Women Scholars in Hong Kong: In Pursuit of Intellectual Leadership 9819983762, 9789819983766

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Nian Ruan

Women Scholars in Hong Kong In Pursuit of Intellectual Leadership

Women Scholars in Hong Kong

Nian Ruan

Women Scholars in Hong Kong In Pursuit of Intellectual Leadership

Nian Ruan Shenzhen Technology University Shenzhen, Guangdong, China University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China

ISBN 978-981-99-8376-6 ISBN 978-981-99-8377-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Paper in this product is recyclable.

Foreword

Intellectual leadership remains an enigmatic phenomenon in global higher education. While studies in the field offer a range of insights on the roles and responsibilities of senior professors, there remain unanswered questions about cultural, ethnic, gender, race, and identity-related conundrums shaping knowledge production and the academic citizenships of leaders in disparate higher education systems and communities. Whereas gender has gained a prominent place in the literature on leadership in higher education, important questions about the influence of women on intellectual movements have remained unaddressed: e.g., what do we really know about the problems tackled by women leaders in post-colonial institutions, which are redefining the norms of knowledge production? How do we define women’s aspirations and positions in leading knowledge development and creating social impact when they are constrained by the rigid structures of neoliberal universities and/or patriarchal communities, which measure their abilities based on the volume of influential papers produced, or scores achieved in undergraduate teaching? Should this calculative thinking be the key driver of their success and influence in modern academia? Does their disadvantage grow or diminish if they happen to work at a prestigious department, or under the supervision of a vulnerable mentor or manager? What challenges do these women intellectuals face on the road to becoming influential and paradigm-changing academics in their fields? These questions necessitate sincere insights and courage from women academics in view of the precarity facing scholarship at universities constrained by rigid structures of performativity and competition. Inequalities in access to resources, problems with promotion and tenure, and misogynistic attitudes still permeate the global academic profession. Women have limited opportunities to develop successful careers and scholarships in tightly controlled environments that reward participation in “prestige economy,” but punish academic citizenship and participatory governance. They are also hindered by anxiety about the growing vulnerability of academic spaces where conflicts among ideologies, cultures, and values emerge and undermine academic freedom and freedom of speech. As ample literature on precarity of academic women suggests, the concepts of leadership in power- and hierarchypreoccupied universities and communities of science continue to place women at a v

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disadvantage, given that entrenched narratives in defense of legacies and privileges of the previous centuries persist in the academic profession, despite efforts to promote fairness and justice. What boosts the confidence and courage of women scholars, empowering them to reinterpret their ideas of leadership, is an increasing concern about their growing disadvantage in the overlapping and competing domains of local, national, and global knowledge development. Scientific competition hierarchizes agendas and dehumanizes participants, disregarding their gender, ethnicity, race, or family structures. In view of conservative narratives, dehumanized judgments arguably make science more objective. Those already privileged by their socioeconomic background, race, gender, ethnicity, or homophilic networks usually agree with such an argument. In their view, dehumanized objectivity deproblematizes the legacies and differences in scholars’ educational backgrounds, knowledge production capacities, and communication styles. For intellectual leadership to emerge and challenge such claims, courage has to be a major transformative force. Scholars become intellectual leaders when they empower others and embolden communities of progressive scholars not only to be dissatisfied with inequity and vulnerability in their profession, but also to act as change-makers, enabling critical thinking and intellectual exchange to transform academic communities, resulting in the adoption of more mindful attitudes toward humanity and the humanities. This type of courage also proves to be societally valuable when it shapes new perspectives on boundary transgression, in the sense applied by Bruce Macfarlane to knowledge production and academic citizenship contributing to social betterment. With intellectual leadership on the rise, courage urges scholars to spearhead new research and teaching projects that create synergies in the reinvention of academic knowledge, institutional designs, and social relations. Epistemologically and culturally, the literature is still limited in considering these dilemmas. Calculative knowledge production is perceived as a pivotal responsibility of women scholars, who are expected to serve as precarious labor in competitive departments and universities, at the expense of their role as intellectuals in open science and innovative knowledge fields. With teaching moving into mass and commercialized manufacture of graduates and the pursuit of income generation, many women appear to succumb to performativity and, once in leading positions, push their colleagues toward calculative-minded and measurability-oriented careers. In the absence of critical thinking, the neoliberal gaming for rankings and impact factors creates a perverted concept of “intellectual leadership.” With scholarship positioned only for privilege and new entitlements, such leadership can hardly make a difference in society or achieve a paradigm change in science. In the age of relentless and punitive competition in academia, intellectual leadership becomes important when scholars call for target-setting that forgo mere calculative planning in academic careers. Intellectual courage liberates neoliberal knowledge workers from an obsession with productivity and prestige, which are positioned as key factors in creating a powerful knowledge-making institution. Ideally, intellectual leadership stands in opposition to the misconstrued envisioning of academic legitimacy and power through measurability. Ideally, it resists the precarious status and

Foreword

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short-term thinking in research and teaching while setting instead objectives for social transformations. It discourages competition that generates more losers than achievers and advances hope and care to defuse resentment in the academic and lay communities. Intellectual leadership encourages quality, rather than quantity of publications, and orientates new generations for excellence in citizenship and humanity. It defines new horizons and visions in scholarship and citizenship especially when darkness and fear spread out and trump the values of academia. To turn aspirations into realities, researchers in higher education leadership have to continue discussing the phenomenon, seeking concepts and, most importantly, asking questions: What is intellectual leadership, and why is it important to examine this phenomenon these days? What makes leadership ‘intellectual’, and under which circumstances? Why is it important to consider and examine the roles and responsibilities of women scholars or other marginalized participants in the processes of major transformations sought by academic institutions and communities? What is important to see in the ideas of intellectual leadership, when intellectualism is belittled or marginalized in the discourses obsessed with performativity and power? Which particular roles and responsibilities do women scholars prefer in order to achieve the best possible result in their own view? How can this be amplified in order to empower women scholars and give them more opportunities for agency and leadership in the intellectual communities and institutions? In this book, Nian Ruan offers intriguing insights, while seeking answers to these questions and discussing the concepts and pursuits in intellectual leadership in higher education. By examining the academic careers of women scholars in the rapidly transforming Chinese academia, she skillfully navigates the sociological, cultural, and epistemological dilemmas encountered on the road to intellectual leadership at neoliberal universities. Placed in the context of aspirations for world-class university performance, her analysis is more than a study of transformations taking place within departments and centers positioned for global competition and enhancement of global visibility and interconnectedness. She has successfully managed to enrich the epistemic perspectives in the intellectual leadership, while penetrating the complicated epistemic transformations at the time of critical rethinking of the purposes of the Chinese academia. Dr. Ruan’s book presents an overarching story of hope made up of narratives shared by women scholars surviving and succeeding in these transformations. Readers will enjoy unpeeling the layers of social and institutional transformations described by Nian Ruan, and rethinking the idea of aspiration-driven academic excellence and impact, as women become a more influential force in the neoliberal academe. The book certainly enriches the discourse, urging deeper discussions and more fulsome conceptualization of intellectual leadership spanning social

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and institutional transformations. It invites the reader to engage in a more profound exploration of intellectual leadership, image, and influence in academia and beyond. September 2023

Prof. Anatoly V. Oleksiyenko Department of International Education The Education University of Hong Kong Ting Kok, Hong Kong

Preface

In an era characterized by unprecedented participation of women in higher education, it is both fascinating and imperative to analyze their ascendance as significant intellectual contributors within academia. While extensive research has examined formal leadership and gender disparities in higher education on a global scale, the topic of intellectual leadership has remained relatively unexplored, especially from the perspective of established women scholars. Compared with studies on female academics in developed countries and regions, research focusing on those in East Asian regions with Confucian heritage culture is relatively scarce. In the vibrant context of Hong Kong, this book delves into a captivating exploration: the perceptions and trajectories of women scholars who navigate the intricate landscape of intellectual leadership across diverse academic disciplines. It strives to illuminate this often-overlooked facet, delving into the richness of experience, challenges, and triumphs that define the journey of these women in the pursuit of intellectual leadership. This work emerges from the intricate tapestry of my doctoral thesis, a journey that has woven together research, exploration, and the pursuit of understanding. It has been further refined during my research work at Shenzhen Technology University. As a female researcher, I have always maintained a profound interest in the career development of female academics and have strongly empathized with their experiences. Through rigorous investigation, I have endeavored to unearth the nuanced interplay of advantages and disadvantages that these accomplished women encounter, spanning from the disciplinary and institutional realms to the realm of gender dynamics. I share these insights with fellow scholars, researchers, and anyone intrigued by the intricate dynamics of academia. The complexity and interaction of an academic career for women, disciplinary contexts, the higher education system, and the sociocultural environment may present a relatively holistic landscape for readers interested in gender issues in higher education, academic life, and leadership. Scholars, administrators, managers, policymakers in higher education institutions, and related fields may gain comprehensive ideas to facilitate faculty and institutional development. It may also benefit doctoral students and early-career researchers seeking insights into the changing advantages and disadvantages in women’s academic careers. Audiences ix

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who care about gender equity and equality may find it interesting to compare women scholars with those in other professions and in other cultural contexts. May this book not only contribute to scholarship but also ignite discussions, inspire future research, and foster a deeper understanding of the complexities inherent in women’s intellectual leadership. It is my sincere hope that the pages that follow provide insights, provoke thoughts, and, above all, resonate with the experiences of these women scholars, transcending geographical boundaries and disciplinary divides. Shenzhen, China September 2023

Nian Ruan, Ph.D. (HKU)

Acknowledgements

I would not have been able to complete this book without the support of many people. My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Prof. Anatoly Oleksiyenko. His emotional encouragement, intellectual inspiration, and professional guidance have empowered me to complete this enthusiastic study and become a better researcher. I am sincerely grateful to many scholars at the University of Hong Kong who have stimulated my thoughts, including Prof. Yang Rui, Prof. Cheng Kaiming, Prof. Gerard Postiglione, Dr. Jisun Jung, Dr. Hugo Horta, and Dr. Wang Dan. Their lessons, fueled with wisdom and enthusiasm, and their insightful comments on and suggestions for my research have helped me improve the quality of my work. In addition, I would like to thank my thesis examination committee members and book reviewers for reading my manuscript and providing constructive and significant feedback to enhance it. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Ruth Hayhoe, who not only encouraged me to undertake the writing of this book but also dedicated her valuable time to provide immensely insightful feedback at various stages of this study. Also, my special thanks go to all my participants in the study. These women professors were generous with their time and shared their personal experiences with me. Meeting and having dialogues with these top scholars are my most unforgettable memories from my fieldwork. Their kindness, passion, insightfulness, and fortitude showed me the power of women’s intellectual leadership. This study would have been impossible without their trust and generous input. During my journey of completing this book, I have learned from many smart and genuine peer scholars. I would like to thank Shuhui, Gaoming, Ma Ying, Mengyang, Lili, Xiaoxin, Xie Meng, Tang Li, Yingxin, Jingya, and Hy for giving critical feedback on my writings and presentations, providing peer support, and making my life interesting. Above all, my deepest gratitude goes to my beloved family for their unwavering support throughout.

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Contents

1 The Significance of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Problem Statement and Knowledge Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 Marginalization of Women Scholars in Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.2 Emerging Studies on Intellectual Leadership in Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.3 Insufficient Studies on Women Scholars’ Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.4 Hong Kong with Mixed Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.5 Research Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Research Questions and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Research Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Methodological Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.1 Multiple-Case Study Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.2 Selection of Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 Structure of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 2

4 5 7 7 8 10 10 10 12 14

2 The Reality for Women Scholars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Studies on Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 Different Types of Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.2 Macfarlane’s Model of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Studies on Academic Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Categorizations of Academic Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 Disciplines in the New Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.3 Disciplines and Women Scholars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Studies on Gender, Culture and Academic Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 Women Scholars and Gendered Higher Education . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 Women Scholars and Confucian Heritage Culture . . . . . . . . .

19 20 20 24 27 27 29 30 33 33 37

2 3

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Contents

2.4 Studies on Hong Kong Society and Women Scholars . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Brief Introduction of Hong Kong and Women . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.2 Higher Education in Hong Kong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 Women Scholars in Hong Kong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

42 42 44 47 50

3 Cumulative (Dis)Advantages and Women Scholars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Major Theoretical Lenses in the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 The Three-Pronged Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 Cumulative (Dis)Advantage Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 Macfarlane’s Intellectual Leadership Perspective . . . . . . . . . 3.2.3 Gender and Cultural Legacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59 60 61 62 68 69 72

4 Strategic Gamers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Introduction of the Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 Category Overview: Strategic Gamers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.2 Snapshot of Strategic Gamers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Conceptualization of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 Views on the Concept Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 Perceived Qualities of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Discipline-Related Advantages at the Early Stage . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Institution-Related Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 Disadvantages and Counteractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 Discipline-Related Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2 Gender-Related Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

75 76 76 77 84 84 85 86 87 89 90 91 92 94 95

5 Persistent Navigators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Introduction of the Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.1 Category Overview: Persistent Navigators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.2 Snapshots of Persistent Navigators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Conceptualization of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.1 Views on the Concept Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 Perceived Qualities of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 Discipline-Related Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Institution-Related Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 Disadvantages and Counteractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.1 Discipline-Related Disadvantages (Some Becoming Advantages Later) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.2 Gender-Related Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

97 98 98 100 103 103 104 105 105 109 110 110 113 115

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6 Unconventional Fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 Introduction of the Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.1 Category Overview: Unconventional Fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.2 Snapshots of Unconventional Fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Conceptualization of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 Views on the Concept Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 Perceived Qualities of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.1 Discipline-Related Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.2 Discipline-Related and Gender-Related Advantages . . . . . . . 6.4 Disadvantages and Counteractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.1 Discipline-Related and Gender-Related Disadvantages . . . . 6.4.2 Institution-Related and Gender-Related Disadvantages . . . . 6.5 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

117 118 118 118 123 123 124 126 126 129 130 130 133 137 138

7 Opportunistic Achievers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 Introduction of the Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.1 Category Overview: Opportunistic Achievers . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.2 Snapshots of Opportunistic Achievers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Conceptualization of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.1 Views on the Concept Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.2 Perceived Qualities of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.1 Individual- and Discipline-Related Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.2 Institution-Related and Discipline-Related Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 Disadvantages and Counteractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.1 Discipline-Related Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.2 Institution-Related Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.3 Gender-Related Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

139 140 140 140 145 145 146 147 148

8 Discussion and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1 Women Scholars and Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1.1 Academic Discipline: Affecting Development of Intellectual Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1.2 Neoliberal HEIs: Reinforcing the Greedy Career . . . . . . . . . . 8.1.3 The Confucian Cultural Reality: Amplifying the Lack of Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 Women Scholars and Cumulative (Dis)Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 Closing Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.1 Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.2 Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

159 163

149 152 152 153 155 156

163 166 168 171 174 174 177 178

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Appendix A: Methodology and Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Appendix B: The Concept Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Appendix C: Interview Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Abbreviations

CAD CHC CV HE HEIs Ph.D. PoP RAE UGC UK US

Cumulative (Dis)Advantage Theory Confucian Heritage Culture Curriculum Vitae Higher Education Higher Education Institutions Doctor of Philosophy Publish or Perish Research Assessment Exercise University Grants Committee The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland The United States of America

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List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Fig. 3.1 Fig. 8.1

Gender and academic rank. Overall data of the five institutions in HK, adopted from Aiston and Yang (2017) . . . . . . . The three-pronged framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary of findings. Note It is designed by the author based on the findings. The dotted lines with arrow suggest the possibilities of changes and overlaps between different types of professors. The lines with arrow indicate the interchangeable relations between advantages and disadvantages at different stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

48 62

161

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List of Tables

Table 2.1 Table 2.2 Table 2.3 Table 2.4 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 4.1 Table 5.1 Table 6.1 Table 7.1 Table A.1 Table A.2 Table A.3 Table A.4 Table A.5

Leadership in higher education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Macfarlane’s intellectual leadership model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gender, academic rank, and discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gender, discipline, and research output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The theoretical framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Categories of women scholars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Strategic gamer cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Persistent Navigator Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unconventional fighter cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opportunistic achiever cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research design matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Basic information of participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Participants’ views on the concept paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Interview language used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coding categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23 24 48 49 70 71 78 99 119 141 185 188 190 190 192

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Chapter 1

The Significance of Intellectual Leadership

Abstract This chapter begins with the background of the underrepresentation of top women academics in higher education and introduces the topic of intellectual leadership among women scholars in Hong Kong. By briefly reviewing the current status of women scholars’ academic development around the globe and in Hong Kong, it demonstrates the marginalization and underrepresentation of women scholars in universities. This is followed by an explanation of the key concept—intellectual leadership—and the relevance of this form of informal leadership to women professors’ academic careers. It also highlights the historical and cross-cultural features of Hong Kong and women’s development in this unique context. By identifying the knowledge gap and outlining the research questions, this chapter also elucidates the rationale for the research framework and the methodological considerations of a qualitative multiple case study. It introduces the explanatory multiple case study with in-depth semi-structured interviews with 22 women full professors in Hong Kong. Finally, it outlines the scope of this book and the arrangement of each chapter.

This book concentrates on how women professors in Hong Kong in different academic disciplines perceive and develop intellectual leadership in public-funded universities. It has been well recognized by scholars that women leaders in universities are under-represented worldwide and attracted many scholars to research on women’s formal leadership. Hong Kong, the previous British colony and now a special administrative region in China, is regarded as a unique place for women due to its dynamic development and complexity. Academics women occupy around one third in Hong Kong’s higher education but “feminization of academy” contrasts the lack of influential female scholars. The book elucidates female professors’ intertwining advantages and disadvantages in their pursuit of intellectual leadership at the disciplinary, institutional, and gender aspects at the context of Hong Kong. I start the chapter with the background of the study and introduce the topic of women professors’ intellectual leadership in Hong Kong. Then I briefly review the status quo of women scholars’ academic development around the globe and in Hong Kong. This is followed by explanation of the key concept—intellectual leadership, and the relevance between it and women

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3_1

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professors’ academic careers in Hong Kong. Pointing out the guiding research questions, I also demonstrate the rationale of this research framework and methodology. At last, I stress the scope of this book and the arrangement of each chapter.

1.1 Problem Statement and Knowledge Gap 1.1.1 Marginalization of Women Scholars in Higher Education When people talk about the most significant intellectual women contributors, ultraelite scientists such as Marie Curie—the only woman to be awarded to the Nobel Prize twice—are very likely the image that comes to their mind. In recent years, increasing numbers of established women scholars, such as economist Claudia Goldin, physicist Donna Strickland, medical scientist Tu Youyou, and chemist Carolyn R. Bertozzim, have become well-known contributors in various areas of knowledge production. With their growing participation in higher education since the twentieth century, women professors have become indispensable members of academia. However, the under-representation of academic women in formal leadership positions in higher education institutions (HEIs) has attracted scholars’ attention worldwide (e.g., Acker, 2012; Aiston, 2017; Blackmore, 2014; Burkinshaw & White, 2017; Morley, 2013a). Several major frameworks have been used to explain difficulties of women academia’s leadership, including: (a) the gendered nature of academia (Baker, 2012; Bornholt et al., 2005; Brooks & Mackinnon, 2001; Ecklund et al., 2012; Robinson & Richardson, 2015); (b) the globalization and internationalization of higher education, leading to neo-liberal practices favoring quantity and numbers wherein, influenced by male-dominant institutional culture and practice of masculinity, women’s academic competency is discriminated against and women’s leadership apt to be disqualified and discouraged (e.g., Baker, 2012; Burkinshaw & White, 2017; Martin, 2011); and, (c) sociocultural stereotypes on women’s role preventing them from gaining as much time and resources as male colleagues to develop their capacities (e.g., Anderson, 2001; Heijstra et al., 2017). Some studies associate the absence of women leaders in higher education with their less excellent academic performance compared with their male counterparts (e.g., Blackmore, 2014; Luke, 2002; Morley, 2013a, 2013b). It is contested that women’s lower research productivity and more mediocre performance are the results of social selection and self-selection. Based on the meritocracy principle, Cole (1979) concluded, by measuring objective research outputs, that the system provided equal opportunities for women; however, possible obstacles to conducting and producing research were not considered. Women’s fewer publications can be explained by several systematic problems. For example, the peer-review process disfavors women because few women are journal editors and women’s articles are less read and thus less often cited (Becher & Trowler, 2001; Tight, 2008). Luke (1998) and Morley

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(2014) have explained how the mechanism causes inequality, from social and cultural perspectives. Women are, therefore, less favorable collaborators compared with male colleagues (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2013). They encounter exclusion from the “old boys’ club” when trying to build up an informal social network, have fewer female role models to follow, and are not informed of much tacit knowledge and criteria (Morley, 2014). In turn, more academic women choose not to take administrative leadership positions, further strengthening the male-dominant academic environment (Aiston, 2014; Morley, 2014).

