Do higher education institutions matter? A panel analysis of the development of the proportion of female professors at German higher education institutions between 1993 and 2020

• Applicants: Dr. Otto Hüther; Professor Dr. Stefan Kirchner
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460945684

The proposed research project generates a quantitative panel dataset to investigate the influence of environmental conditions and organizational characteristics on the proportion of female professors at German higher education institutions. Such a test of influences on the organizational level has not yet been carried out for Germany. Extant research focuses mostly on explanatory factors on the higher education system level, scientific subjects, and individuals. However, international studies provide various theoretical and empirical cues that the higher education institution level might substantially influence female professors' proportion. A first, initial analysis for Germany revealed that female professors' achieved proportion affects the subsequent development of female professors' proportion. The outlined research gap constitutes the starting point for the project.Building on various theories and extant empirical research, the project identifies possible explanatory factors at the higher education institution level. This comprises: (a) environmental conditions, (b) reputation and resource, (c) realized shares of females, (d) formal selection rules, and (e) the composition of scientific subjects of the higher education institutions. To investigate these factors the project generates a panel dataset for the period between 1993 and 2020 at the level of higher education institutions using various data sources. Employing this dataset, complex quantitative models investigate the explanatory factors and their interrelations.Thus, the proposed project advances research and makes essential contributions: Firstly, we augment the established research with an organizational perspective on the development of the share of female professors. Secondly, we test explanatory factors for the entire population of German higher education institutions in a period of more than 25 years. Thirdly, we investigate several explanatory factors simultaneously. This reveals the possible interrelation among factors alongside possible group differences within the population of German higher education institutions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants