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IZOLDA TAKÁCS: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
Examining the criteria and possibilities of reaching the status of academi¬
cian, however, traditional, archaic social structures showing univocally exclu¬
sive attitudes toward women can be observed. This was not due to their per¬
sonal inadequacy for a scientific career, but due to the attributes and gender
stereotypes matched to leadership status familiar from workplace apparati.
Analysing the interviews unambiguously revealed that these have to be dis¬
tinctly separated from the “pure” scientific career.
We could state, on the other hand, that the phenomena experienced in relation
to the academic elections are still reinforcing the status quo, meaning thatthe
justification of the system presents itself by keeping the leadership positions
for the dominant group, despite allowing women to enter certain scientific
fields. As we discovered, the conjoining of several procedures assists this effort,
as academic self-election and re-election has been woven together with other
social phenomena, such as institutional discrimination, the ideological so¬
cialization of workplaces, and other direct and indirect forms of differentiation.
This chapter explains why the equality of rights resulted in equality between
the two genders regarding leadership positions.
In the next part of the qualitative analysis, I examined the interviewees with
regards to identification with the female identity. I have sorted them into five
different groups (creating types).
These five types are: (see more details in Chapter four)
1st group: the “dual attachment” type
2nd group: the “essentialist identifier” type
3rd group: the “progressive identifier” type
4th group: the “classical equality” type (progressive non-identifiers) and
5th group: the “alternative” type
This categorisation revealed that they fundamentally rejected positive dis¬
crimination. The majority of them view themselves as present on the forums
not as women, but as representatives of their respective field and themselves.
Another part — showing a stronger attitude for identification with the female
group — wants to further the rise in the number of female scholars both in the
ranks of DScs and academicians in one way or another (not, however, with
positive discrimination). There were only a handful who deemed the female
quota not a good but an essentially necessary solution. The attitudes on how
much women want to become leaders or how capable they are to fulfil these
roles were also divisive among the individual types.
An interesting facet of the results was that none of the women have ever
suffered any disadvantage in their career as a result of being women — not one
scientist examined in my research fell victim to any discrimination in the world
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