1.1.2 Emerging Studies on Intellectual Leadership in Higher Education In higher education, scholars’ intellectual leadership is linked with professors’ ability to debate openly, to make critical inquiries, to conduct research against the dominant views, and to publish their research results. Women have been in a relatively marginalized status as knowledge producers (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2013; Lincoln et al., 2012; Morley, 2014; Rossiter, 1993) and have had to overcome multifold obstacles in their careers, which has led to decades of extensive discussions in the literature about the inequality of female professors. Nonetheless, few studies have addressed what women scholars who have eventually become top scholars have experienced and how they have made their way (White & O’Conner, 2017). In general, intellectual leadership denotes a moral power for the good of the public and society. Intellectuals exercise it as devotees of ideas, knowledge, and values in areas such as politics, religion, arts, business, and commerce (Burns, 2016; Macfarlane, 2013; Rooney & McKenna, 2008). The definition of intellectual leadership in this study is not identical to the formal leadership found in administrative or managerial positions (such as vice-chancellors, university presidents, deans, and department heads), but is closely related to and influenced by formal leadership in higher education. Compared to the large body of literature on leadership in administrative positions in higher education, there have been insufficient efforts to clarify the idea of intellectual leadership, save for a few attempts by Macfarlane (2011, 2013) and Uslu and Welch (2016). The concept of intellectual leadership has overlapped with academic leadership to a certain extent (Bolden et al., 2012; Evans, 2017; Evans et al., 2013; Uslu & Welch, 2016) and is one type of informal leadership delivered by professors. Macfarlane (2013) has defined intellectual leadership as professors’ capacity to mentor, to guard disciplinary standards, and enable others’ networking and resources and demonstrated the concept of professors’ intellectual leadership by delineating “professor” in four roles—knowledge producer, academic citizen, boundary transgressor, and public intellectual. These roles link to two aspects (academic freedom and academic duty) in two dimensions—within and beyond the academic disciplinary community (also explained in Oleksiyenko & Ruan, 2019).

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Within the neo-liberal and managerial academic culture, it has been urged that the intellectual leadership or academic leadership of university professors be re-instated and re-established (Macfarlane, 2013; Rayner et al., 2010). Correspondingly, Evans (2017) study, based in British universities, provided insights on professorial leadership in three categories: demonstrating “distinction” of disciplinary expertise, having methodological and pedagogical “knowledge” across disciplinary boundaries, and acting with “relationality” to assist junior colleagues’ development. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to intellectual leadership from a gendered perspective and the influence of academic disciplinary characteristics on the development of intellectual leadership has not been demonstrated.

1.1.3 Insufficient Studies on Women Scholars’ Intellectual Leadership Women scholars’ intellectual leadership development is understudied, despite some correlations between academic leadership and academic performance (Morley, 2015; Oleksiyenko & Ruan, 2019). Given that faculties’ core activities lie in knowledge production and dissemination (Boyer, 1990; Cummings, 1998), competence in and ability to conduct research, publish, communicate in the scholarly community, and design, deliver and assess teaching are the principal capital of faculty members (Baker, 2012). Obstacles to research, teaching, service, and management hinder women academics from fostering their capacity in intellectual aspects. Disciplinary context is one of the most significant facts influencing intellectual leadership. Scholars navigate their academic advancement based on epistemological properties and academic practices. Becher (1989) put forward the powerful metaphors of academic tribes and territories to analyze different features of disciplines, such as soft and hard, pure and applied, and urban and rural fields (updated in Becher & Trowler, 2001). Despite disciplines in higher education changing rapidly, the framework of tribes and territories remains highly relevant (Tight, 2015); nonetheless, it is necessary to take account of new discourses in higher education. Given significant cuts in government funding for public universities, increased marketization in and commercialization of activities in universities, as well as quality assurance and managerial practices, the impacts of disciplinary characteristics have evolved drastically (Brew, 2008). Professors’ activities differ considerably from one subarea to another within a given area of academic discipline (as discussed in Ruan, 2020). Factors like social-economic situations in a nation (or region), market logics, the university, and departmental strategies make significant differences (Trowler et al., 2012) that create hierarchies and power imbalances for individual academics. Under such circumstances, women professors need to deal with the challenges bought by both new academic career dynamics and potential gender barriers. Gender can be the “master status” that is “more salient than discipline in determining the reasons scientists provide for gender disparities between disciplines” (Ecklund et al., 2012). Hence,

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it is worth reexamining disciplinary features and intellectual leadership development from the gender perspective. In addition, previous studies on the absence of academic women’s leadership have mainly been situated in Western contexts, such as Australia (e.g., Probert, 2005; White, 2017), European countries (e.g., Bagilhole & White, 2008), the US (e.g., August & Waltman, 2004; Blickenstaff, 2005; Shen, 2013), and the UK (e.g., Morley, 2013a, 2015; Read & Kehm, 2016), although, in recent years, more studies have focused on female faculty members’ situations in South-Asia (Morley & Crossouard, 2016) and East-Asia (e.g., Aiston, 2014; Aiston & Yang, 2017; Tang, 2018). In addition, extant research either accentuate the gender gap of research productivity and performance in the quantitative sense (e.g., Aiston & Jung, 2015; Postiglione & Tang, 2008), or underrepresent management leadership (Aiston & Fo, 2020; Aiston & Yang, 2017; Morley, 2013a, 2013b; Tang, 2018; Wang & Gao, 2022).

1.1.4 Hong Kong with Mixed Culture As have their counterparts from other cultural backgrounds, women scholars from Chinese societies have experienced similar dilemmas due to culturally constructed gender roles. At the same time, they are profoundly affected by traditional Chinese culture (e.g., Hong Kong, Mainland of China, Taiwan, Singapore) and have encountered some different obstacles (e.g., Lam, 2006; Luke, 1998; Morley, 2014). Thus, it is worth discussing the cultural impacts with women scholars’ experiences. Formally identified as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong is situated on the southeastern coast of China. Due to its 150 years of colonial history, many of Hong Kong’s institutions, such as its economic system and laws, have a British influence. The metropolis is viewed as China’s gateway to the world and is one of the top global financial centers (Lo, 2018). The city is home to more than seven million residents, around 92% of whom are ethnic Chinese. The culture in Hong Kong has been defined as a combination of modernity and Chinese traditional culture (Jackson et al., 2013). However, the culture in Hong Kong is not homogeneous as it is an open society with different religious beliefs, lifestyles, languages and ideologies (Yang, 2012). Both Western culture and Confucian culture have played dispensable roles in Hong Kong. On the one hand, Western culture is a complicated concept with multiple connotations. Generally, it indicates ideas originating from Europe, proliferated by European immigration and settlement in both the American and Australasian areas (Yang et al., 2019). On the other hand, Confucian culture, as the most stable and significant heritage, exerts a profound impact on Hong Kong’s people and society. Rather than an ethno-religious concept, Confucianism is a lens to conceptualize “the form of life, the habits of the hearts, or the social praxis of those societies that have been under the influence of Confucian education for centuries” (Tu, 2000, p. 215). Furthermore, Confucian heritage culture prescribes ethics for men’s and women’s roles in the family and social life (see more in Sect. 2.3.2). Thus, the patriarchal ideas

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rooted in both Western and Confucian culture are another crucial aspect to analyze women scholars in Hong Kong. Statistically, Hong Kong is a female-friendly society, attracting expatriates from different parts of the globe. In the 2020/21 academic year, women account for around 52.2% of full-time staff in UGC-funded universities, 20.1% as senior academics and 33.2% as junior academics (Women’s Commission, 2022) and have been significant contributors to Hong Kong’s higher education institutions (HEIs) (Postiglione & Jung, 2017). Senior women academics are under-represented in Hong Kong HEIs, occupying only 7.3% of the positions at the level of deans and above in 2016 and accounting for only 18.7% of associate/assistant deans and department heads (Aiston, 2017). Within the highly competitive academic system in Hong Kong, scholars have to comply with managerial governance and abide by the “publish or perish” principle (Lee, 2017; Macfarlane, 2017). “Publishing” is mainly measured by the venue of publications, with “publication” being seen as equal to “knowledge production” (Lee, 2014). Based on studies, in 2007, data in the international project of Changing Academics Profession (CAP) in in Germany, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, and USA have been re-analyzed from a gender perspective (Aiston, 2014; Aiston & Jung, 2015; Jung, 2012), fewer women achieve higher senior academic titles (e.g., full professor), women faculty members spend more time teaching than men faculty members, produce less research output (journal articles, books, and book chapters) regardless of academic discipline and rank, and occupy disproportionally fewer senior academic manager positions than men (Tang, 2018). Aiston and Jung (2015) have underlined that discriminatory practices in academic professions are detrimental to women’s research output. However, the number of annual publications and research output reflects the neoliberal mindset, which emphasizes “productivity” and “performance.” Detailed and systematic accounts of such a disparity and explanations of how academic women combat these difficulties remain inadequate. A study by Aiston and Fo (2020) highlight a few issues that prevent women from climbing up the career ladder, including the disconnection of the gender equality commitment at the university level and the actual implementation at middle level, the failure to transform the male-dominant culture at the department and faculty levels, and women professors’ rejection of affirmative action. Like many other countries and regions, Hong Kong has, since the 1980s, been reacting to economic globalization by adopting a more market-oriented approach. Diminishing public support from the state, the commercialization of research programs, and strict accountability to the public have affected almost every aspect of universities. This pattern reinforces efficiency and performativity in higher education to increase the international competitiveness of institutions (Currie et al., 2008; Mok, 2005). As the massification of higher education proliferates in terms of academic capitalism and academic entrepreneurship, individual academics have faced critical challenges and opportunities (Slaughter & Leslie, 1997). Hong Kong’s history as a British colony, its return to China, and recent political events such as the 2014 Umbrella Movement have reshaped the landscape of higher education in Hong Kong,

1.2 Research Questions and Objectives

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particularly in terms of institutional autonomy, governance, and academic freedom. All these macro- and micro-level factors interplay with gender and disciplines.

1.1.5 Research Gaps Per the literature, multiple types of difficulties are encountered by women scholars in higher education, with female faculty members being generally viewed as disadvantaged in academia. As intellectual leadership development is crucial for scholars, studies on women professors’ intellectual leadership are scarce. Several points have been inadequately explored, including: . intellectual leadership development across disciplines and at different career stages; . intellectual leadership from women scholars’ perspectives; . the influence of disciplinary context on women scholars’ intellectual leadership development; and . the impact of cultural factors on women scholars’ careers in Hong Kong.

1.2 Research Questions and Objectives In analyzing women professors’ in-depth interviews, academic profiles, and regional higher education policies, I address the following research question: How do women professors perceive and develop intellectual leadership in Hong Kong? To delve into the main research question, I list several sub-questions: (1) How do women scholars in different research fields view intellectual leadership? (2) How do they engage in different academic roles at different career stages? (3) What kinds of experiences do they have in their academic careers in Hong Kong, with consideration of culture and gender? This study intends to gain insights on cumulative favorable and unfavorable factors that influence women scholars’ intellectual leadership, including the academic community, the institutional environment, gender, and culture. It attempts to capture the mosaics of individuals’ perspectives and strategies to counter disadvantages and gain recognition and rewards in higher education institution (HEIs) in Hong Kong. It discusses neoliberal exercises and takes accounts of covert gender discriminations embedded in specific disciplinary fields and some institutions. Hopefully, it can raise the awareness of both women and men professors and enable them to better recognize themselves as intellectual leaders whose role it is to create a more feminine and inclusive environment in higher education. It hopes to offer useful information for policymakers in universities and the government.

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Theoretically, this study strives to fill the knowledge gap regarding women professors’ advantages and disadvantages, from gendered and epistemological perspectives. It argues that the features of disciplines, institutions, and gender interplay to make different impacts on women scholars’ intellectual leadership development. This book centers on women professors’ intellectual leadership perceptions and development in Hong Kong HEIs. It argues that women professors develop intellectual leadership in different patterns, in accordance with disciplinary features. The different academic disciplines and changes brought by the marketization and internationalization of higher education have shaped their scholarly practices. In addition, gender affects women scholars in various dimensions. Four types of women intellectual leaders have been identified—strategic gamers, persistent navigators, unconventional fighters, opportunistic achievers. Detailed analyses of each type are presented in Chaps. 4–7, respectively.

1.3 Research Framework The book uses an integrated framework combining Robert Merton’s theory of cumulative (dis) advantage in science (CAD), Macfarlane’s four-orientation model of intellectual leadership, and the perspectives of cultural legacies and gender. The first theoretical lens, CAD, explains social saturation among individual scientists. It explains the disproportionate allocation of resources, rewards, and recognition among elite scientists in higher education institutions. As a group of scholars, women appear to be disadvantaged; as intellectual leaders, only a small proportion of women scholars has surpassed their peers. This theoretical framework enables me to explore both the advantages and disadvantages faced by women scholars, as well as how these factors interact. This theory has been used to explain such social inequalities as “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” or “success breeds success” in different contexts (DiPrete & Eirich, 2006, p. 272; Mahbuba & Rousseau, 2011, p. 335). Zuckerman (1991) has found a growing disparity in academic performance and individual status between male and female scientists as they age. The Matilda Effect was first put forward to exposit the systematic discrimination toward women scientists by the masculine and patriarchal academic system (Rossiter, 1993, see more in Chap. 2, Sect. 2.3.1). Women may be under stricter scrutiny, even though the reward and recognition standards are claimed to be “fair” (Baker, 2012, p. 23). The reward and communication systems in the cumulative advantages theory influence the “gender structure,” like the “class structure” of science (Allison & Stewart, 1974, p. 57), by providing a stratified distribution of chances and resources to male professors. The second theoretical lens helps to make sense of intellectual leadership in universities. As further elucidated in Sect. 2.1.2, intellectual leadership refers to scholars’ competence, academic values, and identities. Four roles of intellectual leaders (i.e., as knowledge producer, academic citizen, boundary transgressor, and public intellectual) are analyzed by Macfarlane (2013) to explicate intellectual leadership in terms of academic duties and academic freedom. To be a knowledge producer imparts

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scholars’ work within disciplinary confines and their ability to influence theories, frameworks, critiques, and practices. To be an academic citizen means that scholars employ innovative methods to apply their knowledge or to support a broader group of people, including students, junior academics, government and non-governmental organizations. The boundary transgressors function concerns professors’ abilities to connect inquiries in various research fields through knowledge production, dissemination, and services. The public intellectuals refer to scholars applying their expertise in public debates and providing critical scholarly opinions for people. This intellectual leadership model can facilitate analysis of how women scholars invest in different academic roles, not only within and beyond the academic discipline and HEIs, but also in public. The third theoretical lens is drawn from the literature about the social roles of women and cultural legacies. Women scholars in Hong Kong come from diverse backgrounds, with the majority hailing from Chinese and East Asian societies and some from other regions. Plenty of studies in developed countries (Australia, the UK, the US, and European countries) have debated academic women’s obstacles in academia from societal, professional organizational, and institutional perspectives (e.g., Bain & Cummings, 2000; Davies, 1996). Confucian heritage culture (CHC) has long been a fundamental part of the social ethics, political ideology, and lifestyle of Chinese societies (Tu, 1998). It has shaped the social order and defined the relations between the individual, the family, and the nation in ways different from many Western societies. The labor division between men and women in private and public life and the core familial value of filial piety have been embedded in daily routines and social orders for centuries. As a result, men are prioritized in both individual households and public affairs, and Confucian ideas impose women-oppressive practices. In modern welfare societies in East Asia, women’s lives and careers have still been profoundly affected by traditional values, despite the growing percentages of women entering the labor force (e.g., Leung, 2014; Mun, 2015; Pascall & Sung, 2007 in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea). Female scholars’ development in Hong Kong, where globalization, modernity, and traditional Chinese values converge, is worth investigating through a cultural lens and is expected to place women scholars’ dilemmas, choices, and actions in a comprehensive setting. The perception and development of women scholars’ intellectual leadership are correlated with HEIs, the nature of academic disciplines and research areas, and individual efforts to use resources and accrue skills, in the context of a neoliberal managerial environment infused with CHC. By employing an analytical tool combining three different perspectives, this study aims to understand the complexity, challenges, and opportunities faced by female professors in higher education.

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1.4 Methodological Considerations 1.4.1 Multiple-Case Study Design A multiple case study design was applied in this research. Case study is an empirical inquiry used to examine complex phenomena that allows “a unique example of real people in real situations, enabling readers to understand ideas more clearly than simply by presenting them with abstract theories or principles” (Cohen et al., 2013, p. 253). Different individual women professors’ career development in universities in Hong Kong set a suitable tone for case study. Another reason to implement case study was determined by the research paradigm into which this study falls. Uniqueness, particularity, and diversity are the strengths of a qualitative study (Stake, 1994, p. 238). “The uniqueness of situations” in the case, in terms of historical, economic, political backgrounds, can be interpreted and displayed by multiple-source data and in-depth comprehension (Stake, 1994, p. 239). Such enriched details and their uniqueness benefit the inductive approach of theory building in the later stage. “Intellectual leadership” should be understood in terms of individual backgrounds, disciplinary characteristics, higher education policies, and the socio-cultural context—Hong Kong as an international city influenced by Confucian heritage culture. This study adopted an explanatory multiple-case study approach. The advantages of multiple-case designs are often mentioned as “more compelling” and “being more robust” (Yin, 2014, p. 57). Multiple-case study enabled me to explore differences within and between cases by following replicate logic (Baxter & Jack, 2008). At the same time, it should be noted that participants in a multiple-case study are different from respondents to survey or multiple subjects within an experiment applying representative sampling logic (Yin, 2014). Qualitative methods were used to investigate women professors’ personal experience in HEIs, with in-depth interviews being the primary data collection method. Additional information was gathered from various sources (e.g., individual academic profiles in the university webpage, publication records, online CVs, and other relevant information available). The study aims at understanding how women professors in various disciplines develop their intellectual leadership in: (1) the horizontal aspect— via academic activities such as research, teaching, service, and other engagements; and, (2) the vertical dimension—the early academic career stage, the middle career stage (from junior faculty member to tenured associate professor), and the senior stage (from tenured associate professor to full professor).

1.4.2 Selection of Participants The unit of analysis in this study is individual woman professors who participated in my project. As the research questions concern individual professors’ academic

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careers, the research used a holistic multiple-case study method, as a person is usually defined as a “case” (Yin, 2014). Cases were selected cautiously so similar results could be found across cases— literal replication—or contrasting results predicted based on theoretical anticipation—theoretical replication (Yin, 2014, p. 57). This study has provided literal replications within the discipline and (or) with a similar personal background (e.g., places of origin, education, age group). While individual cases across different types of disciplines offered theoretical replications by showing deviating or contradicting results, the aim was to “yield a large number of potentially relevant variables” to select the proper cases (as promoted in Yin, 2014, p. 59). In this study, women intellectual leaders in Hong Kong are target participants. To determine the proper participants, I referred to a wide range of literature on different types of leadership, as explained in Ruan (2022). After gaining solid understanding on the concept of intellectual leadership and having iterative discussions with my supervisor and several scholars, I collaborated with my supervisor on a co-authored article titled Intellectual leadership and academic communities: Issues for discussion and research (Oleksiyenko & Ruan, 2019, see Appendix B). It focused on a set of questions, including how to define intellectual leadership, whether intellectual leadership “implies a position of formal authority and power,” what patterns develop intellectual leadership, whether cumulative advantage in science leads directly to intellectual leadership, and what difficulties women and minority scholars may encounter to take on intellectual leadership in their disciplinary communities. This concept paper was sent to interviewees before interviews to invite discussions about their ideas on intellectual leadership. There are several criteria to define intellectual leaders. First, the attainment of full professorship as the primary criterion was applied for the selection of participants, aligning with the approach outlined by Macfarlane (2011, 2013). The academic title of full professor represents excellence of academic accomplishment and seniority in the academic experience. Promotion to full professor in universities usually requires the demonstration of research scholarship, teaching and learning scholarship, and contributions to and impacts on the discipline with quantitative indicators, such as publications, citations, student supervision, services, and other aspects. In addition, it usually demands institutional leadership, such as leadership at the department, faculty, or university administration levels, and substantial contributions to service within the university. Even though intellectual leadership suggests a dominance of ideas and is associated with authoritative contributions to academia, scholars tend to prioritize the development of their specific areas of expertise initially (Roberts, 2007). Once they have amassed sufficient expertise and recognition within their discipline and institution, some scholars gradually assume greater academic autonomy and responsibilities. Therefore, these levels of competence and recognition often coincide with the criteria for attaining the rank of full professorship. Additionally, I incorporated two supplementary indicators to assist in the identification of intellectual leaders for the study. Firstly, the participants’ research impact factors in platforms such as Google Scholar or Web of Science were taken into account. The h-index was used as a simple and useful instrument to see the quality

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and quantity of publications in recognized journals (Hirsch, 2005). The online software, Publish or Perish (PoP), was used to search for research impact indicators in Web of Science or Google Scholar (wherever applicable). The hl, annual index (as the enhanced version of h-index) can be analyzed in a PoP query. It shows disciplinespecific factors and citation patterns that otherwise distort the h-index and reduces the influence of the disproportion evaluation of junior and senior researchers (NCSU Libraries, 2018). For some soft fields, like arts, which prefer books or book chapters to other communication means, I referred to women scholars’ major works and the reviews thereof. Secondly, the sustainability and activeness of research engagement were also referred, encompassing contributions such as publications in scholarly journals, presentations at both local and international conferences, successful acquisition of research grants, involvement in knowledge exchange endeavors, and the guidance of postgraduate research scholars. These criteria may rule out those scholars who changed to administrative positions after being promoted to full professor and were no longer active in the research field. Admittedly, full professors, as a group of elite scholars, are challenging to gain access to. Sometimes the strict exercise of literal or theoretical replications could not be achieved. Therefore, flexibility was allowed. The primary criterion for case selection was maximized opportunities to learn (Stake, 1995). Case studies do not attempt to achieve “whom to represent” (generalization to the larger population) but “what to represent,” meaning the convergence of specific characteristics in diverse individuals (Pan et al., 2010). This is also known as “theoretical saturation” (Morse, 2004). Academic discipline was used as the critical variable in this study. Still, other variables, such as personal (age, ethnicity, social class), educational, and professional background, were considered when sampling individual cases. The principle of maximization of variation was applied (Weiss, 1994). More elaboration on research design, data collection, data analysis and other aspects of methodology is included in Appendix A.

1.5 Structure of the Book Following this introductory chapter, Chap. 2 discusses the definitions of intellectual leadership and the characteristics of scholarship across academic disciplines. It reviews the literature on the academic careers of women scholars in higher education around the globe and highlights women scholars affected by CHC. Then, it examines women and society in Hong Kong, as well in its higher education system as women scholars. Chapter 3 firstly reviews the major theoretical lens used to study the development of women in higher education and introduces an integrated framework to analyze women scholars’ intellectual leadership in Hong Kong. Its second part explains the primary analytical structure as Merton’s cumulative (dis)advantage theory in science and its applications in diverse settings. The third and fourth parts connect

1.5 Structure of the Book

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Macfarlane’s four-dimension intellectual leadership and Confucian heritage culture with the cumulative (dis)advantage. Based on the collected and analyzed data, four types of different approaches women professors used to develop intellectual leadership are encapsulated in the four findings chapters (Chaps. 4–7). These categories are defined by a series of factors, including features of academic disciplines and research fields, individual scholars’ pursuits of different academic roles, significant advantages and disadvantages at the discipline-related, institution-related, culture- and gender-related aspects, and the periods of main advantages accumulated. Chapter 4 analyzes the first category, which includes eight women professors as strategic gamers. It indicates that the scholars engaged in academic activities strategically and gained rewards relatively fast in the competitive research game. Many of them worked in hard and applied fields in STEM fields or relatively applied fields in the social sciences. They prioritized discipline-oriented knowledge production and accrued their disciplinary and institutional advantages at the early stage of their career. These scholars’ academic achievements were more recognized in the neoliberal environment in higher education. Being female scholars was not considered a significant disadvantage in institutions, but motherhood and family responsibilities were stressed as difficulties. Chapter 5 presents the second type of four women scholars (persistent navigators), representing them as steering a sailing boat toward a destination by persistently navigating numerous unforeseen obstacles and compromising in practical situations. These scholars researched in soft and pure academic areas, as well as newly developed interdisciplinary fields that might not initially be entirely accepted as useful knowledge. Different from strategic gamers, their accumulation of advantages came at later academic career stages, by maneuvering different academic activities (e.g., teaching, mentoring, and researching across-discipline, services in the institution). They struggled to survive at the early stage and encountered more resistance in institutional and disciplinary aspects. CHC and gender factors had more negative effects on their intellectual development. Chapter 6 delineates four women professors who were deemed unconventional fighters. These professors were pioneers in relatively soft and applied fields or newly developed research areas, and might be seen as mavericks. Their academic careers were motivated by a desire to have a social impact through their knowledge and expertise. They also spoke up for disadvantaged members of the community and actively promoted social welfare through their expertise. They were most aware of genderrelated inequality and discriminative practices in the university and the academic community. Many accumulated advantages through networking and practice work experience in the early and middle stages of their career. Chapter 7 depicts six female professors as opportunistic achievers. Committed to research and practices in such applied fields as education and health-related research, these women scholars displayed intense intellectual curiosity and were high performers. Despite lacking a clear career plan at the early stage of their career, they were adept at seizing on unanticipated changes (e.g., for promotion or geographical

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mobility). Entering academia relatively late and with long periods of practical experience in the field, they attached more importance to applying knowledge in practice and balancing life and work. They benefited more from institutional policies and environment than did other types of professors. Their accumulation of advantages was concentrated in the middle and senior periods of their career. Chapter 8 reviews the purpose, research questions, design, and methods of the study. It concludes the findings, relates the discoveries in this research to the literature, and discusses the theoretical and practical contributions of the integrated theoretical framework. Finally, it points out the study’s research implications and identifies directions for future study.

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Chapter 2

The Reality for Women Scholars

Abstract This chapter presents a systematic review of four major aspects of the relevant literature: (a) intellectual leadership; (b) academic disciplines; (c) gender, culture, and academic careers; and (d) Hong Kong society and women scholars. This chapter first introduces concepts related to leadership in higher education, including academic management, academic leadership, scientific leadership, and intellectual leadership (with a focus on Macfarlane’s intellectual leadership model). It delineates Macfarlane’s model of intellectual leadership in different roles: knowledge producer, academic citizen, boundary transgressor, and public intellectual. It also illustrates differences in intellectual leadership across academic disciplines and its potential impact on women professors. Following this foundational concept, it reviews the literature on major issues in women scholars’ academic careers around the globe and in Confucian heritage culture (CHC)-influenced East Asian societies. Lastly, it analyzes Hong Kong’s higher education landscape and women scholars’ careers with an overview of the social milieu in the region. Connections between the challenges, opportunities faced by academic women, and intellectual leadership are drawn.

This chapter firstly explains intellectual leadership in higher education, then illustrates the potential differences in intellectual leadership across academic disciplines. Followed this fundamental concept, it reviews the literature on the major issues in women scholars’ academic careers around the globe and in Confucian heritage culture (CHC)-influenced East Asian societies. Lastly, it analyzes Hong Kong’s higher education and women scholars’ careers with an overview of the social milieu in the city. Connections between academic women’s challenges and opportunities and intellectual leadership are drawn. Based on the phenomenon of the under-representation of women scholars in Hong Kong, I have reviewed four major aspects of the relevant literature: (a) intellectual leadership; (b) academic disciplines; (c) gender, culture, and academic career; and (d) Hong Kong society and women scholars. Previous studies have often discussed women scholars’ under-representation as senior academic leaders in higher education, especially in Western contexts. It requires more effort to investigate how women professors develop intellectual leadership as an informal type of leadership.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3_2

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2.1 Studies on Intellectual Leadership 2.1.1 Different Types of Leadership While a large body of literature has debated “leadership” in general and “academic leadership” in higher education, “intellectual leadership” is a less-discussed term in both fields. Particularly, studies on intellectual leadership from a gender perspective are scant. This part reviews leadership and intellectual leadership in universities and determines the scope of the concept for the study. Traditionally, leadership is concerned with management, control, and monitoring. The leader and her/his followers constitute the formation of leadership. A leader can be rather simply defined as one who exercises authority over others (e.g., Eagly & Carli, 2007). In recent decades, leadership has evolved into a more dynamic word associated with changes, direction-setting, and innovations (Keith, 2005). The primary emphasis of leadership studies has been on the importance of various forms of intelligence related to specific organizational objectives and functions (e.g., Goleman, 2017). Leadership can be expected to create meanings in an organization, to “confront uncertainty and ambiguity, contradiction, and dissonance,” to “understand cultures,” and to “articulate core values” (Rooney & McKenna, 2008). In higher education, leadership has been usually defined as one’s capability for “influencing and/or motivating others towards the accomplishment” of a specific institution (Bryman, 2007, p. 696). Diverse styles of leadership have been identified as central to addressing the dynamics of multicultural learning environments in universities (Kezar, 2008). Leadership usually helps to form the identity of a community or a group, in terms of the ways in which they are selected, the expectations placed on them, the manner in which they exercise their authority, their attitudes, and the practices they value (Astin & Astin, 2000). Leadership in higher education can be identified as formal and informal. Terms such as academic leadership are used interchangeably with formal and informal meanings. Bolden et al. (2012) distinguished between the two by saying academic management focuses on institutional goals to frame and regulate academic activities, tasks, and processes, while academic leadership is closely related to academic values and identity (identities), citizenship, and belonging. Leaders, as academic managers in administrative positions such as heads of departments and deans, are responsible for allocating workloads, monitoring and assessing performance, and providing and distributing resources. Academic leaders are concerned less with institutional roles and responsibilities, instead exercising their intellectual power to energize, motivate, mentor, and contribute to the value of the academic community. One of the critical distinctions between the two types of leadership lies in alignment (to common goals of individuals, groups, and the organization) and commitment (to disciplinary knowledge, professional life, and academic identities). More studies center on academic leadership as the leadership of professors (Boyer, 1990; Kennedy, 1997; Rayner et al., 2010). As Rayner et al. (2010, p. 624) summarized, “the qualities found in [academic] success are seen to be the direct

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result of activities geared to knowledge creation, scholarship, and intellectual autonomy.” Baker (2012) depicted “developing research, writing, and collaborative skills, knowing how to get published and how to sell their research to other academics, acquiring the confidence to lecture and publish widely, and gaining the respect of colleagues” (p. 19) as the capital or resources for academics in universities. Academic leaders, as established professors, are expected to provide students and junior colleagues by promoting their growth of creativity, scholarly pursuits and intellectual development, often facilitated through guidance and exemplary role models (Evans, 2017). For “the led” (i.e., administrators, teachers, and researchers), professors are expected to exercise their leadership, effectively advise and mentor, and be available, approachable, and willing to take on variables (Evans et al., 2013). Teaching, producing, publishing, having “a public voice,” and being “a global opinion organizer” are perceived as senior academics’ intellectual leadership (Yilmaz, 2007, cited in Uslu & Welch, 2016). Distinctions in professors’ disciplinary expertise, methodological and pedagogical understanding, and skills across disciplines are found as components of academic leadership (Evans, 2017). Ideally, both academic management and academic leadership work together to ensure the process and tasks operate smoothly to support institutional objectives and the formation of individual values and identities. Nonetheless, the two types of leadership, formal and informal, do not necessarily incorporate well, and sometimes even conflict with each other. More importantly, the corporate approach to and businesslike mindset regarding higher education management contribute to the imbalance between the two types of leadership, corresponding to what Macfarlane called the reason for the retreat of intellectual leadership (Macfarlane, 2013). Distributed leadership is leadership style that covers some features of intellectual leadership. Distributed leadership is leadership that emphasizes fewer individual roles and functions, but pinpoints leadership practice—i.e., interactions between the leader and followers (Spillane, 2005). It has a broader point to appreciate the collective benefits for a group or an organization. In this sense, intellectual leadership combines academics’ analytical ideas as scholars and theorists with their normative ideas as moralists (Burns, 2016, p. 141). The emergent properties of a group as the result of interactions and its openness to leadership boundaries are shared insights for distributed leadership (Bolden, 2011). Both formal vertical hierarchical leadership (“leadership-in-charge”) and informal horizontal non-hierarchical leadership (“leadership-in-front”) are counted (Grint, 2005, p. 28). Informal leadership and leadership across organizational boundaries is less in vogue as a research focus (Bolden, 2011). Another relevant concept is scientific leadership, referring to leadership in the scientific community, where autonomy is more valued than in any other place. It is often associated with leaders among scientists, who are not exclusively academics but can be scientists in research institutions and enterprises. Michael Polanyi and Thomas S. Kuhn portrayed that members of the scientific community have plenty of autonomy and are relatively free from external pressures, but are constrained by internal leadership (Agassi, 1986). Polanyi supported that traditions should be firmly

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bound by leaders, while Kuhn suggested “a more dynamic and less tradition-bound scientific community” (Agassi, 1986, p. 231). Scientific leadership requires scientists to balance the ends, means, and priorities of their research with the long- and short-term interests of and local/global concerns in the broader society (Graumann & Moscovici, 2012; Pielke & Sarewitz, 2002). Sometimes there are conflicts between the scientific community’s responsibilities and professional self-interest; e.g., whether research should prioritize reducing uncertainty and assisting in policy-making or impeding effective policymaking in the context of climate change research community (Pielke & Sarewitz, 2002). Intellectual leadership in higher education has rarely been fully defined. The concept tends to refer to informal types of leadership in higher education. Intellectual leadership concerns intellects’ ability to use their knowledge and disciplinary expertise to expand the boundaries of research, to make an impact on the academic community, and to lead research groups or research centers of junior scholars or research graduate students. It is associated with the identities and leadership of a professor at a university. To some extent, intellectual leadership has overlapped with academic leadership in universities and could influence academic management. According to Macfarlane (2013), intellectual leadership has been enacted and constructed via the process of discovering and producing new knowledge, and embedded in the process of exercising academic freedom and carrying out academic duties. To lead anyone intellectually, one must have the quality to master knowledge and the intellectual authority born of research and practical experiences, which has its roots in history (Conroy, 2000). Intellectual leadership refers to not only the ability to apply for grant funding, publish academic papers, but also the competence ……to acquire the art of skillful and constructive peer review, widen intellectual networks, criticize and shape academic trends, understand and participate in team-based interdisciplinary research, learn how to engage non-academic audiences in both research processes and the application of research outcomes, mentoring of new researchers and nurturing academic freedom. (Macfarlane, 2010, p. 5)

Hence, it can be inferred that intellectual leadership is closely related to the capacity (or the capital) to practice academic activities, including research, teaching, and disciplinary services. Only with such abilities can a professor sustainably develop his/her career and contribute to the academic community. In addition, the social and cultural background of what intellectuals are should be taken into consideration. Leadership in higher education is briefly reviewed in Table 2.1, regarding its formal and informal aspects. The division should not be viewed as a dichotomy. Intellectual leadership, as one type of informal leadership, relates closely to the organizational environment and can, in turn, act on formal leadership. In higher education, the attention of scholars has increasingly been drawn to the problems of managerial and corporate culture. More discussions have emerged about informal leadership (Bolden, 2011; Macfarlane, 2014). With the trend toward mass higher education and academic capitalism in universities, the academic functions of professors have become fragmented (Clark, 1986), with growing disparities between

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research, teaching, and management types of professors. As a result, bureaucracy has been strengthened and collegiality diminished. It is thus essential to understand the meaning of intellectual leadership. Table 2.1 Leadership in higher education Formal leadership in the institution

Informal leadership

• Leadership in higher education as the • The leadership of professors by producing capability to influence and/or motivate knowledge, conducting research, writing and others towards institutional accomplishment collaborating • Capacity tackling “vu jàdé (never seen this • Management dealing with “déjà vu (seen before)” this before)” (Bryman, 2007; Keith, 2005) (Boyer, 1990; Keith, 2005; Kennedy, 1997; Rayner et al., 2010) • Academic management focusing on institutional goals to frame and regulate academic activities, tasks, and processes (Bolden et al., 2012)

• Academic leadership concerning academic value and identity (identities), citizenship and belonging (Bolden et al., 2012)

• Formal vertical hierarchical leadership (leadership-in-charge) (Grint, 2005)

• Informal horizontal non-hierarchical leadership (“leadership-in-front”) (Grint, 2005)

The importance of various intelligence related • A unique publication-based authority and to specific organizational objectives and power (Baert & Morgan, 2018) functions; diverse styles of leadership as the key to addressing the dynamic environment in • Leadership to create meanings to deal with universities uncertainty and ambiguity, to understand (Goleman, 2017; Kezar, 2008) cultures and value (Rooney & Mckenna, 2008) • Scientific leadership to balance the values and the priorities of research among scientists and the broader community, the long-term and short-term interests, the local and global concerns (Graumann & Moscovici, 2012; Pielke & Sarewitz, 2002) • Intellectual leadership to make influence through empirical studies and practices collaboratively, to synergize ideas and resources across organizations to address social problems (Baert, 2015; Becher & Trowler, 2001; Macfarlane, 2011) • Professors’ intellectual leadership to make impacts in various aspects of higher education including research, teaching, administration as well as the wider society (Evans, 2017; Evans et al., 2013) • Intellectual leadership highly affected by the institutional environment and its communication style (Uslu & Welch, 2016)

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2.1.2 Macfarlane’s Model of Intellectual Leadership Intellectual leadership can integrate with multi-faceted identity and values. The key is scholars’ important ideas (Roberts, 2007). Previous studies in the UK and the US have posited the meaning of academic profession/identity/scholarship, which is highly relevant to intellectual leadership (e.g., Blaxter et al., 1998; Boyer, 1990; Henkel, 2000). Given the changes in higher education, including neo-liberalism and managerialism, Macfarlane (2011, 2013) has redefined the concept of professors and reclaimed the horizontal development of intellectual leadership. The conceptualization of intellectual leadership resonates with what Boyer (1990) calls creative scholarship, because society needs scholars who “not only skillfully explore the frontiers of knowledge, but also integrate ideas, connect thought to action, and inspire students” (p. 77). Intellectual leadership thus implies “moral power or authority” (Macfarlane, 2013, p. 6). Macfarlane (2013) has deconstructed the roles of professors as a knowledge producer, academic citizen, boundary transgressor, and public intellectual, each exercising different degrees of academic freedom and academic duty (Table 2.2). According to Macfarlane (2013), academic freedom and academic duty constitute the two-sided nature of the academic profession. Academic freedom signifies one of the most indispensable values in HEIs, for its essential role in knowledge creation (Altbach, 2001). This concept, from the perspective of individual academics, connotates different layers of freedom that vary in research, teaching, learning, shared governance, intramural, and extramural speech. Since universities have become increasingly integrated with the state and the market, the link between knowledge, power, and capital grows more influential among universities, governments, and markets (Weiler, 2001). Being a knowledge producer means working within the boundaries of established disciplines to impact theory, practices, or both by developing propositional or technical expertise or creating innovative theories, frameworks, critiques, and models. It is a core academic role; as Boyer says, “whether or not they choose specialized, investigative work on an ongoing basis, every scholar must, we believe, demonstrate the capacity to do original research, study a serious intellectual problem, and Table 2.2 Macfarlane’s intellectual leadership model Exercise of academic duty

Exercise of academic freedom Limited

Extended

Society

Academic citizens

Public intellectuals

Discipline

Knowledge producers

Boundary transgressor

Adopted from Macfarlane (2011)

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present to colleagues the results” (p. 27). Against the backdrop of severe competition for students and government funding among institutions and countries, individual professional reputation, and self-esteem highly center on research output and publications (Henkel, 2000; Kennedy, 1997). Nonetheless, it is questionable whether every academic can continually discover new knowledge, carry out research projects, and keep publishing through all periods of their career. Another crucial role of the academic citizen concerns a professor’s role in using creative approaches to apply their expertise to benefit a wider audience, such as students, government, and non-government organizations. To be specific, academics may apply innovative pedagogies in classrooms to teach, serve as academic leaders, or engage in outreach service activities. Consultancy and knowledge exchange— such as acting as external examiners, research student supervisors—are roles related to educators and researchers and parts of their identities as academic citizens. When professors fulfill this role, they do not seek profitable chances. In this sense, intellectual leadership “combines the academic’s analytical ideas as a scholar and a theorist, and their normative ideas as a moralist” (Burns, 2016, p. 141). The academic citizen role demonstrates a range of broad aspects of academic life that require the exercise of both academic freedom in teaching, intramural action, and speech, and fulfilling various academic duties. Apart from being scholars, academics should act as role models and set standards for younger generations (Kennedy, 1997). Many different teaching forms are included, such as lecture, tutorial/exercise classes, seminars, laboratory classes, peer tutoring, supervision, evaluation, and assessment (Blaxter et al., 1998). The academic citizen also serves the university and the department, with either an institutional or disciplinary focus. Being involved in committee work, running a department, or spending time on quality audit and assessment are some examples of essential tasks for professors as academic citizens (Blaxter et al., 1998). Citizenship related to one’s academic discipline and institution can profoundly influence one’s academic behavior and informal leadership (Bolden et al., 2012). The traditions of “academic citizenship” vary between countries and regions and can be related to the trio identity in American universities (research-teaching-service), services based on religious roots in the UK Oxford tradition, or the autonomous “services as the advancement of knowledge development and disciplinary aspects” common in German universities (Macfarlane, 2006, p. 4). Macfarlane (2006) has demonstrated three crucial elements of citizenship: political literacy, social and moral responsibility, and community involvement (p. 16). These levels of service overlap with some meanings of the other two roles in the following. With the extension of academic freedom in the limited academic duty quadrant, boundary transgressors demonstrating those link inquiries in different disciplines through teaching, research, and services. As pioneers in the knowledge center (universities), professors may attempt to: …challenge the norms of established disciplines, and develop connections across fields of inquiry through teaching, research, and scholarship; to encourage links not only across disciplines, but also between academe and the commercial environment. (Macfarlane, 2013, p. 115)

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This explanation can be related to what Boyer (1990) promoted as the scholarship of integration, “making connections across the disciplines, placing the specialties in the larger context, illuminating data in revealing way, often educating non-specialists, too” (p. 18). The necessary function of boundary transgressors can be seen in the fact that managerialism has endangered the traditional collegial and disinterested style of academic work (Halsey, 1992; Trow, 1994), requiring it to be more practical and more likely to yield multiple outcomes in its original field. Hence, inter- and cross-disciplinary academic work may become essential in the future. However, Macfarlane (2013) acknowledged that solid, tight boundaries of cognitive knowledge may discourage professors from acting as boundary transgressors. As professors with the highest levels of academic freedom and academic duty, public intellectuals should be responsible for making impacts on public debates through various forms of communication. Intellectual leaders, as public intellectuals, can be interpreted as integrating epistemological and practical ideas. Kennedy (1997) declared that “to tell the truth” to the public was a societal expectation (p. 210), a view echoed by Yilmaz (2007, cited in Uslu & Welch, 2016), who stated that professors should be the voice of the public. Correspondingly, academic duty is a responsibility of HEIs and academics (Boyer, 1990). While institutions have to respond to society, students, and the people working in them, individual academics have a series of obligations “to their undergraduate students, to the more advanced scholars they train, to their colleagues, to the institutions with which they are affiliated, and to the larger society” (Kennedy, 1997, p. 23). Leadership is always hand in hand with their shared identity as professors in this study. Macfarlane (2011, 2013) assumed only senior faculty members with full professor titles could be deemed intellectual leaders. Academic duties are embedded in one’s academic identity as knowledge producer, academic citizen, boundary transgressor, and public intellect. The expected intellectual leadership embedded in these academic identities has been affirmed by several empirical studies (Bolden et al., 2012; Evans, 2017; Evans et al., 2013) covering research, teaching, and service. Macfarlane’s four-orientations model of intellectual leadership has deconstructed comprehensive professorial roles and reclaimed the significance of intellectual models, which is meaningful and timely given the rapid changes in higher education and disengagement of academics. However, it does not illustrate one’s intellectual leadership from a developmental process perspective, as intellectual leadership develops or decreases in a cumulative manner (Bolden et al., 2012). Some previous studies have also noted that academic women have different role foci and specific strategies in different stages of their careers (Fritsch, 2016; Philipsen & Bostic, T., 2008). Furthermore, intellectual leadership is highly affected by the institutional environment and the communication style therein (Uslu & Welch, 2016) and the importance of individuals’ interactions with their institutional environment has not been adequately addressed. In addition, Macfarlane’s intellectual leadership model was developed based on his investigations in the UK. The following section discusses the necessity of investigating further intellectual leadership in diverse academic disciplines and the Hong Kong discourse.

