Gender Division of Labour and Sri Lankan State Universities: A Case Study

Abstract

Organisations are part of human life and women and men spend a considerable amount of time in their respective work organisations. There is a current debate on how women and men are placed in organisational structures/hierarchies. In the globalized world economy, women play a key role and there is a significant progress in the labour force participation of women over the last two decades. In contrast there is a universal and persistent gender difference prevailing in productivity and earnings in different sectors and jobs. Review of literature indicates an absence of studies globally, on gender composition and positioning of gender in the organisation structure of universities. Researchers being academic staff members of the Sri Lankan public sector universities with an experience of more than two and half decades can claim the fact that majority of the leadership positions such as vice chancellor, dean and head of the department are held by men. In contrast, the gender composition and the positioning of academic and non-academic staff members within the organisation structure have not been researched. The study relates to the conference theme of exploring and reviewing gender configurations and the situations/status of women and men in higher education in academia, in countries and in Higher Education Institutions. Against this back drop to fill the gap in existing literature this study using the case study methodology aims at understanding the positioning of women in the organisation structure of University of Sri Jayewardenepura, a public university in Sri Lanka. Main objective of the study is to analyse the gender composition of the academic and non-academic staff members of the university and their positioning in the organisation structure. A quantitative analysis is carried out using secondary data that are collected from published documents available at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Percentage analysis is the main statistical measure used for the analysis. According to the analysis at University of Sri Jayewardenepura gender segregation is visible in the organisation structure and includes both horizontal segregation that concentrates women and men in different types of work, and vertical segregation that concentrates women in lower grades and men in higher grades. In conclusion gender is integral to organisational processes at University of Sri Jayewardenepura and it is neither gender neutral nor asexual but gendered