Gender bias ‘rife’ in UK history departments, says report

The document, released ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March by the Royal Historical Society, says that an “invisible bias” and the “silencing of women” are rife in academic life.

More than 20 per cent of historians surveyed said they had experienced, observed and suspected gender discrimination in meetings, promotion decisions, the membership of committees and the allocation of administrative and pastoral roles.

In the report foreword, Jinty Nelson, emeritus professor of medieval history at King’s College London, says: “‘Invisible, or unconscious, bias’, ‘stereotype threat’, and ‘the silencing of women’, are unfortunately still rife in our professional experience.

“Contracts not specifying sabbatical leave, and inadequate provision for those with caring responsibilities, smack – still – of the 1970s,” she says, adding that the report is an “urgent summons” to action on the matter.

The report, Gender Equality and Historians in UK Higher Education, draws on a survey of 707 history academics and finds that policies against discrimination based on gender are not working. “If they were working effectively, there would by now be far more women professors of history and a more equal balance among permanent academic staff,” says the report. ...