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2.2 Studies on Academic Disciplines The disciplinary community to which an individual professor belongs makes a remarkable difference in one’s perspectives on and behaviors regarding the accumulation of intellectual leadership. Academic cultures and disciplinary epistemology link with, fashion, and inextricably interact with academics. Individuals within a discipline organize their professional activities and lives in their approaches to the intellectual tasks in which they are engaged (Becher & Trowler, 2001). There are hierarchies and power imbalance across and within disciplines and sub-fields that indeed impact women scholars’ careers. The word “discipline” originates from Latin roots, has connotations of “pupil and teaching, [and] carries multiple meanings.” It is connected with the biblical term “disciple”, “which carries that Latin root, as well as submission to authority, punishment, being made to follow instructions, and rigorous self-control” (Trowler et al., 2012, p. 5). The seemingly binary oppositions between disciplinary cultures in academe should be noted. On one hand, the academic disciplinary culture and its set of stable features shapes scholarship of research and scholarship of teaching and learning and provides faculty members in the same field with norms and standards. On the other, academic research (knowledge production) and teaching (knowledge dissemination) have changed dramatically due to various factors. Disciplinarity and inter-disciplinarity are no longer as rigid and fixed as they were once thought.

2.2.1 Categorizations of Academic Disciplines One of the most well-known authors on frameworks and theories of discipline is Becher. Building on his earlier works, Becher (1989) established the metaphor of academic tribes and territories to categorize disciplines into urban/rural and pure/ applied, from social and cognitive perspectives. Several vital studies paved the road for Becher to develop this notion. For instance, Biglan’s (1973) investigation of subject characteristics in different academic areas among faculty members in the US found several pairs of distinctions between 36 subjects: hard and soft, pure and applied, and life system and non-life system. Similarly, Kolb’s (1981) learning style inquiry across academic areas focusing on students corresponds with Biglan’s research (1973), showing the contrasts of abstract versus concrete, active versus reflective, while Becher (1989) developed the widely used classifications of hardpure, hard-applied, soft-pure, and soft-applied sciences. The four categories have distinct characteristics based on the nature of knowledge. Pure sciences (hard-pure) focus on accumulation, universals, and clear criteria for verification. Humanities (soft-pure) emphasize complexity, values, and lack consensus on verification criteria. Technologies (hard-applied) prioritize practicality, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Applied social sciences (soft-applied) aim for professional practice enhancement, relying heavily on case studies and case law. Later, Becher further

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developed the framework of academic tribe and territory with Trowler (Becher & Trowler, 2001), which has become a widely applied and cited theory. The anthropological metaphor of tribes and territories implies a distinctive disparity of communication patterns, which may lead to different types and paces of writing and publishing. Becher and Trowler (2001) provided urban disciplines or rural disciplines as metaphors for the contrasting nature and scale of disciplines’ problems. Broadly, urban disciplines refer more to hard science, while rural disciplines imply soft science. The distinctions appear in different aspects. Within urban or rural academic fields, there are also diverse characteristics, including informal communication channels, formal modes of exchange, publication frequency and difficulty, citation practices, questions of style and accessibility, competition, and collaboration. Research productivity reaches its peak at a much earlier age in abstract disciplines (pure disciplines like mathematics and theoretical physics) compared to applied disciplines that rely on experimental studies (Lehman, 1953). The inherent properties of the discipline, epistemological concerns, career paths, practices of reputation and reward, and professional arrangements and activities may direct individual academics with various attitudes and strategies and bring different challenges to them (Becher & Trowler, 2001; Henkel, 2000). Soft sciences (humanities and applied social sciences) are more personal, value-laden, so the power and hierarchy of gender may have more influence on individual academics (Becher & Trowler, 2001). Social sciences and humanities are more apt to be at the lower end of the knowledge category and be seen as soft, less accurate knowledge, since natural sciences are accepted as the paramount standards of validation. This tradition has been challenged and “unified science” is losing its consensus (Weiler, 2001). The “‘softer’ clusters are more likely to be dominated by the ‘few ancestral spirits’” (Becher & Trower, 2001, p. 84), concentrating the credits to only a very few senior people. Indeed, there are other categorizations of disciplines beyond academic tribes and territories. For instance, Stokes (1997) offered a conceptualization of disciplinary knowledge in four quadrants. The first is research driven purely by researcher curiosity instead of practical use, such as bird watching. The second (Edison’s Quadrant) is based merely on applied purpose, while the third one (Bohr’s Quadrant) is basic research guided by considerations of use and the fourth (Pasteur’s Quadrant) is basic research intended to extend the frontiers of cognitive knowledge frontier, with the potential for practical use. These diverse types of disciplines are distributed in various institutions, with the numbers of the professoriate in different types of institutions distinguishing disciplines as “downward tilting” and “upward tilting” fields. Disciplines such as health sciences, which disperse heavily in comprehensive research universities and scarcely at all in teaching colleges, are “upward tilting” ones, while those such as English language and business communication, which are concentrated more in teaching institutions, are “downward tilting” (Clark, 1987). In recent decades, the conceptualization of academic tribes and territories has provided and remains a useful metaphor, even a theory to interpret knowledge production in higher education (Tight, 2015). Admittedly, the model is far from neat or precise, with many overlaps and disparities among and within fields. Trowler

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et al. (2012) stated that the land metaphor of tribes and territories has “outlived its usefulness” (p. 252); as the discourse of higher education has evolved drastically, so too must the definition of disciplines be reinterpreted. Factors such as new forms of public management, neo-liberal practices, marketization of universities, and increasing university response patterns to society needs have created much more complex disciplinary contexts. Labeling and categorizing disciplines may be convenient for management and quality assurance (Manathunga & Brew, 2012) but create challenges for evaluating the quality of research, teaching, and other activities in the changing global higher education context.

2.2.2 Disciplines in the New Era Given drastic funding decreases and changing managerial practices in higher education, the disciplinary and interdisciplinary features of academic fields have evolved accordingly, making soft/hard, pure/applied dichotomies seem less relevant than previous ones. Academic practices such as teaching, international collaboration, and knowledge exchange are heavily influenced by national (regional) social-economic factors, market logic, and university and departmental strategies (Trowler et al., 2012). These changes affect scholars’ practices, behaviors, and intellectual leadership development. Interdisciplinarity development is driven both by exogeneous and endogenous forces. The increasing amounts of research and academic activities are expected to solve real problems in society, which becomes an exogeneous stimulation for universities. From another aspect, interdisciplinarity also has endogenous characteristics, in those holistic views of knowledge, regarding any “metaphor, theme, theory, or conceptual scheme… implies a totality that cannot be adequately explained by reduction to the properties of its parts” (Klein, 1996, p. 13). The metaphor of tribes and territories suggests “inward-facing” ways of knowledge production that are profoundly affected by members of the disciplinary community and their outputs, while ignoring exogenous impacts. The current nature of academic work must consider the demands of business and the competition for international status, which go beyond the traditional circle of knowledge production, dispersion, and exchange. New metaphors have emerged, such as “sliding doors” and “shifting sand,” to depict different situations within the land metaphor of tribes and territories (Bamber, 2012, p. 105). Moreover, metaphors like oceans of knowledge imply “fluidity, possibilities, combinations; disciplinary and interdisciplinary spaces in an infinite variety of combinations… such spaces flow into each other, merging to form different kinds of knowledge groupings as problems and needs arise” (Manathunga & Brew, 2012, p. 51). The trendiness of academic research can also be depicted as oceanic tides. Beyond knowledge creation, knowledge dispersion and exchange are essential for scholars to expand their intellectuality. Across disciplines, the teaching and learning distinctions in different academic tribes and territories can be very stark, in terms of academics’ perceptions on teaching and pedagogies, teaching interests, students’

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learning objectives and styles, the relationship between teachers and students, and grading systems and procedures (Huber, 1990; Jung & Chan, 2017). Accordingly, academics’ perceptions about their research fields and their identities as researchers are constantly being updated. Sometimes land metaphors (tribes and territories), which imply the isolation, separation, and fragmentation of information among disciplines, may not be applicable. Brew’s (2008) study of the views of 70 senior researchers from Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the UK on disciplinary affiliations challenges the anthropological metaphors of “academic tribe and territory” critically. These faculty members perceived disciplines to be like “Russian nested dolls” or an “onion,” in that they have multiple layers (p. 429); some sought words to describe their research domains as a confluence, like “the intersection of two rivers” (p. 431). More fluid metaphors and models are suggested to capture the shifting uncertainty in academic disciplines. Even within a field of research, as Spurling (2012) stated, academics’ practices vary from one subfield to another. Also, the natures of a discipline as a professional practice, as an academic research field, and as teaching and learning practices are closely related, but not the same (Winberg, 2012). Individual academics conceptualize capital in different forms and act according to the natures of the research domain. For instance, in a study by Lucas (2006) set in the UK, professors in biology departments viewed research areas, publications, being international, and attaining research funding their most critical symbolic and material capitals; their colleagues in sociology departments, however, were more concerned about competition for external grants and considered conferences and collaborations most significant for their departmental development. One challenge brought by changing disciplines and interdisciplinarity is using similar criteria to measure all research and teaching. However, the audit culture has, by emphasizing research productivity, pushed academics to accelerate their research output and evaluate performance using similar criteria across disciplines. Such practices may partly explain why there are pecking orders and hierarchies across disciplines. Neoliberal and managerial practices benefit some scholars while undermining others. For instance, older scholars who developed their early career without such pressure consider it a negative change in the academic environment, while younger ones, who are used to outcome-based assessment and the audit culture, regard it as fair and natural (Tight, 2014). The influence of academic capitalism on Hong Kong higher education will be further discussed in Sect. 2.4.1.

2.2.3 Disciplines and Women Scholars A great deal of literature has argued that knowledge is gendered (e.g., Fraser & Taylor, 2016; Gilbert, 2001; Gumport, 2002). Women intellectuals in the globe, including those from the West and Chinese societies, were excluded from entering higher learning institutions as students and teachers since the twelfth century, respectively due to the establishment of European universities and the rise of neo-Confucianism

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(Hayhoe, 2005). In the following more than 700 years, females were not able to make influence in higher education. Under the impetus of global modernization movement, the academic landscape with the established disciplines was shaped since the nineteenth century, as a result of modern science development starting from the seventeenth century. Thus, the university culture was dominated by detached, objective, and positivist science, while feminist knowledge and its approach of knowing was largely omitted (Hayhoe, 2005). The absence of women from many disciplines normalizes the neglect of gender issues in research (Rees, 2011; Van den Brink & Benschop, 2012). As a more significant percentage of gatekeepers in academia are male scholars, their judgements of who and what is right and excellent remain hegemonic (Husu, 2004). Women scholars are perceived as less competent for “male-type research” and less desirable as collaborators (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2013). Despite having a similar level of quality, women’s work is reviewed under stricter standards (Hengel, 2017). Most female scholars, regardless of their research areas, experience various types of gender discrimination at some points in their careers. With the imbalance of power in academia comes discriminatory practices that are unfavorable for women. For example, women scientists have accounted for a large percentage of output in the biological sciences, with increasing publication numbers, but have had a much more difficult time negotiating first author status (Wilson, 2012). The RAE structure places female academics in a very disadvantaged position when they collaborate on papers, but have few single or first-authored papers (Macfarlane, 2017). This highlights the need to investigate how academic women in different academic disciplines establish their identity as intellectual leaders. Theoretically, intellectual leadership can be exercised by individual academics via different identities, such as researcher, teacher, academic leader, and research leader. Academics in different disciplines have demonstrated wide diversity in their selfpositions within their various roles, with a close relation to the broader environment they are in and the policies affecting them. In Henkel’s (2000) study of academic identity in the UK, most academics in biochemistry, philosophy, sociology perceived themselves as researchers only, while the majority of those in English and history considered themselves to have mixed roles, as both researcher and teacher (p. 182). In Hong Kong, perceptions of the compatibility of research and teaching reveal the great disparity between hard disciplines (e.g., engineering and natural science) and soft disciplines (e.g., humanities and social sciences), with 51.5% of academics in hard disciplines agreeing that “research reinforces teaching,” compared to 75.9% of those in soft disciplines (Jung & Chan, 2017). These studies reflect, to some extent, the different nature of knowledge fields and styles of teaching and learning. In higher education, the capacities to conduct research, to be socialized in academia, and to strengthen and guard disciplinary boundaries remain key to becoming a competent scholar. Intellectual leadership could be realized through the power of one’s ideas in research and publications. Leaders in the scholarly community have to be recognized for their ability to become pathfinders for the generation (Uslu & Welch, 2016). In Gumport’s (2002) book, Academic Pathfinders, feminist scholarship was examined from the perspective of knowledge creation, using the

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academic journeys of women scholars born in the 1960s as accounts in history, sociology, and philosophy. Feminist scholarship here indicates academics prioritized their political concerns, which usually meant their aspirations to change social inequalities through their academic pursuits. History was the most fruitful area in terms of feminist scholarly evolution; sociology provided far fewer resources for academic women to combine their scholarly and feminist agenda, while philosophy posed the most significant resistance to the convergence of feminist and scholarly interests. Therefore, pathfinders established a new subject area for women’s study in history, building a vital community to contribute to substantive contents and theories in sociology, despite having hardly gotten any opening to add feminist knowledge to the content or practice of the philosophy discipline. Gumport’s investigation provides a vivid picture of how disciplinary natures, epistemological characteristics, and professional activities have determined and restricted how academics create knowledge. In addition, women scholars may be more likely to demonstrate their feminist scholarship in disciplines with practical application, especially the female-type fields like education and health care. For instance, Hayhoe (2004) used autobiography to analyze her scholar and activist life story as a comparative educator in Hong Kong and Mainland of China since the 1960s. Building on her teaching and research experience in her early career between Hong Kong, Mainland of China and Canada, she was devoted to investigating the mutuality of the Western and Eastern knowledge and cultures. By integrating knowledge production and practical action in the field, she communicated the Chinese values to the wider knowledge community, and bridged the cross-cultural development for both sides. Female scholars in some fields are more vulnerable when the legitimacy of disciplinary knowledge is closely associated with scholars’ social background. Having socio-demographic factors—e.g., gender, ethnicity, class, and age—that deviate from socially constructed stereotypes can undermine women professors’ identity. For instance, China-born, non-native-speaker women professors in linguistics struggle to establish their academic identity in white, male-dominant classrooms (Liang, 2006), while females teaching English to speakers of other languages face challenges if English is not their first language (Lin et al., 2004). Regarding the relation between leadership and management, Blackmore (2007) underlined the importance of linking disciplinary identity to discipline-related leadership. The culture of disciplines also constitutes a crucial factor for academics in managerial roles because it influences members’ attitudes and mindset, along with tacit norms (Huber, 1990). Thus, it can be informative to investigate how women professors overcome barriers and benefit from discipline-related service and management. This section further points out the relation between intellectual leadership and the disciplinary aspect. Individuals choose their discipline and, at the same time, are socialized by it (Huber, 1990). Professors’ activities (mainly knowledge creation and dissemination) occur in two fundamental spaces: the discipline and the academic organization. As latecomers to higher education, female academics have had their knowledge, experiences, and research interests underestimated and undervalued. At

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the same time, commercial needs and market forces within the bureaucratic culture have intervened in disciplinary cultures, pushing women scholars to produce more measurable outputs. However, it is still unclear how the social context impacts academic women’s intellectual leadership and further analysis of the influence of gender and culture on intellectual leadership is needed.

2.3 Studies on Gender, Culture and Academic Career 2.3.1 Women Scholars and Gendered Higher Education The underrepresentation of women leaders is a prevalent phenomenon in the world (Davies et al., 2020). Globally, the enrolment of women in higher education has surpassed that of men, due to the six-fold expansion of university populations over the past four decades (Morley, 2013a). However, the increasing number of women Ph.D. graduates has yet to translate to a higher percentage of top-level female researchers and faculty members. Women professors and academic leaders in senior positions remain rare in the US, Europe, and some countries in Asia (e.g., Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea) (Aiston & Yang, 2017; Morley, 2013a, 2013b). For example, according to the European database, She Figures 2021 (Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, 2021) (created by European Commission on Women in Tertiary Education), women accounted for 48.1% of Ph.D. graduates at the EU level in 2018 and held between 40 and 60% of all Ph.D.’s in the majority of EU-27 Member States reported by the database. In the 2015 database, 21% of top-level researchers were women, a modest increase from the 20% reported in 2010 (Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, 2016). In the 2021 She Figure report, there was little change of women’s underrepresentation of professorship in academia since 2015. Here are a few main analytical lenses on gender inequality in higher education. The “pipeline theory” phenomenon is valid in various academic career stages (e.g., graduate school, postgraduate positions, early career, and tenure positions). It manifests its effect most demonstrably in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Blickenstaff, 2005; Ceci et al., 2014; Gasser & Shaffer, 2014; Shen, 2013; Wang & Degol, 2013). According to statistics from 121 countries, 29% of researchers are women (UNESCO, 2010). The number of females continuing their academic journey decreases beyond the stage of obtaining a master’s degree. Sex-based filters exclude women from science streams, which situates women professors as a minority in STEM disciplines (Blickenstaff, 2005; Gasser & Shaffer, 2014). Prejudice about women’s competence in math-intensive subjects, the absence of female role models in STEM fields, and family expectations that girls/women will comply with “soft” disciplines result in lower numbers of women in academia (Blickenstaff, 2005; Ceci et al., 2014). As the minority in STEM fields, academic women have fewer chances to speak up in platforms like academic conferences, according to a study analyzing statistics from an American Geophysical meeting

