Career Progression for Academic and Non-Academic Females in the Higher Education Sector: Critically Examining Influences of Personal and Organisational Factors in UK Higher Education

According to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, gender equality is one of seventeen goals which have been planned to reach by 2030, and this research is regarding inequality in terms of the proportion of female and male professors in UK higher education. It aims to find out which factors regarding personal and organisational have the most influence on the career development of female professors and to find the answer to why female professors are fewer than male professors in UK higher education.

The academic career has a particular setting with specific complexity as a knowledge-based occupation (Mantai, 2023). This setting and specific complexity have not been defined for a specific group of people; Therefore, it means that men and women have equal rights and opportunities to progress. However, when it comes to the equal proportion of female and male professors in the higher education sector, it is a huge gap between them.