Main Finding from the Literature

A literature review has highlighted the gender discrimination, stereotypes of societies, patriarchy, and hegemonic masculinity, lack of social capital of women, the glass ceiling and sexual harassment in the workplace may have enormous effects on women academics. The main findings of the literature are as follow:-

1. Women in Academia: Women are well represented throughout the universities globally as undergraduates, graduate students and increasingly as faculty and staff members, yet their ranks and influence in leadership positions have not matched the growth.

2. Despite much announced and promised equal employment opportunity claims by organisations across time, yet, women are under-represented.

3. In the United States, women are underrepresented in fields that had a significant proportion of female PhDs for thirty years (Castillo, Grazzi & Tacsir, 2014), in 2009 there were 28 % Professors in the USA, though, this proportion is higher than Europe (ECU, 2013).

4. In European Union women represent only 20 % of full professors and 15.5 % of heads of institutions in the Higher Education sector and 10 % of universities had a female Rector (European Commission, 2012). Even the pay gap between men and women is also visible (Eurostate, 2015).

5. Despite having an aggressive policy in Sweden to promote gender equality in the higher education, Sweden managed to get only 22 % of the female professors (European Commission, 2012).

6. In the European Union, the glass ceiling index stood at 1.8 in the EU-27 in 2010 pointing towards slow progress since 2004 when the index stood at 1.9 the higher the score, the thicker the ceiling (European Commission, 2012).

7. The UK has 20.5 % women professors (ECU, 2013). According to the statistics of Times Higher Education (2012) all over the UK on average, one in five professors is female. However, several universities are falling well short of that low benchmark. 8. Whereas in South Asia in Pakistan there were 19.7 % female professors in 2006 as

India in 2006. Whereas the proportion of female professors in Sri Lanka was highest in the region, it was 24.5 % in 2006 (Singh, 2008).

9. Explanation of Underrepresentation: Studies from various parts of the world have suggested that women may advance to the top of the middle management and academic hierarchy, however, may not pass through barriers and reach the top of the hierarchy. With many other suppressing factors, the glass ceiling and sexual harassment could be the primary causes contributing to the underrepresentation of women at the top.

10. The glass ceiling (GC) is a form of discrimination that is affecting women‘s lack of access to power and status in organisations. The term "the glass ceiling" refers to the invisible barrier, stated that "the higher the post, the fewer the women.

11. The glass ceiling is manifested in multiple ways: informal recruitment practices that fail to recruit women, lack of opportunities for training and mentorship, exclusion from informal networks, menial assignments rather than challenging assignments, wage gaps despite comparable work, gender stereotypes, male-dominated structures, sexual, ethnic, racial, religious discrimination or harassment has placed barriers to advancement for women.

12. In the United States, Europe and many other parts of the world, women who are on low hierarchical status, have little organisational power and earn significantly less than men, are more frequent targets of sexual harassment (Bell, McLaughlin & Sequeira, 2002; Haarr & Morash, 2013).

13. Sexual harassment may be deliberate and resentful behaviour, designed to deter women from entering, retaining and progressing in the profession (Dey, 2013). 14. Sexual harassment in the workplace is the leading form of gender-based inequality

which working women are facing in Pakistan (Ali & Kramar, 2014; Caran et al., 2010).

15. Still, many of the females remain silent and are reluctant to lodge formal or informal complaint due to the fear of losing a job, shame, stigmatisation on women‘s reputation and many women do not let their families informed (D‘Cruz & Rayner, 2013).

16. Measures to Deal with Sexual Harassment: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has developed detailed policy guidelines for universities to protect the women from harassment, discrimination, unequal treatment on the promotion and other rewards and directed the higher education institutes to instrument the policy. 17. Although the sexual harassment Act (2010) has promulgated in Pakistan, however,

the implementation of this Act is a foremost problem in workplaces including universities.

18. Personal Barrier: There are predictably some striking differences, or "gaps" between men and women's academic responsibilities, household duties, and family situations. 19. Women are more likely to have their careers interrupted by parental leaves (Acker &

Armenti, 2004), or may not stay long due to home and parenting responsibilities, or are hired with less experience than men.

20. Organisational Barrier: -Once women have successfully found their way into the workforce and landed in a position in their desired organisation, other types of discrimination become apparent (Einarsen et al., 2011.

21. As a result, targets of sex-based harassment are most likely to be women who threaten men‘s status. Berdahl (2007) found that women with stereotypically masculine personalities (assertive, dominant, and independent) were more likely than other women to experience harassment at school.

22. Hegemonic Masculinity‘ shape norms of gendered interaction (Connell‘s well-known theory of Hegemonic Masculinity,1987)

23. Social capital enhances one‘s ability to advance in the competition between individuals. Advantageous relationships can secure material or symbolic ‗profit‘, and group members enjoy certain privileges they have not necessarily earned (Bourdieu, 1986: 249).

24. Academia and university governed by hierarchical systems, where policies and activities determined by the top individuals. The culture built on competition for economic (hierarchical level, pay plans), social (networking, power, authority), and symbolic (visibility, scientific recognition and prestige/honour) capital (Bourdieu‘s 1986).

25. Societal Barrier: Studies have suggested that many inequalities and obstacles women face in the workplace may stem from the patriarchal set- ups.

26. According to Sociological Theories, patriarchy is a result of social and cultural conditioning, passed on from generation to generation. Men continue to remain in power, resulting in a society aimed at pleasing the male gender.

27. Pakistan is a patriarchal society, where the male is the head of the family and is responsible for taking or approving all the decisions about the women.

28. In the 1970s, research revealed that "gender schemas" or stereotypes led people to overrate men's abilities and underrate women's when the same academic resume was rated higher if assigned a man's name (Valian, 1998). The most prominent explanation for ―vertical occupational segregation‖ lies in perceived roles.

29. These stem from cultural stereotypes of attributes and roles each gender is presumed to occupy relative to the other. These stereotypes help lead men and women to their ―respective‖ fields. Because women are seen as compassionate and nurturing, women continue to assume these roles by pursuing careers which tend to have lower paying salaries or lower status or low positions at workplaces.

30. Traits like competence and authority are typically affiliated with those of higher status, and because cultural and stereotypical beliefs have led us to associate these, with men, there is a correlation between gender and higher positioning within organisations.

31. Expectation States Theory has explained these patterns of behaviours; it states the emergence of status hierarchies in situations where actors are oriented toward the accomplishment of a collective goal or task.

32. Childcare and domestic works are all structural factors that have affected the women‘s possibilities of shattering the glass ceiling.

33. Along with some gender and societal concrete barriers, women also experience quite a few organisational barriers at workplaces.