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(Ford et al., 2018). The gender gap is wider among senior academics than junior ones (Shen, 2013). The “Matilda Effect” named after American feminist critic Matilda J. Gage of New York, portrays the phenomenon of the systematic undermining of women scientists’ contributions. Rossiter (1993), responding to Merton’s “Matthew Effect” notion, criticized Merton’s seeing disproportions in recognition and award as a “functional” phenomenon. Rossiter stated that Merton only addressed the mechanism by which top scientists gained all the fame and awards (often for work they did not do), rather than how those who worked did not get their due recognition. Matilda Gage was viewed as a proper name to represent those unrecognized and unrewarded women scientists because she “was aware of, and denounced, the tendency of men to prohibit women from reaping the fruits of their toil, and noticed that the more woman worked, the more the men around her profited and the less credit she for,” according to Rossiter (1993, p. 337). Empirical studies have further verified this phenomenon. In the US, KnoblochWesterwick et al. (2013) tested the Matilda Effect by assigning conference abstracts (ostensibly by men or women authors) to 243 postgraduate students in communication fields, who were asked to rate their academic value. With the abstracts’ topics categorized as gender-typed or gender-neutral, better quality work was related to men authors, particularly for male-typed research. Readers also showed greater interest in collaborating with male authors. Another study, by Lincoln et al. (2012), analyzed statistics on nominations and rewards received by women scientists in STEM fields and further confirmed the Matilda Effect. From the 1990s to 2000s, based on data from 13 STEM disciplinary societies, the number of women recipients had grown, but still lagged behind male recipients because of the disproportionate number of male candidates in the nomination pool. Gendered labor roles that keep women from entering and advancing in academic careers has drawn scholars’ attention in different parts of the world, such as Australia (Bornholt et al., 2005), Canada (Acker, 2012), the UK (Brooks & Mackinnon, 2001); and China (Rhoads & Gu, 2012). Comparative studies in different countries and regions have been conducted, including in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico, Sweden, the UK, and the US (Bagilhole & White, 2008; Lie & O’Leary, 1990; Poole et al., 1997). Impediments to women climbing a career ladder exist extensively and are embedded in the masculine higher education structure, as in many other organizations. The academic career path is no exception to the long history of exclusion of women. Terms such as glass ceiling (e.g., Bain & Cummings, 2000; Luke, 2002), chilly climate, sticky floor (Morley, 2005; Rosser, 2004), and labyrinth (Eagly & Carli, 2007) highlight the fundamental career obstacles for women. In academia, female academics have also faced discrimination in terms of pay gaps (e.g., Sterligov, 2017; WGEA, 2018), promotion (e.g., Probert, 2005), and research funding applications (e.g., Larivière et al., 2011; Savigny, 2014; Shen, 2013) in both developed and developing countries. Even in developed countries such as the UK, the US, and Australia, academic appointments for women are concentrated in lowstatus HEIs; women academics tend to be clustered in lower academic ranks within the institution to “work in the ivory basement” (Collins et al., 1998). More women

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enter social and life sciences than hard sciences, yet they obtain tenure at an greater age than do their men counterparts (Becher & Trowler, 2001; Savigny, 2014). They are more vulnerable in terms of transnational mobility (Mählck, 2018) and have lower levels of satisfaction and academic autonomy (Bornholt et al., 2005). Dual careers as professionals in the workforce and caregivers at home are one of women academics’ main conundrums brought by biological nature and the socially constructed roles. Women’s family responsibility has been widely recognized as a hurdle to professional advancement, and an academic career is no exception (Ryan & Haslam, 2007). Most literature on academic women refers to discussions of their struggle between family commitments and career ambitions (e.g., Bornholt et al., 2005; Cotterill & Letherby, 2005; Lam, 2006; Morley, 2005; Priola, 2007), which pushes women to choose between family and faculty positions (Beddoes & Pawley, 2014; Shen, 2013). Those who aspire to succeed in academia must minimize or hide their family commitments, a concept called bias avoidance (Bardoel et al., 2011). Many women academics in the UK (Priola, 2007), the US (Shen, 2013), and Australia (Bardoel et al., 2011) view their biological properties of bearing, delivering, and raising children and gender stereotypes as critical distractions from their academic activities and development. However, some hold the opposite view, i.e., that marriage and motherhood do not affect their careers negatively; otherwise, these women must entirely devote themselves to either their career or their domestic responsibilities (e.g., Aiston & Jung, 2015; Cole & Zuckerman, 1987). Due to family commitments, women are less likely to attain tenure-track or relatively stable positions, because they tend to move with their spouses from one place to another, especially when their spouses are also academics (e.g., Yakaboski, 2016). The masculine value and practices constitute another aspect of academic women’s challenges. It is imposed by male (sometimes female) evaluators, which was partly discussed in Sect. 2.2.3. Some studies cite women’s weakness in terms of performance or publication (e.g., Cole & Singer, 1991; Jung, 2012; Postiglione & Tang, 2008) but fail to recognize the social and cultural constraints behind such a gap. Many criteria, conventions, guidelines, and norms have been adopted that follow masculine protocols, as the case in other domains in society, making women the “outsider within” (Bornholt et al., 2005; Brooks & Mackinnon, 2001). For instance, it is seldom noted that women publish less than men in part “because they write more slowly and carefully due to heavier scrutiny of their research output” (Baker, 2012, p. 83). Women’s research has been attached less value, is less cited, and is less likely to be included in academic tribes or territories, even in the HSS field, where women are the dominant population (Tight, 2008). Academia is seen as “a monolithic venture—defined by a single goal and a single standard of success” (Keller, 1991, p. 228). One example shows that women have 7% fewer chances to receive research grants and that women’s recommendation letters for academic positions are shorter and weaker, because most gatekeepers and those who request such letters are male, based on a study conducted in the UK (Rees, 2011). Another study demonstrates the gendered funding gap in US National Institutes of Health has narrowed, with 30% of research grants going to women in 2012, compared to 24% in 2002; however, the gap in the average size of grants remained (Shen, 2013).

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The masculine culture has presented various risks to academic women’s development as leaders (August & Waltman, 2004; Bagilhole & Goode, 2001; Jackson, 2017; Morley, 2005; Rosser, 2004). As mentioned earlier, when women’s core value as competent academics depreciates, academic women lose their legitimacy in leadership. They must make greater efforts to achieve the same effects as male leaders and must earn credibility by practicing male leadership styles (Luke, 1998; Morley, 2013b; Read & Kehm, 2016). The increasing number of female professors and senior academic managers does not necessarily improve women’s leadership in higher education, it strengthens existing masculine practices of leadership (Billing, 2011; Priola, 2007). With the expansion of university corporatization and marketization, executive leadership in university is thought to discourage scholarship, regardless of gender, race, and ethnicity, as suggested by Blackmore’s study (2014). Leadership appears equally unappealing to both genders, despite being dominated by masculine practices and constrained to the community practices of masculinity (Burkinshaw & White, 2017). For women, leadership in academic seems to be even more unattractive and precarious. Women have to learn and survive in the masculine organizational structure and practice masculine culture if they seek leadership roles (Acker, 2012; Morley, 2013a, 2013b). Female academic leaders tend to receive more scrutiny, to have their management skills evaluated with stricter criteria, and to be discriminated against by both male and female subordinates (Ryan & Haslam, 2007). Women in leadership positions are usually labeled as “caring and sharing” (Blackmore & Sachs, 2012). There may be some minor positive sides for academic women. For instance, in some situations, women are perceived as the better candidates to deal with crises related to socio-emotional challenges. Therefore, they are more likely than men to be put to a precarious leader position (Read & Kehm, 2016; Ryan & Haslam, 2007). Occasionally in the European context, the female and foreigner dual “stranger” identity in the academy may offset one another to favor academic women (Czarniawska & Sevon, 2008). Another example is that husbands are considered the main breadwinners in East Asian households. Thus, female scholars may enjoy their careers with less economic burden, which is particularly applicable in such cases as China (Wang, 2014). Both men and women scholars in China may perceive academic career as a fair competing arena without many discriminations (Horta & Tang, 2023). The increasing number of female scholars who have received a diverse overseas education and accomplished outstanding achievements have also altered the images and expectations of women scholars, to a certain extent (Li & Beckett, 2006; Wang, 2014). Various kinds of gender bias and obstacles for women scholars in higher education have been explored in different contexts. Amid these pieces of literature, those emphasizing how female professors successfully traverse their journey are inadequate. Only very few studies, such as White and O’Conner’s (2017) Gender Success in Higher Education, try to analyze the success of women leaders—in White and O’Conner’s case, in 11 countries (including Australia, New Zealand, India, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the UK et al.) within the Women in Higher Education Management (WHEM) Network. The study

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focuses on promising stories and experiences in the organization’s efforts to implement a gendered agenda, to improve the working climate for female staff, and to change the structures and cultures in public universities. In addition, Lam (2006) studied 11 senior women leaders in HEIs in Hong Kong from a psychological perspective to analyze their successful life stories. It is worth further delving into women professors’ experiences from both positive and negative dimensions.

2.3.2 Women Scholars and Confucian Heritage Culture The above session discussed about the status quo of women scholars most in Western countries. Academic women affected by East Asian cultures have encountered both similar and different impediments in their academic career, compared with their Western counterparts. Cultural heritage in society is relatively stable and affects social organization, which impacts individual behavior. As Hsu (1998) illustrated, [Cultural heritage] consists of all that has come down from the past and is still practiced, written down, or remembered…… Social organizations consist of networks of human relationships of members in it and the way the human beings in them relate or are expected to relate, to each other. (p. 56)

Hence, it is useful to reflect on cultural impacts on women faculty members from both social life and their professional career in academia. In countries and regions that can be categorized as Confucian heritage cultural (CHC) societies—including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, traditional Confucian culture has distinctly influenced gender roles and women’s professional competence (Li, 2000; Valutanu, 2012). The Confucian Heritage Culture and Gender Confucianism is a general Western term without a comparable expression in Chinese. It implies one type of cosmology, political ideology, social tradition, academic norm, and lifestyle (Tu, 1998a). It is a vibrant and complicated form of scholarship involving culture, history, and philosophy, which this part does not tempt to explain in detail. Instead, the following paragraphs focus on the introduction of CHC and its emphasis on gender. Unlike Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, Confucianism is not organized as a religion. It is a historical phenomenon popularized in East Asian countries by the promotion of Chinese literacy in the first century BC. As a teacher, transmitter, and thinker, Confucius did not found Confucianism in the way that Buddha founded Buddhism. Instead, he has been counted as the representative of the culture, and his ideas were expanded upon and combined into one crucial school of Chinese thought and norms (Tu, 1998a). Following Confucius, different scholars, such as Mencius and the Legalists, further developed Confucianism into a philosophy.

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2 The Reality for Women Scholars It is not only the faith and creed of the Chinese scholars but a way of life in East Asia; so deeply ingrained in the fabric of society and polity that it is often taken for granted as naturally human. (Tu, 1998a, p. 5)

In the context of traditional Chinese society, especially since the Han Dynasty, when Confucianism was used as a political ethos, Confucianism describes three bonds and five distinct relationships. The three bonds indicate “the authority of the ruler over the minister, the father over the son, and the husband over the wife” (Tu, 1998b, p. 122). The five distinct relationships indicate Ruler to Ruled, Father to Son, Husband to Wife, Older Brother to Younger Brother, and Friend to Friend. Based on these principles, various hierarchies with the dominance of males have been created and promoted as social orders and norms. Some of the principles and practices seem sexist to some scholars (Li, 2000). The philosophy promotes the “virtues” of women as being obedient to their father in childhood, to their husband during marriage, and to their son in old age. This three-fold obedience suggests women’s value is affiliated to their husband and family and implies women’s innate inferiority to men. Filial piety is the “cardinal virtue” of Confucius (Hsu, 1998). It implies the importance of ritual performance. Confucius perceived filial piety as the primary element of spiritual excellence. Personal dignity and individual identity are combined with one’s family identity, and people are required to develop genuine feelings towards their parents. Learning to embody the family in their minds and hearts helps people to move beyond self-centeredness, to transform the enclosed private ego into an open self. To fulfill filial piety in Confucian ideals is critical to learning to be human. In CHC, the family metaphor has been applied to the community and the country: e.g., the emperor being addressed as the son of Heaven, the king as ruler, the magistrate as the “father-mother officer” (Tu, 1998a, p. 13). Taking good care of domestic affairs is itself active participation in politics. CHC suggests that family ethics is more than a private and personal concern as the public good is realized by and through it. Nonetheless, the accomplishment of filial piety in CHC discourse largely relies on women’s invisible efforts and self-sacrifices. Many women’s life experiences in traditional Confucian societies can demonstrate a culture oppressive to women. For instance, the birth of a baby boy is called “big joy” and the birth of a baby girl a “small joy”; married daughters are deprived of inheritance rights in their own family in many dynasties (Gao, 2003). Only when a woman gives birth to a son and becomes a mother-in-law can she assume some security and power, even though she is still subject to her husband within the household and represented by her son outside of it. As mother-in-law, she could take charge of all domestic affairs and exercise her supreme power over children and daughters-in-law. This has evolved into the phenomena of “male dominance” and “mother power” (as discussed by Cho, 1998). Confucian ideology segregates the private and public spheres (nei and wai), as well as feminist and masculine characteristics (yin and yang), confining women to their roles as primary caregivers within the family. In addition, women’s selfsacrifice for the family (i.e., for their husband, son(s), and parents-in-law) is praised and celebrated. As a consequence, this led to the dominance of men in both the public and private spheres and the secondary status of women as social norms in ancient

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China. Scholars generally agree that Confucian thought does not encourage females to pursue other goals beyond domestic affairs (as discussed in Rosenlee, 2012). Despite the women-oppressive practices constructed by Confucian ideas, there have been divergent views on gender roles in traditional Chinese society. When Confucian ideas emerged and were first practiced in East Asia, sexism and gender inequality were also common in many other parts of the world; thus, they should be critiqued in that context. In addition, the concept of ren (or jen, humanity benevolence) and the emphasis on self-cultivation in Confucian thought are considered to overlap with the concept of care and the socially constructed self in feminism (Li, 2000). Other core concepts in Confucianism also demonstrate social concerns. For instance, li (propriety) emphasizes behaving and thinking properly in accordance with one’s social position, while yi (righteousness) underlines one’s moral obligation based on one’s social role and relations with others. Confucianism highlights an individual’s social role and relationships in the family and the community, corresponding to contemporary Western feminist ethics and epistemology (Jiang, 2009). In Confucian ideas, the individual’s social virtues and responsibilities in society are valued, and the importance of emotions, moral intuitions, and knowledge stressed. Mirroring this point, Hayhoe’s (2006) narrative research with prominent figures in China’s education also highlighted the “fascinating paradox”: “Confucian epistemology was far more consonant with women’s way of knowing than the linear and mechanistic patterns of the epistemology associated with modern science in the West” (p. 362). To some extent, Confucian ideology is beneficial for social harmony, so it should not be regarded as one-sided on gender inequality. However, it is also argued whether women in traditional Confucian society can achieve self-cultivation. Hall and Ames (2000) hold that there are different features of gender construction in Western and Chinese cultures. In the West, a female was regarded as lacking the necessary masculine traits as autonomy and rationality, and so was “an incompetent man” and “not permitted to be a man” (p. 89). In ancient China, women were deprived of access to self-development and “have historically not been allowed to be persons” (p. 89). This is because the feminist trait (yin) cannot be developed into ideal (male) traits with both masculine and feminist features, or both yin and yang (Hall & Ames, 2000). The Confucian Heritage Culture Impacts on Modern Societies In modern days, Confucianism is still ingrained in society and its traditional hierarchical and patriarchal impacts continue to exert power on women in many aspects of social life. The implications of gender equality have been widely discussed in East Asian welfare regimes such as Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea (Mun, 2015; Pascall & Sung, 2007; Ting & Lam, 2012). These governments have been committed to promoting gender equality for decades in social policies impacting both families and careers. However, Pascall and Sung (2007) argued that Confucian ideology is still prevalent,

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2 The Reality for Women Scholars ……with strong assumptions of family, market and voluntary sector responsibility rather than state responsibility, strong expectations of women’s obligations, without compensating rights, a hierarchy of gender and age, and a highly distinctive, vertical family structure, in which women are subject to parents-in-law. (p. 1)

Confucian influences on Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are analyzed by Pascall and Sung (2007), in comparison with Western welfare states. Some shared features are identified, such as the family structure within the hierarchical Confucian model and the priority of male breadwinners. In changing political and economic societies, women have increasingly taken part in the labor force. However, the earning gaps between men and women in Korea and Japan are strikingly high, with women earning about 15% less than men in all OECD countries (Pascall & Sung, 2007). In society, women are regarded as the primary providers of unpaid work in the family, like childcare and elder care. The long working hours common in the hard work climates in companies in East Asia further push women out of full-time jobs. On the one hand, the wage gap and long unpredictable hours in the workforce squeeze women’s time and energy to maintain a full-time job and motherhood. This is echoed in societies in Hong Kong and Mainland of China (Francesco & Fung, 2009). If they want to sustain their full-time job, women with young children have to rely on their own mothers and mothers-in-law. On the other hand, within the family, as mentioned previously, the authority of parents-in-law places more pressures on young mothers; avoiding tensions with their mothers-in-law over conflicting childrearing methods and lifestyles is one reason why women tend to exit the workforce to care for their children themselves. According to Fahey and Speder (2004), Europeans generally see childcare as gender-neutral, unlike people in East Asia. This can also be proved that parental leave is more often taken by mothers than fathers, as men “are more vehement than their Western counterparts in their negative expression of men’s responsibility for childcare” (Pascall & Sung, 2007, p. 12). In the Hong Kong case, gender-mainstreaming policies on childcare have been criticized as inadequate for women workers. Childcare support for the family is seen as the responsibility of the individual family, instead of a right of citizenship (Leung, 2014). In addition, the widely adopted gender-neutral discourse reflects government officials’ lack of gender sensitivity. Therefore, gender mainstreaming is more likely to be rhetoric than a useful strategy for addressing gender inequality. The Confucian Heritage Culture Influences on Women Scholars The Confucian cultural influences penetrate the academic life for women. Take those in mainland of China for example, female students may leave academia earlier because of university practices (Liu & Li, 2011). Female applicants for doctoral programs can compete strongly with their male counterparts, in terms of academic achievements, but male applicants are preferred. This is because supervisors or committee members (both men and women) consider the center of women’s life should be with their family. After entering academia, women professors in Chinese societies have more battles to fight. Gender inequality and bias commonly exist in Chinese mainland academia practices. Pertaining to the individual or psychological elements, female members

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in CHC societies tend to be modest and conservative, so academic women may lose opportunities and advantages by being “nice” and “collaborative”. Gender factor influences women’s opportunities and career advancement while some male academics believed that Chinse academia provides an egalitarian structure for female academics and had a blinded-eye (Horta & Tang, 2023). Academic women are assigned fewer resources for research and are less likely to apply for major research funding successfully. Even when given the chance to be part of important research, they are often assigned to peripheral roles in the research project team and encounter more resistance to their moving upward (Wang, 2011). They obtain fewer faculty development opportunities and are less likely to be promoted (Yang, 2005). Managerialism in the higher education system of China’s mainland also creates a systematic “glass ceiling” for academic women (Huang, 2017). The inequities and inequalities that constrain women scholars’ development in higher education are shared concerns elsewhere in East Asia (Wang & Gao, 2022), such as in Japan, South Korea (e.g., Johnsrud, 1995; Lee & Won, 2014), and Taiwan (e.g., Chen, 2008). Compared with academic women in Western societies, those in East Asia have stronger internal struggles to meet their traditional family role as understanding wives and loving mothers, which sometimes conflicts with their professional pursuits as independent professors. Discussions involving individuals prevail in South Korea (e.g., Johnsrud, 1995), Mainland of China (e.g., Wang, 2014; Yan, 2014; Yi, 2003), Taiwan, and Vietnam (e.g., Nguyen, 2013). Section 2.3.1 reviewed academic women’ status quos around the world. Section 2.3.2 highlighted the social and cultural challenges experienced by women faculty members in East Asian areas with Confucian heritage culture. Regardless of the advancement of women in academic leadership worldwide, the fact remains that academic women are disadvantaged in different life and career periods. From a macro perspective, some studies explain how national policy or institutional culture enable or hinder women scientists’ development (Bain & Cummings, 2000; Rosser, 2004). Some academic women gained their voices and navigated their way due to teaching, research, mentoring, and advising by Asian women faculty members (e.g., Li & Beckett, 2006; Lie & O’Leary, 1990; Tran, 2014). Others responded to the structural difficulties by either retreating from academia, or any leadership, or by seeking a way out (e.g., Clark, 2005; Morley, 2014). Few studies have investigated individual women scholars’ intellectual leadership (especially those who reach the top academic rank), with regard to both disciplinary and socio-cultural discourses. To offer a more precious understanding of the gender and culture issue in Hong Kong, the following part introduces the city’s social milieu and higher education system, and the women scholars in it.

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2.4 Studies on Hong Kong Society and Women Scholars 2.4.1 Brief Introduction of Hong Kong and Women Situated on the southern coast of China, Hong Kong, previously a British colony for 150 years, officially became the Hong Kong Special Administrative (SAR) after its retrocession to China in 1997. Since then, the city has enjoyed autonomy in multiple aspects and maintained its capitalist system under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework. Hong Kong has become a highly internationalized metropolis, ranking 5th among global cities (after New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo) for its rigorous business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement (AT Kearney, 2019). Hong Kong shares some characteristics and challenges with other global cities. The proliferation of neo-liberalism in Hong Kong makes it a highly marketized society with an extreme gap between the wealthy and the poor. Organizations adopt managerial and corporatized approaches to maximize their cost performance. What may differentiate it from other global cities are Hong Kong’s historical and cultural backgrounds. In Hong Kong, the interplay of Confucian patriarchy, colonialization, and globalization has shaped society in an unprecedented manner (Lee, 2003a). The colonized history in Hong Kong from 1840 to 1997 has profound impacts on society. The colonial authority in Hong Kong was empowered to maintain feudal hierarchies and the benefits of the elite class in the traditional Chinese social order, As Lee (p. 4) put it, In this sense, the colonial state can be regarded as patriarchal insofar as it has perpetuated women’s subordination through its public policies, actions, and inactions. In the first place, the governing strategy of elite co-optation and its repercussions have resulted in the prolonged maintenance of patriarchal social institutions in the name of respecting the social customs and practices of Chinese society.

