GREECE: Women woefully under-represented

Little more than one in four Greek university teachers are women, a survey has found. This confirms the degree of gender inequality in Greece’s education industry.

The survey of 15 higher education institutes was carried out by a team of researchers from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and was part of on-going research programme called Pythagoras.

A report of the study, “The contribution of the sexes in the exact and social sciences”, contrasts the fact that while women comprise more than half of the student population, they make up 27% of university teachers and other practitioners at Greek universities.

As is true in most other countries around the world, the higher the academic level the fewer the number of women holding top jobs in Greece’s higher education institutions. As is also the case elsewhere, in primary and secondary schools the number of women is overwhelmingly higher than men – but in tertiary education, the ratio between men and women is overturned.

The survey found that women comprise only 14% of the professoriate, 26.5% of associate professors, and 32% of assistant professor. The ratio among lecturers is 39% women and 61% men.

“The findings of the survey are giving us a great deal of concern as regards the contribution of the sexes not only in the exact sciences but also across the board of the academic community,” said a spokesman associated with the survey.

Women are also markedly under-represented in research institutes, the survey found. Based in the atomic research centre Dimokritos, a team of research scientists has been gathering evidence mainly in the exact sciences and in the field of nuclear physics in Greece from the late 1950s onwards.