Recent data shows a continuing trend of gender disparity in leadership positions in tertiary education in New Zealand with men dominating higher levels of employment and advancing at faster rates than women. This study explored the experiences of six academic women who have advanced to leadership roles in New Zealand to examine the role that…

This article considers the ambivalent and contradictory positions that women in senior leadership roles in universities occupy. And while women continue to be numerically in the minority in senior leadership positions, this relative invisibility can work to their advantage; they are neither inside nor outside of the university hierarchy.…

Pacific women's narratives offer insight into how universities currently under-serve and exclude Pacific communities in their everyday practices. Utilising a women-centred Pacific research methodology (masi methodology) this article shares the results of talanoa with twenty-seven Pacific women who collectively represent 216 years of experience…

The metaphors of the ivory tower and ivory basement are used in this chapter to reflect how many women understand and experience the academy. The ivory tower signifies a place that is protected, a place of privilege and authority and a place removed from the outside world (and consequently the rigours of the market place). The ivory tower, by…