Elite co-optation also suggests silencing women’s voice and reinforcing genderbiased policy decision making. Little evidence can be found of improving women’s status from the government side. In the 1970s, then-Governor Murray McLehose promoted the establishment of a residual welfare society, which later featured as a Confucian Welfare State (discussed in Sect. 2.3.2). The colonial government made modest advancements in such social welfare areas as education and public health care as compensatory measures to enhance economic development. At that time, the 1960s to 1970s, a considerable number of women had jobs in factories as cheap, low-skilled, flexible laborers. Yet, economic development was prioritized and human development under-emphasized. Familism was depicted as a safety net, while care and welfare were assigned to the family and, to a large extent, the women thereof. Women’s rights and wellness were largely missing in Hong Kong’s colonial society. With the rise of capitalist development in Hong Kong, as early as in the 1980s, Hong Kong entered a period of rapid transition, politically and economically. Since its reversion to the Chinese government in 1997, Hong Kong has become an unprecedented example of a former British colony maintaining its capitalist institutions under

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the auspices of the Beijing government. The city has acted as China’s financial and commercial gateway to the world. Globalization, in political, cultural, and economic aspects, has shaped this modern city. However, the restructuring of the economy from the 1980s to the 1990s polarized the development of women in Hong Kong, with many small and medium-sized industries moving out of Hong Kong. Well-educated women had excellent opportunities to enter managerial positions, while women workers were urged to go back to their domestic duties. With increasing awareness of civil society and the emergence of nongovernmental organizations from the 1980s to the 1990s, women became activists engaged in a wide range of social issues—economic (e.g., discrimination at workforce) (Cheung & Holroyd, 2009), family (e.g., “maternity and parental leave, childcare, reproductive rights”), and sexual (e.g., “domestic violence, sexual harassment”) (Lim, 2015, p. 19). Emphasizing economic efficiency and effectiveness, Hong Kong has been a special place for women due to its dynamic development and complexity. In the past, girls and women were considered to occupy oppressed positions, without fair rights in terms of education, employment, family, and marriage. Women have been a disadvantaged group in terms of poverty and frequent victims of crimes (Women’s Commission, 2015b). In recent decades, Hong Kong has witnessed significant progress in gender equity and has implemented gender mainstreaming strategies, echoing international calls since the 1980s. Mainstreaming gender means “making gender concerns the responsibility of all in an organization and ensuring that they are integrated into all structures and all work” (March et al., 1999, p. 10). The United Nations Fourth World Congress of Women (1995) has been adopted in the Beijing Platform for Action, which set the tone for Hong Kong’s gender mainstreaming activities. The status quo of women in Hong Kong has shown gender equality improvements in different aspects of life. Hong Kong women’s educational opportunities have increased remarkably compared to only a few decades ago. Slightly over 50% more women enrolled in sub-degree or undergraduate degree programs in University Grants Committee (UGC) institutions in 2014/2015, compared to 2004/2005 (Fig. 2.1, Women’s Commission, 2015a). Nonetheless, with the powerful impact of globalization, women in Hong Kong have developed contradictory familism and individualism. Nowadays, Hong Kong, as a capitalist market, claims to promote “freedom,” “equality,” and “individual value,” and to offer individuals development opportunities. The superficially equal system of individuals’ free career choice and fair economic return covers up the fact that they are under the control of capitalism. The 2015 Report on Hong Kong Women’s Development Goals (Women’s Commission, 2015b) reflected the contradictory and ambiguous self-positioning within internalized traditional norms. Females felt much less bounded by traditional values and norms on gender stereotypes and gender roles and placed more value on individual development and professional fields. Interestingly and ironically, most of the respondents in this study reported being closer to the traditional Chinese women’s image than societal expectations. According to a Women’s Commission

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(2011) survey on women’s status at work, the public holds quite contradictory perceptions. On the one hand, many respondents (over 70%) agreed women’s independence relies on women’s work, and that women with a job seemed to live happier lives than those without one. Another feature that may influence women’s life in Hong Kong is the prevalent use of foreign domestic helpers. Studies show that live-in maids significantly improve lower socio-economic status women’s participation in paid labor (e.g., He & Wu, 2019), while enabling women in middle-class, dual-labor families to lead a more leisurely lifestyle. On the other hand, domestic helpers can present a challenge to parenthood and marital relationships and the benefits derived from foreign domestic helpers may be exaggerated (Chan, 2005; Cheung, 2014). On the other hand, women in managerial positions were subject to prejudice. Significant percentages of women (26.6% in total and 40% of married/cohabiting women with child/children) did not wish themselves a very successful career, nor did their male partners (23.2% of married/cohabiting men) (Women’s Commission, 2011). Another study also reflects this argument. In Lee’s study (2003b), women professional lawyers in Hong Kong saw two identities in themselves: their embodied self (as a woman) and their unencumbered self (as a professional). According to interviews with these women entrepreneur lawyers, they did not see maternal responsibility as a burden but accepted the innate division. They firmly believed “one can succeed through hard work, even if it means one has to work much harder (than male lawyers)” (Lee, 2003b, p. 91). They tended to show no sympathy toward women who had difficulties struggling between a career and motherhood.

2.4.2 Higher Education in Hong Kong Hong Kong initially built its international higher education system modelled after the British style it witnessed in the colonial era and has gradually shifted to the North American style (Postiglione & Jung, 2017). In 1965, the University Grants Committee (“UGC”) was established as the advisory body to the government on matters of funding and governing HEIs. It has since become a significant pillar in Hong Kong’s higher education. The UGC mainly focuses on the higher education section, buffering between individual HEIs and the government in such areas as the provision of higher education, financing, and regulation (Newby, 2015). The first university in the city, the University of Hong Kong, was established in 1911 by the British colonial government, while the second, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was built in 1963. In the 1980s, the turning point of globalization and the massification of student admission brought more universities to the city by upgrading some colleges to universities. In the 1990s, the eight public universities formed the underlying landscape of the current higher education system. The higher education system in Hong Kong is regarded as a rather successful example of a higher education system in East Asia (Marginson, 2011).

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Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, globalization trends have prevailed in Hong Kong and its ambition to develop world-class universities has been manifested in strengthened quality assurance in universities (Mok, 2014). Like many other countries and regions in Europe and East Asia, the governance of universities in Hong Kong has taken a primarily UK approach to quality assurance and underlines the efficiency and effectiveness of HEIs (Deem et al., 2008). With the rise of a series of education reforms in Hong Kong, from schools to post-secondary education, universities have been asked to diversify their role and to take steps to better control quality in teaching and learning, research, and management. In the 2000s, with the publication of several reports in higher education by the UGC (e.g., Sutherland, 2002), managerialism and quality assurance have become the ostensible features of universities in Hong Kong. Economic globalization, neo-liberalism, and economic rationalism and managerial practices prevail in Hong Kong (Chan, 2007). Quality assurance as research assessment, teaching and learning assessment, and management assessment in Hong Kong have become the norm. More influenced by the market than the state/ regional government, Hong Kong’s higher education system has become known as entrepreneurial and performance-driven (Blackmore & Kandiko, 2011). In the early 1990s, Hong Kong took the earliest action among East Asian societies to include quality assurance (QA) to monitor universities and evaluate academics’ achievement. The QA system has been implemented and overseen by the UGC. There are several aspects included in this QA system, as described by Lin (2009, p. 266): (1) research assessment exercises (RAEs); (2) teaching and learning quality process reviews (TLQPRs); and (3) management reviews (MRs). Among these three, the RAEs have become the most important criteria for personal decisions on the renewal of academic staff contract, promotion and attainment of tenure (substantiation).

Since 1993, the RAEs have gauged the quality of research largely based on the quality of research outputs, with another 10% on peer-reviewed research grants and 10% on esteem measures (Macfarlane, 2017, p. 101).1 The UGC 2002 Sutherland report proposed to: de-couple the salary pay scale of academic staff from that of the civil service in order to enhance the freedom and flexibility of institutional management to determine the appropriate terms and conditions of service. (Chan, 2007, p. 111)

Research funding and academics’ promotion have been directly linked to research outputs since then. Academics in Hong Kong are required to publish in international peer-reviewed journals, where the standards and interests of editors and audiences are based on Western contexts (Law, 2019; Mok, 2014). In the common culture of “publish or perish,” the pressure to publish has increased for those whose background 1

According to the RAEs, the research output is rated from unclassified to 4 stars, 1 star for “regional standing” research, 2 star for “international standing,” 3 star for “internationally excellent,” 4 star for “international excellence” (University Grants Commission, 2014). It provides clear standards to evaluate academics as “active researchers,” mainly the numbers of publications published on international peer-reviewed journals, Social Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citations Index (SSCI).

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is not rooted in the West or whose first language is not English. Such practices are not unique to Hong Kong, but quite common in emerging East Asian societies and around the globe (Chou,2014). Pressure on individual academics to compete in terms of publications and research outputs and the conflict between research and teaching has become more severe, while trust in academics and academic institutions has declined. The quality of teaching and research is therefore perceived as a trade-off and teaching often becomes the cost of doing research (Macfarlane, 2017; Mok, 2014). The aforementioned teaching and learning quality process reviews (TLQPRs) only target UGC-funded institutions and practice the four-year Quality Assurance Committee (a semi-autonomous body under the UGC) audit process. Unlike with the practical standards of RAEs, there is no common method to measure individual academic’ teaching. Recognition for teaching and learning lies in UGC, institutional, and faculty levels of teaching excellence awards, based on the criteria of learnercentered pedagogies, creative curriculum development, and teaching scholarship (Chan, 2007). Even in the 2005 UGC report, individual scholars are constrained by the tensions between teaching and research to make academic research more “inclusive” with scholarship of “discovery,” “application,” “integration” and “teaching”. Although teaching is a more common duty for academics in many institutions, despite their type or quality, and is another criterion for audit, individual scholars’ priority has been placed on research performance. Teachers who would like to contribute to teaching feel underestimated because it is regarded as a relatively unrewarded type of activity in Hong Kong (Macfarlane, 2017). Strengthening quality assurance and decentralizing the governance of higher education has led to academic capitalism in Hong Kong. Capitalism here means “an economic system in which allocation decisions are driven by market forces” (Slaughter & Leslie, 1997, p. 9) and academic capitalism suggests “market and marketlike behaviors on the part of universities and faculty” (p. 11). Chan (2007) analyzed the changing trends in Hong Kong’s higher education from the 1990s to the 2000s and found public expenditure on tertiary education had dropped significantly; as a result, institutions and individuals have had to compete for resources and to diversify their financing channels, including by launching self-financed taught programs and seeking industry-university partnerships, external grants, and industrial and individual endowment funds (to apply for the “Match Grant Scheme” initiated by the government in 2003). The UGC has permitted a bicameral structure for universities, aiming to balance institutional autonomy and accountability. With diversified finance sources from affiliated community colleges, universities have developed more practical and professional programs. Marketization, privatization, and corporatization have become commonplace (Chan, 2007). The influence of neoliberalism and managerialism on universities has led to more competition for academics, which makes intellectual leadership or academic leadership a retreat (Bolden et al., 2012; Macfarlane, 2011, 2013). Some scholars criticize that copying policy from the UK and corporatized universities has not helped the establishment of world-class universities nor the building of a regional education hub (Chan & Lo, 2007; Deem et al., 2008). Horta (2017)

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argued that the insufficiency of research funding may be detrimental to Hong Kong’s research competitiveness. Based on an international study analyzing “The Changing Academics Profession” data in Hong Kong, academics in Hong Kong have become a highly productive academic group in the world, with an average of 10.6 refereed journal articles over a three-year span, less than that in Korea but higher than that in Japan (Jung, 2012). However, the cost of this strong emphasis on performance and productivity is an increase in part-time academics, a significant drop in the number of tenure-track positions, and the fragmentation of academics (Macfarlane, 2017; Postiglione & Tang, 2008). Hong Kong maintains the tripartite professorial role as the norm, with academic duties of research, teaching, and service, compared to only half academics in the “all-round” contract. Under competitive pressure, academics are driven to slice research output into more pieces instead of publishing longitudinal research. Macfarlane (2017) expressed his concerns that the unrewarded parts of academic work—such as peer-reviewing journal articles, teaching, knowledge exchange, and service—would depreciate the value of academic duties other than research (Macfarlane, 2017).

2.4.3 Women Scholars in Hong Kong Accounting for one-third of the academic profession, women academics in Hong Kong have shared concerns with those in Western countries. Several studies (Aiston, 2014; Aiston & Jung, 2015) have re-analyzed the marked gender gap in research productivity and leadership in senior management positions in Hong Kong. The overall percentage of women academics in Hong Kong (35%) stands in the middle among countries surveyed by CAP2 (Aiston & Jung, 2015, p. 208). The participation of academic women in higher education seems reasonable compared to the international data but closer examination reveals that, the higher the academic rank, the lower the percentage of women in those positions. Despite the “feminization of academy” (Postiglione & Tang, 2008) and increasing gender equity, academic women in Hong Kong have been under-represented in leadership. In Hong Kong, no university has a female vice-chancellor and only 14% of senior management positions are held by women. A few (12.1%) of academic women have reached full professor rank, while the corresponding number in the UK is 22.4% (Aiston & Yang, 2017). Regardless of their academic disciplines, women account for fewer senior ranks, such as associate professors and professors (Fig. 2.1) (Table 2.3). Although equal participation in the academic profession has been increased, women’s research performance has fallen behind (Aiston & Jung, 2015; Jung, 2012). Women have lower research productivity and play a less proactive role in academic leadership positions. Similarly, female academics publish less often than male professors annually, an average of 7.36 books/articles each, compared to 9.69 for their 2

Australia (57%), Finland (45%), Canada (34%), USA (38%), Norway (40%), UK (46%), Germany (33%), Netherlands (40%), Italy (32%), China (37%), Japan (17%).

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2 The Reality for Women Scholars

800

717(79.8%) 660 (66.3%)

700 600 500

675 (87.9)

512 (53.4%) 447 (46.6%)

400

336(33.7%)

300 191(93.6%)

181 (20.2%)

200

93 (12.1%)

100

13 (6.4%)

0 Lectures and Instructors

Assistant Professors Associate Professors Women

Professors

Chair Professors

Men

Fig. 2.1 Gender and academic rank. Overall data of the five institutions in HK, adopted from Aiston and Yang (2017)

Table 2.3 Gender, academic rank, and discipline Discipline

Gender

Rank Professor

Associate professor

Assistant professor

Lecturers and instructors

26 (9.8%)

17 (10.0%)

19 (11.3%)

41 (28.1%)

Science

Women Men

240 (90.2%)

154 (90.0%) 149 88.7%)

105 (71.9%)

Business

Women

8 (5.4%)

38 (21.5%)

56 (41.5%)

Men

140 (94.6%)

139 (78.5%) 149 (60.0%) 79 (58.5%)

Engineering Arts and social sciences

99 (40.0%)

Women

17 (5.6%)

20 (9.0%)

Men

284 (94.4%)

202 (91.0%) 173 (85.2%) 69 84.1%)

30 (14.8%)

13 (15.9%)

Women

55 (21.4%)

106 (32.3%) 179 (48.6%) 337 56.5%)

Men

202 (78.6%)

222 (67.7%) 189 (51.4%) 259 (43.5%)

Overall data of the five institutions in HK, adopted from Aiston and Yang (2017)

male colleagues, across disciplines. With a higher proportion of female academics in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) field (36.1%) than in science/engineering (24.5%), the HSS publication gender gap was much significant than that in the science/engineering field (Aiston & Jung, 2015, p. 8). Women’s lower research productivity can be explained by a gender gap, in that they “receive fewer grants than men and are employed disproportionately in disciplines with low averages for article productivity, such as humanities” (Jung, 2012). Aiston and Jung (2015) also underlined that not only the quantity but also the research impact of women’s work tends to be lower, which cannot be accounted for by marital status or number of children only (Table 2.4).

2.4 Studies on Hong Kong Society and Women Scholars

49

Table 2.4 Gender, discipline, and research output

Finland Germany Hong Kong

Humanities/social science

Engineering/natural science

Male

Male

Female

F (sig.)

Female

F (sig.)

5.36

4.14

7.739**

6.69

4.98

7.071**

10.07

6.84

3.974*

8.29

6.28

12.067**

6.43

4.61

9.462**

16.69

12.15

2.702*

Japan

3.39

295

1.187

11.50

5.10

9.396**

US

5.36

2.85

1.543

6.67

5.48

0.283

Adopted from Aiston and Jung (2015), “research output” indicates the number of book chapters and articles * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001

Some qualitative studies (e.g., Lam, 2006; Luke, 1998; Morley, 2014) provide social and cultural accounts to understand the kinds of hindrances academic women face in Hong Kong HEIs and how they react to them. A range of obstacles (regarding both managerial leadership and research performance) can shed light on the challenges experienced by academic women around the world and/or in unique circumstances against the backdrop of Chinese society. Two decades ago, a Hong Kongbased study by Luke (1998) offered several explanations for the absence of senior academic women. First, the privatization of universities led to their lower participation in postgraduate higher education. Second, due to their isolation as a minority in the male-dominated culture, academic women leaders derived less benefit from formal or informal networking with their male colleges echoing Baker’s (2012) research. Third, the socially constructed image of women as family caregivers, good mothers, and understanding wives in the private sphere still constrains Hong Kong women’s options and development in the professional sphere, making it hard for women to reconcile their “dual careers” and incorporate their professional work and career commitment with their family responsibilities. The less noticeable point is that the informal intellectual leadership and formal managerial leadership of women academics are closely interrelated, but sometimes contradictive. Aiston and Jung (2015) have concluded that the gender gap in research productivity may result from the “structural and systematic discriminatory practices within the profession” (p. 205). Both workload allocation for different genders and the process itself deeply affect the conditions for academic women. However, the study fails to fully answer questions like what these “systematic discriminatory practices” are and how these practices impede their smooth progress. In an international study of gender leadership, which included Hong Kong participants, Morley (2014) pointed out that the peer-review process disadvantages female professors because feminist scholarship and academic women’s research are less read and less cited. Women encounter difficulties collaborating with other researchers, are less likely to be journal editors, and may become less confident and less willing to stand for leadership positions.

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The same study also indicates that women professors may begin to view leadership as a “loss.” If they are unsuccessful in their application for a leadership position, they will lose reputation and self-esteem; if they are successful, they will lose freedom, health, and research time. In terms of management leadership, due to cultural stereotypes, academic women in Hong Kong are pushed to take on organizational housework, and some who took a leadership position found it a “poison chalice” (p. 120). Under the influence of the neo-liberal mindset and dehumanizing audit culture in Hong Kong, academic women regard the role of researchers and academic leaders as being in conflict (Morley, 2014). The insufficiency of academic women’s leadership as individual knowledge producers may further diminish their aspirations and competitiveness for leadership in senior management positions, which leads to there being fewer peers and role models for other women (Morley, 2014). Their underrepresentation as knowledge producers and academic citizens in academe leads to their absence from leadership (Aiston, 2014; Morley, 2013a). Morley’s work (2014) has ascertained the importance of women’s academic leadership as knowledge producers. However, studies have not yet fully addressed such problems as what the most important qualities of academic women’s intellectual leadership are and how to establish intellectual leadership within the discourse of a modern society with Confucian cultural influence. To sum up, this chapter has reviewed: (a) studies about intellectual leadership in higher education; (b) academic disciplines and hierarchies that may affect women scholars’ careers; (c) women scholars’ career development; and (d) cultural influence and gender inequality in Hong Kong, affected by East Asian Confucian heritage culture. Obstacles for academic women to advance their academic career have been outlined in the literature. Little has been discussed about intellectual leadership development and disciplinarity/interdisciplinarity from a gender perspective, nor has the interplay between positive and negative factors in their careers been fully investigated. A context-depended analysis of how individual women scholars—especially those who have climbed to the top academic ranks—conceptualize and build their intellectual capacity is needed.

