Scotland’s oldest university has been challenged over a growing gender imbalance at one of its flagship schools.
Since 2014 the ratio of male to female professors at St Andrews University’s School of Medicine has slipped from 6:3 to 12:1. The growing dominance of middle-aged men in professorial positions has been noted by some staff and prompted claims that David Crossman, the dean of the school for the past seven years, is presiding over an “old boys’ club”.
The observation is potentially awkward for Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, who in 2015 pledged to tackle gender inequality in the workplace. Crossman has been the chief scientist within her government’s health and social care directorates since 2017.
Engender, Scotland’s feminist policy and advocacy organisation, said it appeared St Andrews could do more on workplace equality while a source at the university observed: “It seems strange in this day and age, and considering the University of St Andrews is headed by its second consecutive female principal, that there are no female academics deemed worthy of a senior post at the School of Medicine at the country’s oldest academic institution.”
While staffing levels and the gender mix ebb and flow in any organisation, eyebrows have been raised at the university’s medical school amid claims that during Crossman’s tenure, the only staff to be promoted to professorships have been men. It is also claimed that new posts, filled by men, were not advertised, potentially depriving female candidates of the chance to apply.
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Alys Mumford, from Engender, said: “Academia remains heavily dominated by men, and it’s discouraging to see institutions like St Andrews creating greater over-representation of men in some senior positions. We know that there is deeply ingrained sexism and racism in the medical establishment, so it’s even more disappointing to see the lack of opportunities for women and people of colour in academic staff; educational institutions should be leading the charge to bring diverse experiences and perspectives to these conversations.”
The pandemic is known to have had a disproportionate impact on women, with one in four women in Scotland considering leaving their jobs due to increased childcare and homeschooling duties, and a lack of support from employers, Mumford added.
Last year Engender published a report that set out the extent of men’s over-representation in positions of authority and influence in Scotland. “It paints a bleak picture of unequal access to power, decision-making and participation throughout all areas of public life, which undermines gender equality,” the report stated. Of 3,115 positions of power in Scotland across political institutions, the public sector, media and cultural bodies and the corporate world, women held 996, less than a third of the total.
St Andrews pointed out that a senior leadership team at the School of Medicine comprised Crossman and five men and five women.
In addition, the directors of postgraduate teaching and postgraduate research are one man and one woman.
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“The number of individuals holding professorships within the School of Medicine at any given time is not a reflection of the senior leadership team within the school and has fluctuated during the period of the pandemic due to posts being gapped or filled temporarily due to clinical commitments,” a spokesman said. “The university is committed to the elimination of discrimination of all kinds and to advancing equality of opportunity.”
The Scottish government said it supported gender equality in the workplace. “Universities, as autonomous bodies, are responsible for their own staffing policies and recruitment,” a spokesman added.
This article was amended on January 6, 2023. An earlier version of the article reported a claim that only men had been promoted during Professor David Crossman’s tenure as Dean of St Andrews University’s School of Medicine. We have been asked to make clear that this claim applied only to professorships at the school of medicine, and we are happy to do so.
