Professional Consolidation

This chapter focuses on the 50 social scientists’ experiences of gender inequality endured while working in their most stable academic positions. The text goes back to several of the debates from the chapters in the first part of the book, which review a wide literature and observe that Chilean academia presents enormous gender gaps. Here we show that the female professional career in social science is also marked by elitist and androcentric segregations in Chile. Based on the qualitative data collected, the findings analyzed identify four relational patterns that frame the inequalities faced by female academics in the country; these should be priority areas for institutional and/or governmental action to promote gender equality. They are (1) the salary gap and work overload of women compared to male peers, (2) the little (or non-existent) recognition of female capabilities and careers in Chilean academia, (3) the assumption that research and leadership are almost exclusively masculine tasks, and (4) the absence of transversal gender perspectives in Chilean universities and scientific institutions.