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Marginson, S. (2011). Higher education in East Asia and Singapore: Rise of the Confucian model. Higher Education, 61, 587–611. Mok, K. H. (2014). Enhancing quality of higher education for world-class status: Approaches, strategies, and challenges for Hong Kong. Chinese Education & Society, 47(1), 44–64. Morley, L. (2005). Opportunity or exploitation? Women and quality assurance in higher education. Gender and Education, 17(4), 411–429. Morley, L. (2013a). The rules of the game: Women and the leaderist turn in higher education. Gender and Education, 25(1), 116–131. Morley, L. (2013b). Women and higher education leadership: Absences and aspirations: Stimulus paper. Leadership Foundation. Morley, L. (2014). Lost leaders: Women in the global academy. Higher Education Research & Development, 33(1), 114–128. Mun, J. Y. (2015). The Impact of Confucianism on Gender (In)Equality in Asia. Journal of Gender and the Law, 16(3), 633–657. Newby, H. (2015). Governance in UGC-funded Higher Education Institutions in Hong Kong Report of the University Grants Committee. Retrieved from Hong Kong: https://www.ugc.edu. hk/eng/ugc/about/publications/report/report30032016.html Nguyen, T. L. H. (2013). Barriers to and facilitators of female Deans’ career advancement in higher education: An exploratory study in Vietnam. Higher Education, 66(1), 123–138. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s10734-012-9594-4 Pascall, G., & Sung, S. (2007). Gender and east asian welfare states: From Confucianism to gender equality. Paper presented at the East Asian Social Policy Research Network. Philipsen, M. I., & Bostic, T. (2008). Challenges of the faculty career for women: Success and sacrifice: John Wiley & Sons. Pielke, R., & Sarewitz, D. (2002). Wanted: Scientific leadership on climate. Issues in Science and Technology, 19(2), 27–30. Poole, M., Bornholt, L., & Summers, F. (1997). An international study of the gendered nature of academic work: Some cross-cultural explorations. Higher Education, 34(3), 373–396. Postiglione, G. A., & Tang, H. H. H. (2008). A preliminary review of the Hong Kong changing academic profession data. Paper presented at The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative and Quantitative Perspectives: Report of the International Conference on the Changing Academic Profession Project, 2008. Postiglione, G. A., & Jung, J. (2017). The Changing Academic Profession in Hong Kong: Springer. Priola, V. (2007). Being female doing gender. Narratives of women in education management. Gender and Education, 19(1), 21–40. Probert, B. (2005). ‘I just couldn’t fit it in’: Gender and unequal outcomes in academic careers. Gender, Work & Organization, 12(1), 50–72. Rayner, S., Fuller, M., McEwen, L., & Roberts, H. (2010). Managing leadership in the UK university: A case for researching the missing professoriate? Studies in Higher Education, 35(6), 617–631. Read, B., & Kehm, B. M. (2016). Women as leaders of higher education institutions: A BritishGerman comparison. Studies in Higher Education, 41(5), 815–827. Rees, T. (2011). The gendered construction of scientific excellence. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 36(2), 133–145. Rhoads, R. A., & Gu, D. Y. (2012). A gendered point of view on the challenges of women academics in The People’s Republic of China. Higher Education, 63(6), 733–750. Roberts, P. (2007). Intellectuals, tertiary education and questions of difference. Educational philosophy theory, 39(5), 480–493. Rooney, D., & McKenna, B. (2008). Knowledge, wisdom and intellectual leadership: A question of the future and knowledge-based sustainability. International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 6(1–2), 52–70. Rosenlee, L. H. L. (2012). Confucianism and women: A philosophical interpretation. SUNY Press. Rosser, S. V. (2004). The science glass ceiling: Academic women scientists and the struggle to succeed. Routledge.

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Chapter 3

Cumulative (Dis)Advantages and Women Scholars

Abstract This chapter presents an integrated three-pronged framework for analyzing the intellectual development of women professors in disciplinary, institutional, and cultural and gender dimensions. It begins by reviewing the major theories of academic career development and stratification in science. Subsequently, it elaborates on the central lens of this study: the cumulative (dis)advantage theory, encompassing its definition, application, and the countervailing process. Building upon this theory and the scope of the research, the intersecting and integrated framework is further expounded by linking it to Macfarlane’s model of intellectual leadership and the influence of socio-cultural factors, including non-Chinese culture and Confucian heritage culture, on gender dynamics. With this integrated framework in place, the study analyzes four types of women scholars concerning their perceptions and developmental trajectories of intellectual leadership, categorizing them as strategic gamers, persistent navigators, unconventional fighters, and opportunistic achievers.

This chapter illustrates an integrated three-pronged framework to analyze women professors’ intellectual development in disciplinary, institutional, and cultural and gender dimensions. It first reviews the major theories of academic career development and stratification. Then it elaborates the lens of cumulative (dis)advantage theory in terms of its definition, application, and the countervailing process. Based on this theory and the scope of the research, the intersecting and integrated framework are further explained by connecting with Macfarlane’s model of intellectual leadership and the influence of cultural factors (including non-Chinese culture and Confucian heritage culture) on gender. The latter two perspectives are elucidated in detail in Chap. 2.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3_3

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3.1 Major Theoretical Lenses in the Field A variety of theories have been employed in relevant studies about the career development of faculty members in higher education, such as social networking, cumulative (dis)advantage, symbolic capital, and feminist theory. These studies interpret longitudinal, individual, or organizational evolvements from different angles—some from the functionalist perspective of social stratification, and others from critical or feminist perspectives. Regarding an individual’s accumulating competence, one well-recognized theory is based on Bourdieu’s Forms of Capital (1986) and his classic concept of “symbolic capital” associated with “field” and “habitus.” This conceptual theory is developed from Bourdieu’s arguments about the interaction between agents and the social world (also known as structure/agency or subjective/objective) (Bourdieu, 1986). He emphasized these two significant aspects constitute social practices, interacting and shaping each other simultaneously. The term field in Bourdieu’s work means the objective reality of the world; habitus can be understood as the process of incorporating and internalizing social structure, intertwined with the agent and the social world; symbolic capital is the yield of the field. In Lisa Lucas’ book, The Research Game in Academic Life, the field is the higher education system under the research assessment exercise (RAE), which requires individuals to cross boundaries and negotiate entry. There are various hierarchies and power differences in higher education, so different forms of symbolic capitals “can be gained from any combination of economic, cultural, and social capital” (p. 59). The empirical data collected from three departments in two UK universities presented that scholars in biology sciences, sociology, and English perceived different resources/recognitions as capital and acted accordingly to win in the “research game.” Bourdieu’s theory has been applied in studies of higher education in recent decades (e.g., Lucas, 2006; Mendoza et al., 2012). This theory intends to explain the relation and interaction between individual agency and social structures, and how and why individuals perceive certain kinds of resources. Yet, this theoretical lens has limited application in investigating the argument of resources and advantages across different periods. The feminist perspective is another popular theoretical lens to analyze women’s academic careers (e.g., Bagilhole & Goode, 2001; Blackmore, 2003; Gumport, 2002). Intellectual leadership of academic women can be interpreted as an essential part of scholars’ academic values, identities, community belonging, and power. Gender has been a significant category to organize social relations and interactions (Ridgeway, 2011). Feminist research initially investigates women’s life experience and has broader meanings, such as voicing gender-based biases and discriminations, revealing women’s suppressed knowledge, and challenging oppressing structures and ideologies (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2013). Working from a feminist perspective, Gumport (2002) (mentioned in Chap. 2) analyzed feminist scholarship development of women scholars in three disciplines (history, sociology, and philosophy). The analysis was organized by three types of scholars in different generations—academic

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pathfinders, forerunners, and path-takers. Academic pathfinders, as the focus of the book, were presented in two major respects: how they developed their early career, and what their major academic contribution was, in political, cultural, and intellectual contexts in the US. Other studies also focus on women scholars’ careers. Fritsch (2015, 2016) has researched Austrian women academics. In her 2015 article, Fritsch analyzed the common obstacles encountered by successful women professors in academic leadership positions (e.g., informal encounters, problematic (mainly male-dominated) social networks, geographically mobility, and the dual demands of career and family) and their coping strategies. The participants in her study highlighted several strategies to overcome such difficulties, including: (1) asserting one’s position and reacting to the institutions immediately, to establish mixed-gender and women-exclusive networks for informal encounters; and, (2) either separating one’s life and work entirely to adequately fulfill one’s duties in both spheres, or carefully organizing family matters around one’s academic work. In a related study, designed to categorize different patterns of academic career development using the framework of career development and self-concept, Fritsch (2016) discovered three types of academic advancement for 12 women faculty members in her Australia-based study: (1) individualistic, output-driven (active), and intrinsic focus; (2) political-sustainable (proactive); (3) adaptive-flexible (reactive), extrinsic focus. The key aspects for the advancement of female faculty members included: (1) social networks; (2) faculty work; (3) geographic mobility; and, (4) selfconcept. Similarly, Collins et al. (1998) highlighted the significant barriers women must overcome to advance in academia, including the power within the system, hiring practices, promotion practices, formal and informal professional development, and information availability in the middle portion of one’s academic career (p. 219). These studies provide useful references to make sense of female scholars’ strategies to maneuver their careers but allow few opportunities to look at cultural influences.

3.2 The Three-Pronged Framework As introduced in Chap. 1, this study applies a three-pronged analytical framework: the cumulative (dis)advantage theory in science (CAD), the four-dimension model of intellectual leadership, and cultural and gender legacies. Figure 3.1 shows the relations among these aspects.

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3 Cumulative (Dis)Advantages and Women Scholars To analyze accumulating advantages and disadvantages To explain the impacts of cultural and gender factors on different (dis)advantages

To synthesize the accumulated (dis)advantages in different roles as intellectual leaders

Cumulative (Dis)Advantage Theory

Macfarlane's Model of Intellectual Leadership

Gender and Cultural Legacies

To analyze women professors’ intellectual leadership perceptions and development in different academic roles in the cumulative perspective, with the consideration of gender and cultural impacts

Fig. 3.1 The three-pronged framework

3.2.1 Cumulative (Dis)Advantage Theory The Definition and Application of the Theory In this study, the theory of cumulative advantage and disadvantage (also known as cumulative (dis)advantage theory; referred to as CAD hereafter), refers to stratification in higher education. CAD has been applied to explain social stratification and inequality in many domains of life. The general meaning of the theory can be simply described as “the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer” (Mahbuba & Rousseau, 2011). CAD shares some connotations with the prophetical term “Matthew Effect” in science, but the latter underscores inequality (Merton, 1968, 1988), which is explained later in this part. CAD can be used to justify developmental trajectories at the micro, meso (i.e., group or organization), and macro levels. In studies on social inequality, CAD helps to clarify that individual inter- and intra-cohort disparities increase across time, such as education and career achievement (e.g., DiPrete & Eirich, 2006; O’Rand, 1996; Walberg & Tsai, 1983), economic wealth (e.g., Dannefer, 2003; Price, 1965), and health (e.g., Willson et al., 2007). The theory can also interpret that units, institutions, and countries that have demonstrated accomplishment can attract more resources, in terms of talented people and material, than can those that have not shown their competence and are less well known (Mahbuba & Rousseau, 2011; Oleksiyenko, 2014). Universities with excellent reputations and high productivity

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are more capable of capturing government funding and of attracting top professors and students. CAD in science means the skewed distribution of resources, recognitions, and awards among a small number of successful scientists and elite universities. Elite scientists in top institutions garner the lion’s share of scientific contributions, resources, and high-quality networks, a concept first put forward in science by Robert Merton, in 1968.1 CAD accounts for inequalities among scientists and develops the theory in empirical and theoretical aspects. The disparities between the very few outstanding scholars and the more numerous ordinary ones grow sharper over time. In Merton’s language, it is expressed as: When the role performance of individual measures up to demanding standards, and especially when it greatly exceeds them, this initiates a process of cumulative advantage in which the individual acquires successively enlarged opportunities to advance his work (and the rewards that go with it). (Merton, 1979, p. 89)

The distribution of rewards to top scientists for their contribution impacts the exchange of ideas through academic communication. In other words, successful elite scientists receive more resources to speed up and sustain their academic capacity and reputation. In this way, as their visibility to elite mentors and sponsors expands, their impact in academe grows correspondingly. In a later article, Merton (1988) elaborated on disproportionate publication and citation in science and further discussed the countervailing process to cease the endless growth of such advantages. This skewed distribution process increases both the number of publications and citations thereof, creating an “all-or-none” phenomenon, at the cost of ordinary and disadvantaged scientists. This imbalanced development among academics was confirmed in later studies (e.g., Allison & Stewart, 1974; Huber, 1998). Advantages and disadvantages can be accumulated among the young, but also relate to disciplinary characteristics. Lehman (1953) pointed out that an “early start may be of great advantage for maximum development of both ‘physical’ and ‘intellectual’ skills” (p. 198), as in any other field. Precocity has a more significant chance of surviving in the competitive scientific arena. In an academic career, precocity is impacted by the reputational system, peer review, networks, and social circles (as discussed in Sect. 2.2.1 about academic tribes and territories) (Becher & Trowler, 2001b). Once elite scientists gain merit in certain aspects, they will gain advantages in all dimensions. These processes are “only projections of understandable, everyday social phenomena” (p. 101).

1

Some ideas emerged in his work as early as in 1940s, e.g., the Normative Structure in Science in 1942. For instance, Merton promoted the ethics and norms in science, including universalism, communism, disinterestedness, organized skepticism. However, CAD in science contradicts with some of norms. For instance, universalism promotes that scientific output should be treated equally detached from the personal particulars, such as nationality, gender, or socio-economic background and the like.

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Moreover, the patterns by which intellectual capital is accumulated in different disciplines are diverse. Some disciplines, such as the arts and humanities, may allow late-boomers to stay in the field long enough to thrive, while other disciplines, such as mathematics, physics, and the biological sciences, require early maturation (Merton, 1968). The likelihood of success in the pattern of intellectual growth in these fields depends heavily on contextual factors like social class, fields of intellectual activities, and individual differences. One of the most well-known studies applying CAD is Zuckerman’s (1977) qualitative study of the development and experience of Nobel laureates, under the supervision of Robert Merton. It demonstrates the individual experiences of ultra-elite scientists in accumulating recognition and resources in scientific contexts in the US. The book, Scientific Elites: Nobel Laureates in the United States, is based on statistical data on Nobel Laurates from 1901 to 1976 and in-depth interview data of 41 of 56 laureates then living in the US (in the fields of physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine). Centering around before the prize, the prize-winning research, and after the prize, Zuckerman’s project underscores the most remarkable social connections of these ultra-elite scientists: kinship ties and social ties with their elite supervisors. In their master-apprentice relationship with their mentors, these Nobelists acquired science social ties, socialization, and learning experience, as well as elite sponsorship. Subsequently, early publications and first jobs in prominent institutions or universities carried them further to higher ranks in academe. On becoming some of the very few stars in their respective knowledge fields, these top scholars determined the visibility of junior knowledge producers through their positions as gatekeepers. They had more power in the social circles of science. The longitudinal process of advantage cumulation marked these ultra-elite scientists’ march to the core of the academic circle. With the remarkable changes in the global economic, political, and educational landscape, the CAD framework has remained helpful for understanding academic stratification. Using this conceptual framework, Creamer and McGuire (1998) identified six factors that profoundly influenced 22 scholars’ academic productivity: doctoral training, early interest in a faculty career, mentoring, early publishing success, initial faculty appointment, and collegial networks. Bedeian et al. (2010) also applied CAD and found that doctoral degree prestige had a direct relation to the degree holders’ initial academic job, perceived scholarly work quality, and later prestigious academic appointments brought by the initial degree. New faculty member recruitment practices were coherent with the academic stratification system. CAD was useful to predict tendencies of heterogeneous outcomes and uneven distribution of resources. What needs to be noted is that the implications of CAD in the above studies focus on the intellectual growth of the best scholars, without accounting for the invisibility of many other scientists. As mentioned at the beginning of this part, the term the Matthew Effect in science indicates stratification in science, but also emphasizes the misallocation of recognitions and resources (Zuckerman, 1997). The Matthew Effect amplifies the process of CAD. Merton (1968) illustrated that the Matthew Effect in science mainly manifested through the reward system, with eminent scientists getting

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disproportionate credit when they collaborate with relatively unknown scientists, or when there are multiple independent discoveries they share with ordinary scientists. Neither CAD not the Matthew Effect discuss further how disadvantaged groups of individuals overcome such barriers to developing their intellectual capacity, nor do they concern gender and cultural factors in a specific social context. The application and limitation of CAD call for extra analytical lenses to explain Hong Kong women professors’ intellectual leadership. The Countervailing Process Even though the process of cumulative (dis)advantage is generally applicable in different social contexts, the countervailing process can stop its unlimited expansion. Merton (1988) stated that other forces come into effect to limit further concentration and inequality when the gap between two systems sharply widens because of their development at significantly different rates. Such a countervailing process have, in the context of science, systematically overlooked what stops the endless accumulation of advantages. However, Merton did not provide a detailed mechanism to reverse the cumulation process. More studies have emerged about the resource distribution of human and capital in universities and research institutes. At the micro and meso levels, strategic planning and actions, such as sharing and collaborating, can lead organizations (e.g., universities) and countries to more merits and opportunities (Lilja, 2012; Oleksiyenko, 2012; Oleksiyenko & Sá, 2010). Peripheral countries may go through a few different steps to get to the center; i.e., transiting from a non-scientific phase to a colonial scientific phase and then, eventually, to an independent scientific phase (Lilja, 2012). Using a series of cases of establishing world-class universities, Altbach and Salmi (2011) illustrated the approaches of HEIs in developing countries to gain opportunities by reorganizing governance and attracting and retaining talents to increase research productivity and enhance international visibility in global rankings. The key drivers facilitating the three-stage model include the positive encouragement of scientific research, the cultivation of scientists, the promotion of science education at all levels, aid from the government for scientific evolvement, the existence of native scientific organizations to promote scientists’ work, support for national and international communication, and a suitable technological base. Concerning strategies in superstructure, structure, and understructure, Oleksiyenko (2014) compared the development processes of China and Russia in their pursuit of world-class research universities. The study shows that competitive positioning is a critical part of national and institutional strategies for emerging countries’ networks, scientific partners, and scientific collaboration. For instance, national funding for a few select flagship universities in a country contributes to those institutions’ rapid rise. Talent recruitment policies are made to retain and attract top scientists to reverse the brain drain to developed countries. In addition, giving incentives to individual scholars for publishing international peer-reviewed articles also promotes institutional reputation.

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At the individual level, psychological and political factors can stimulate the countervailing process. Individuals’ differences in search of opportunities and resources in dynamic environments with hybrid regional and institutional climates can also use the CAD framework (Dannefer, 2003). For instance, young talented scientists may desire to enter relatively newly established institutions to escape the shadow of dominant elite scientists. In addition, democratic values promoting social equality can also dampen the cumulation of (dis)advantages. Lilja (2012) also contested that there should be a reciprocal system to counteract the continuing cumulative process. For example, prestigious scientists promote a research project, increase the credibility of their unknown colleagues, and broaden their contacts and information, while being accused of belittling their invisible co-authors. Therefore, reciprocity is raised as a countervailing force to introduce reciprocal relations into the exchange system (Lilja, 2012, p. 49). Among the once-disadvantaged groups, it is worthwhile to see what actions individuals can take to aggregate merits. Dannefer (2003) argued that it is valuable to develop qualitative strategies to investigate individuals “from the everyday networks, routines, and the work and family contexts in which their lives are played out, and in which their life chances are constrained” (p. 333). CAD may be possible to explore how powerful systematic effects impact the life opportunities of individual women scholars and how they seek their path for dealing with challenges from different sources along different stages of their career. CAD, Gender, and the Matilda Effect Gender is one of the factors that may lead to inequality in an academic career. As explained by Mahbuba and Rousseau (2011), the Matilda Effect emphasizes social inequality against women, mainly concerning the latter part of the Matthew Effect— “the poor get poorer.” With the introduction of the Matilda Effect and the status quo of women academics around the globe and Asia shown in Chap. 2, it is well recognized that women scholars’ academic accomplishments may be ignored, diminished, or taken over in the patriarchal culture in universities. However, how academic women can get out of this myth is not the focus of the Matilda Effect. In contrast, the Matthew Effect, underscoring “the rich get richer,” considers that the stratification process has been viewed as the fair allocation of resources to identify the best scientific competence and distribute resources to the most active participants (Cole, 1979; Merton, 1968). Cole (1979) argued that the academic system allocates its resources and rewards through an equitable approach, and no discrimination against women in access to top graduate schools and scholarships is to be found. The evidence in Cole’s research was that women produced fewer publications and fewer highprofile research outputs; he believed this was the result of social selection and selfselection, which was impacted by the institutions and values in society beyond the academic community. This reward and communication system could preserve the

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authority of knowledge dominated by elite scientists and keep the class stratification of science. Such meritocratic standards appear to fit the principles of universalism among Mertonian norms (Merton, 1942).2 Seemingly, Cole’s (1979) study, to some extent, represents assumptions that institutional barriers have already been removed to allow women to compete with men equally in the academic community. However, this view is lopsided, as it only notices equal opportunities and access for women to enter and compete in the field, while overlooking the constraints on women to take advantage of these “equal opportunities” and masculine standards (Bailyn, 2003; Bielby, 1991). From the above review of the definition and application of CAD and its relevant concepts, I note that CAD provides an instrument to investigate the conceptualization and development of established women professors by analyzing the accumulation of advantages by the once-disadvantaged group—i.e., how “the poor” break the cycle of “being poor” and “get richer.” On the one hand, women academics are unconventional players in academia, facing more obstacles to their gaining highprofile scientific accomplishment and public recognition (e.g., Larivière et al., 2011; Shen, 2013). Systematic barriers to women’s academic careers exist in individual, institutional, and cultural aspects but are mostly invisible at the organizational and cultural levels (Collins et al., 1998). On the other hand, some female scholars have succeeded in developing intellectual leadership as a professor and seeking merits in different stages of their academic career. The application of CAD in this study is expected to fill some of the gaps in previous studies using this framework. In line with Zuckerman (1977), a few limitations of CAD can be identified; specifically: (1) it is not clear how early advantages continue to facilitate success in later stages; (2) it is unknown how disadvantages accumulate— i.e., whether non-recipients of awards and resources become relatively disadvantaged or if there is more to the process; and, (3) whether cumulative disadvantages are more common in specific fields and, if so, why? The opportunities for those who do not come into their own until relatively late in their careers may well differ between fields. It is thus highly relevant to investigate how scholars in different academic fields differ in terms of cumulating their advantages (against possible disadvantages), by not only increasing academic capacities but also interacting with institutional and social contexts.

