What has been Reported about Barriers Faced by Women in their Academic Career Paths – A Systematic Review

Abstract

This study probes into how academic literature has represented the challenges faced by women in academia using the Systematized Bibliographic Reviews Framework method for Human and Social Sciences (Framework ReSiste-CHS), Codina (2020). The study employed the Prisma method for the search and assessment phase of the primary sources. Journals selected for the literature review had to be positioned in the top three categories of the CIRC classification system and consist of qualitative studies published from 2015 to 2023.  A code co-occurrence matrix and semantic map were created through the analytical tools of the Atlas Ti software. Academic capitalism, feminist, and structural constructionism theories were identified as the foundation of policies governing teaching and research, academic career path,  faculty identity, the value of work and mental and social factors affecting job performance. The study concludes that contributions to the understanding of university academics are theoretically framed through the lenses of academic capitalism and feminism, to account for the social, cultural, institutional, and organizational factors influencing the professional development of women academics in higher education. Studies concerning women in academia primarily draw from concepts of academic capitalism and feminist theory. These concepts elucidate the impact of social, cultural, institutional, and organizational factors on the careers and professional development of women in higher education.