conciliation personal, familiar and labor, and the existence of masculinized power networks and systems of cooptation. All of these in a patriarchal and androcentric society.