Organisational efforts to alter gender asymmetries are relatively rare, yet they are taking place in a number of universities. In the USA, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, ADVANCE ...programmes implement a number of interventions to improve the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women faculty. This study focused on one common intervention, faculty peer networks, and the role they play in gender equity reform. Longitudinal and cross-sectional qualitative data indicate that such peer networks function as catalysts for women's career agency, and challenge gendered organisational practices. Two key features of the peer networks, their structure and internal dynamics, facilitate these outcomes. At the same time, peer networks are limited by design in promoting structural change and must be implemented in concert with other forms of policy and structural change to be effective mechanisms for gender equity reform.
Each year colleges and universities strive to increase their national standing in the academic hierarchy, and the behavior associated with this “striving” has taken many forms. In recent years ...research has examined the nature of such “striving” to frame how it might be studied, and to examine how striving impacts various aspects of institutional functioning, including but not limited to admissions, pricing/cost, faculty work-life, and educational quality. This Handbook chapter contributes to this growing area of research by synthesizing recent studies on striving to (a) better recognize striving institutions (b) understand the forces compelling striving (c) explore striving behaviors (d) examine possible consequences of institutional striving and (e) identify areas for future research.
