Cultural Sexism and the UK Higher Education Sector

Despite the advances of the feminist movement, and wider structural legislative interventions, women remain under-represented at senior levels within academia and (some) women still experience both direct and indirect forms of discrimination throughout their careers. This article seeks to understand why this might be the case, and what, if anything we can do about it. Using qualitative interview data which gives voice to women’s experiences, this article explores the cultural dimensions which serve to reinforce women’s structural disadvantage within the academy. Drawing upon these empirical data and informed by reflections on the notion of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ (Connell, 1983) in a neoliberal environment, this article contends that ‘cultural sexism’ provides a vocabulary through which to make sense of this structural disadvantaging. It is argued here that an understanding of the ‘ordinariness’ of cultural sexism (Savigny, 2017) means we can both ‘raise consciousness’, and, explore emancipatory opportunities where cultural resistance and change might be possible.