2

Universalism suggests that scientists’ achievement should be evaluated only by the quality of their research and the contribution to the knowledge pool, instead of by their gender, nationality, age etc. If men contributed more and higher quality of research output, they are entitled to obtain more recognition and reputation.

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It is important to note that CAD was developed in the middle 1960s, since when the historical discourse has changed significantly. CAD hardly analyzed any cultural influence on scientists’ careers in specific social contexts, especially East Asian societies. Hence, it is worth introducing other theoretical lenses to further interpret how socio-cultural contexts affect women scholars’ intellectual leadership development.

3.2.2 Macfarlane’s Intellectual Leadership Perspective The second theoretical perspective is drawn from the concept of intellectual leadership, which was reviewed in Sect. 2.1 of Chap. 2. This part further explains the application of the concept, referring to Macfarlane’s four-orientation model of intellectual leader—knowledge producer, academic citizens, boundary transgressor, public intellectual—within and beyond the discipline and the two institutional dimensions of academic duties and academic freedom. This part explains how I used Macfarlane’s intellectual leadership framework, selected participants for the data collection stage, and set the analytical lens for the data analysis stage. Intellectual leadership in this study emphasizes informal and non-hierarchical leadership, as Macfarlane (2013) suggested. This refers to scholars’ ability to use knowledge, ideas, and expertise to challenge the boundaries of research, to make an impact in the academic discipline, to lead research groups or community of graduate students, or to make extensive impacts in the society. Macfarlane (2011, 2013) singled out full professors in universities in the UK as participants of online surveys and interviews in his project because of their seniority in research and teaching. In previous studies on leadership, it was common to target those who had formal leadership in the organizations’ hierarchies (e.g., political and professional leaders in government institutions or commercial organizations, as studied in Goldstein, 2002; Harvey, 2011). Generally, elite members, as leaders, are associated with power and privilege (Odendahl & Shaw, 2002). Sometimes elites are not as visible as those affiliated with formal organizations; Parry (1998) used the term “hybrid elites” to describe those owning informal and invisible leadership in robust networks beyond traditional organizations. These influential individuals exist outside of affiliations, but have critical knowledge and resources concerning them. In this sense, women scholars’ intellectual leadership can be identified formally and informally within and beyond the university and the disciplinary community. As this study attempts to analyze women professors’ intellectual leadership development in disciplines and organizations, the roles of professors need to be comprehended within the nature and characteristics of the academic community, the institutional environment, and the broader context of society. Academic tribes socialize

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academics through several themes of disciplinary characteristics, namely the organization of the research subject, epistemological features, career patterns, reputation and rewards, research practices at different fronts, and the requirements and benefits of disciplinary membership. The institutional environment, in another aspect, influences women professors’ leadership by affecting resource allocation, recognitions and awards, and promotion. Therefore, both disciplinary, institutional, and gender (cultural) aspects are used to examine women professors’ intellectual leadership.

3.2.3 Gender and Cultural Legacies The study was located in Hong Kong, a society with a mostly ethnic Chinese population. A considerable percentage of participants in this project originated from a Chinese cultural background (e.g., Mainland of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore). Some were educated in Western cultural contexts (mainly liberal Anglo-Saxon cultures like Australia, the UK, and the US) but chose to enter academia in Hong Kong for their career. Thus, the cultural implications on gender in both Western and Chinese traditional culture were taken into consideration for data analysis. As discussed in Chap. 2, women scholars appear to be subordinate in higher education, as well as in many other professions, due to the patriarchy in liberal Anglo-Saxon culture. In addition, CHC is deeply rooted in East Asian regimes. The framework considers the influence of cultural legacies on women, many of them affected by CHC. As shown in Sect. 2.3.2, Women scholars and Confucian heritage culture, Confucian culture in East Asian societies is patriarchal and prone to confining women within the family. Given various societies’ diverse historical and political backgrounds, the influence of CHC thereon can also be different. Social and political ecology, history, and other factors create a spectrum of sociocultural environments embedded with CHC (Slote & De Vos, 1998). In general, the interplay of culture- and gender-based elements affecting women’s access to educational leadership deserves further examination (Chan et al., 2016). In HEIs, as “greedy institutions” (Currie et al., 2008), CHC’s gender division of labor and family values further impact women scholars. Furthermore, female scholars from different backgrounds may have diverse perceptions of and approaches to HEIs in Hong Kong that are affected by CHC culture. To contextualize women scholars’ development in Hong Kong, I have used a theoretical framework integrating three theoretical angles: Cumulative (dis)Advantage Theory (CAD), Macfarlane’s four-dimension model of intellectual leadership, and the influences of cultural legacies on gender. With CAD as the primary framework, the other two perspectives on key concepts and cultural influences enable the in-depth analysis of the data. The theoretical framework is presented in Table 3.1.

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Table 3.1 The theoretical framework Discipline types

1, 2, 3 … N

Perceptions of intellectual leadership Career stage

Early

Advantages

Discipline

Middle

Senior

Institution Gender and culture Disadvantages and countervailing efforts

Discipline Institution Gender and culture

Types of women intellectual leaders

A, B, C, … N

Note Designed by the author

This framework enables me to see the evolving development of intellectual leadership in women scholars’ different academic career phrases, including the early career stage (postgraduate study and from five years upon entry in the academia), middle career (becoming and being associate professors with tenure), and senior career (becoming and being full professors). Individual patterns of intellectual leadership development have been analyzed based on influences in disciplinary, institutional, and gender and cultural aspects, including the accumulation of advantages and disadvantages and countervailing efforts. Based on these attributes, I used the integrated framework as theoretical propositions in multiple case study (Yin, 2014) to analyze different types of intellectual leadership development for women professors (more details explained in Data Analysis of Appendix A). In the fieldwork, academic career motivations, institutional environment, and professional practice or career before/during the academic career also emerged as important propositions. By comparing different cases, I mapped out women scholars’ development of intellectual leadership in different patterns per propositions such as attitudes toward administrative/managerial leadership, advantages and disadvantages in discipline and institution, key motivations, main advantages accumulated period. These different patterns of developing intellectual leadership included: (1) strategic gamers; (2) persistent navigators; (3) unconventional fighters; and, (4) opportunistic achievers. The four patterns are not static; they overlap and change over time, across and within types. Table 3.2 displays features of disciplines, rationales of naming, and other relevant information of these scholars to provide an overview.

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Table 3.2 Categories of women scholars Categories

Features of disciplines; communication style; research methods

Rationales of naming

Key motivations

Main advantages accumulated period

Strategic gamers Urban, applied; hard/hard in soft fields; mostly quantitative

They used strategic methods to engage different levels of support (especially the research publications and grants) in the managerial context and protect their role as researchers. They were familiar with the competitive system and recognized these rules.

Intellectual curiosity; research passion

Early

Persistent navigators

Rural; pure; interdisciplinary (soft and hard, newly developed); quantitative/ qualitative

They directed and managed their career toward their desired destination despite opposition and obstacles. The process was tenacious. Like sailing across a stretch of water, they came across many expected and unexpected obstacles. It requireds them to steer carefully to go to the destination and, at the same time, compromise the realistic circumstances.

Intellectual curiosity; research passion

Middle

Unconventional fighter

Rural; pure/ applied; interdisciplinary (soft, newly developed); mostly qualitative

They were the pathfinder and the pioneer in new or cross-disciplinary research fields. They bravely fought for inequality and disadvantaged groups. Sometimes they were viewed as a maverick.

Social welfare; intellectual curiosity; institution commitment

Early and middle

(continued)

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Table 3.2 (continued) Categories

Features of disciplines; communication style; research methods

Rationales of naming

Key motivations

Main advantages accumulated period

Opportunistic achievers

Rural and urban; applied with practices; education and medical science; qualitative and quantitative

They were very competent but did not have the plan early in their career. They performed highly and made decisions depending on practical considerations (e.g., the balance of personal life and work; the promotion opportunities).

Intellectual curiosity; balance of personal development and career opportunities; institution commitment

Middle and senior

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Creamer, E. G., & McGuire, S. P. (1998). Applying the cumulative advantage perspective to scholarly writers in higher education. The Review of Higher Education, 22(1), 73–82. Currie, J., Vidovich, L., & Yang, R. (2008). “Countability not answerability?” Accountability in Hong Kong and Singapore universities. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 28(1), 67–85. https:// doi.org/10.1080/02188790701845972 Dannefer, D. (2003). Cumulative advantage/disadvantage and the life course: Cross-fertilizing age and social science theory. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58(6), S327–S337. DiPrete, T. A., & Eirich, G. M. (2006). Cumulative advantage as a mechanism for inequality: A review of theoretical and empirical developments. Annual Review of Sociology, 32, 271–297. Fritsch, N.-S. (2015). At the leading edge—Does gender still matter? A qualitative study of prevailing obstacles and successful coping strategies in academia. Current Sociology, 63(4), 547–565. Fritsch, N.-S. (2016). Patterns of career development and their role in the advancement of female faculty at Austrian universities: New roads to success? Higher Education, 72(5), 619–635. Goldstein, K. (2002). Getting in the door: Sampling and completing elite interviews. Political Science & Politics, 35(4), 669–672. Gumport, P. J. (2002). Academic pathfinders: Knowledge creation and feminist scholarship. Greenwood Publishing Group. Harvey, W. S. (2011). Strategies for conducting elite interviews. Qualitative Research, 11(4), 431– 441. Hesse-Biber, S. N., & Leavy, P. L. (2013). Feminist research practice: A primer. Sage. Huber, J. C. (1998). Cumulative advantage and success-breeds-success: The value of time pattern analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(5), 471–476. Larivière, V., Vignola-Gagné, E., Villeneuve, C., Gélinas, P., & Gingras, Y. (2011). Sex differences in research funding, productivity and impact: An analysis of Québec university professors. Scientometrics, 87(3), 483–498. Lehman, H. C. (1953). Age and achievement. Princeton University Press. Lilja, J. (2012). Challenging the Matthew Effect: International exchange of publications in four Finnish learned societies until the Second World War. Suomen Tiedeseura. Lucas, L. (2006). Research game in academic life. McGraw-Hill Education. Macfarlane, B. (2011). Professors as intellectual leaders: Formation, identity and role. Studies in Higher Education, 36(1), 57–73. Macfarlane, B. (2013). Intellectual leadership in higher education: Renewing the role of the university professor. Routledge. Mahbuba, D., & Rousseau, R. (2011). The Matthew Effect and a relation with concept symbols and defaults. Annals of Library and Information Studies, 58(4), 335–345. Mendoza, P., Kuntz, A. M., & Berger, J. B. (2012). Bourdieu and academic capitalism: Faculty “habitus” in materials science and engineering. The Journal of Higher Education, 83(4), 558– 581. Merton, R. K. (1942). The normative structure of science. Journal of Legal and Political Sociology, 1, 115–126. Merton, R. K. (1968). The Matthew Effect in science. Science, 159(3810), 56–63. Merton, R. K. (1979). The sociology of science: Theoretical and empirical investigations. University of Chicago Press. Merton, R. K. (1988). The Matthew Effect in science, II: Cumulative advantage and the symbolism of intellectual property. Isis, 79(4), 606–623. O’Rand, A. M. (1996). The precious and the precocious: Understanding cumulative disadvantage and cumulative advantage over the life course. The Gerontologist, 36(2), 230–238. Odendahl, T., & Shaw, A. M. (2002). Interviewing elites. In J. F. Gubrium & J. A. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of interview research. Context & method (pp. 299–316). Sage. Oleksiyenko, A. (2012). Resource asymmetries and cumulative advantages in regional knowledge systems: Exploring a University’s growth/share strategy. In R. Pinheiro et al. (Ed.), Universities

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and regional development: A critical assessment of tensions and contradictions (pp.161–178). Routledge. Oleksiyenko, A. (2014). On the shoulders of giants? Global science, resource asymmetries, and repositioning of research universities in China and Russia. Comparative Education Review, 58(3), 482–508. Oleksiyenko, A., & Sá, C. M. (2010). Resource asymmetries and cumulative advantages: Canadian and US research universities and the field of global health. Higher Education, 59(3), 367–385. Parry, B. (1998). Hunting the gene-hunters: The role of hybrid networks, status, and chance in conceptualising and accessing ‘corporate elites.’ Environment and Planning, 30(12), 2147– 2162. Price, D. J. D. S. (1965). The scientific foundations of science policy. Nature, 206(4981), 233. Ridgeway, C. L. (2011). Framed by gender: How gender inequality persists in the modern world. Oxford University Press. Shen, H. (2013). Inequality quantified: Mind the gender gap. Retrieved from https://www.nature. com/news/inequality-quantified-mind-the-gender-gap-1.12550 Slote, W. H., & De Vos, G. A. (1998). Confucianism and the family. State University of New York Press. Walberg, H. J., & Tsai, S.-L. (1983). ‘Matthew’ effects in education. American Educational Research Journal, 20(3), 359–373. https://doi.org/10.2307/1162605 Willson, A. E., Shuey, K. M., Elder, J., & Glen, H. (2007). Cumulative advantage processes as mechanisms of inequality in life course health. American Journal of Sociology, 112(6), 1886– 1924. Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Sage. Zuckerman, H. (1977). Scientific elite: Nobel laureates in the United States. Transaction Publishers. Zuckerman, H. (1997). Accumulation of advantage and disadvantage: The theory and its intellectual biography. In C. Mongardini & S. Tabboni (Eds.), Robert K. Merton and contemporary sociology (pp. 139–161). Transaction Publishers.

Chapter 4

Strategic Gamers

Abstract This chapter introduces the first category of women scholars—strategic gamers. These individuals employed strategic methods to secure various levels of support within the managerial context while safeguarding their roles as researchers. They demonstrated a profound understanding of the competitive system and its rules. The group comprised eight strategic gamers, with the majority specializing in codified disciplines within the realm of hard and applied sciences. They regarded the advancement of scholarly ideas as the foremost attribute of intellectual leadership. Strategic gamers typically garnered recognition early in their scholarly careers by focusing on knowledge production and accruing significant contributions to their disciplines and institutions. They also displayed a degree of awareness regarding marketization and managerialism within higher education, highlighting that their most common challenges arose from attempts to make breakthroughs within their respective disciplines. In terms of gender-related issues, they emphasized the impact of motherhood and childcare responsibilities as career interruptions.

From Chaps. 4–7, the presentation form remains consistent, including the category overview in a table and a snapshot of each scholar, then the analysis part. Each chapter introduces its category by featuring the characteristics, listing the basic information of cases, and briefly portraying these women professors. Two main parts following the portraits: women professors’ views on the concept paper (see Appendix B) and perceptions of qualities of intellectual leadership. Subsequently, each chapter also analyzes advantages mainly in disciplinary and institutional aspects, and disadvantages in academic disciplinary development and gender dimensions. Finally, the key points of this chapter are summarized. This chapter presents the first type of women scholars—strategic gamers in details. Eight strategic gamers, most of whom worked in the codified disciplines and in hard and applied sciences. They saw leading scholarly ideas as the primary quality of intellectual leadership. They tended to gain recognition in the early period of their scholarly life by concentrating on knowledge production. Strategic gamers gained most merits from the disciplines and institution with some awareness of marketization and managerialism in higher education and pointed out that the most common

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3_4

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adversities came from the disciplinary breakthrough. Gender-wise, motherhood and childcaring were stressed as career interruptions.

4.1 Introduction of the Category 4.1.1 Category Overview: Strategic Gamers The metaphor “strategic gamer” implies that the academic world is a competitive game with a set of rules and professors are experienced participants in it. While they may not concur that they were “strategic” or saw academic work as a “game,” data from the in-depth interviews demonstrated their strategic decisions, which made differences in their success. Generally, if academic career is a racing track, these professors did not run out of the track. Instead, they started from a high point and get through different career barriers smoothly. Eight women professors showed the pattern of disciplinary knowledge-based career development. The period of peerreview and publishing in academic journals in their disciplines were fast. The disciplines they worked in usually had clear “game rules” when compared with soft disciplines. This means short periods of the publishing process, multiple collaborators, and a fast pace to exchange ideas in the preferable form of scientific journals. Among the eight participants, seven worked in the social sciences and applied sciences and one in political sciences. Most used more quantitative methods than qualitative ones in their research. Many did not show strong disagreement with the neoliberal system in higher education (as argued in the concept paper), but had some critical comments on it. Performativity and marketization of academic policies were not perceived as burdens, except for such issues as funding of postgraduate students. Instead, they accepted the rules, with some stating that the system offered more opportunities for women scholars. They regarded managerial/institutional leadership as somewhat different or even independent from intellectual leadership. The women scholars in this group had had relatively smooth academic journeys and significant academic advancement at a young age. Their advantages mainly relied on disciplinary research. As their research areas were not untraditional, most developed their expertise centered on their original expertise and stayed focused in the field. They successfully secured major research grants and received recognition since their early career stage. Three of them were made full professors in their early 40s. Those who were older tended to spend a long time in one institution. Two professors decided to move to another institution in their mid-career because the disciplinary development in Hong Kong seemed to have better prospects than did that of their original countries.1 They tended to emphasize the importance of rigorous doctoral training, inspiring supervisors or mentors, and a research-friendly institutional environment and resources. 1

Other types of professors also moved to another institution or country during mid-career or senior career but not necessarily out of consideration of the trend of disciplinary development and research.

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Regarding the disadvantages of academic development, several aspects were identified. Two STEM scientists regarded funding and the people on the research team as the most critical factors in knowledge production. Competing agendas might conflict when they tried to spend time launching new ideas and supervising research teams. Several scholars in social sciences were concerned the domination of the field by mainstream Western scholars and the constraints brought by academic policies such as linking grants directly to research student recruitment. From the gender perspective, professors in this group generally agreed that motherhood was a burden for them, but saw it as just a different and worthwhile part of life. Otherwise, most prioritized their professional identity over their gender identity as women. They viewed being a woman scholar as neutral in Hong Kong’s higher education system (Table 4.1).

4.1.2 Snapshot of Strategic Gamers Case 1 Anyi Wang, Professor in Education Life Born and bred in Mainland of China, Anyi Wang finished her undergraduate and master’s studies in first-ranked universities in Beijing. After that, she obtained her doctoral degree in the US. After completing her Ph.D. she worked in a comprehensive university in Hong Kong, where she had been for more than two decades at the time of the interview. Work Anyi was ranked by Google Scholar as being among the Top 1% of most-cited authors in the field of educational psychology. Anyi’s principal achievement was a theory that she put forward to integrate different theories in [her specific field]. She authored an important textbook in the field for undergraduate students in mainstream universities in both North America and Hong Kong. Her research development in the field was rather focused, applying the concept in different educational contexts, testing the theory to expand its application. During the interview, Anyi repeatedly emphasized her research ideas and how she cumulated her capacity, including taking on such roles as postgraduate students’ supervisor and chief editor of a major journal in the field, and how she benefited from working with her postgraduate students. She said she had not experienced much pressure in terms of publication or gender-related issues or gender discrimination in the university.

Education

Social science

Management

Anyi Wang

Grace Cho

Teresa So

Wen Li

1

7

12

14

Science

Faculty

Pseudonym

No.

Table 4.1 Strategic gamer cases

Textile science

Tourism management

Political science

Educational psychology

Applied

Applied

Comprehensive

Comprehensive

Main research HEIs field

20–29

20–29

20–29

20–29

Years in academia

Mainland

International

International

Mainland

Country/regiona

Faculty

Faculty

Faculty

Faculty

Levels of formal leadership takenb

(continued)

300+ publications and patents, book chapters and books (faculty academic profile); 8000+ citations (Google Scholar)

190+ publications; 8000+ citations (Google Scholar)

40+ journal articles and 5 authored and edited books (personal CV); 3000+ citations (Google Scholar)

100+ journal articles, 5 authored and edited book (scholar hub); 7700+ citations (Google Scholar)

Publication and citationc

78 4 Strategic Gamers

Renxi Lin

Shirley Rai

18

19

Education

Educational psychology

Urban planning

Life science

Comprehensive

Comprehensive

Comprehensive

Main research HEIs field

30–39

10–19

30–39

Years in academia

International

Mainland

HK

Country/regiona Publication and citationc

Faculty

N/A

80+ journal articles and 25+ book chapters (scholar hub); 410+ citations (Google Scholar)

40+ journal articles and 10+ book chapters; 2 authored books and 4 edited books (scholar hub); 2400+ citations (PoP)

University; faculty 70+ journal articles and 230+ conference papers (scholar hub); 4700+ citations (PoP)

Levels of formal leadership takenb

This column of country/region does not necessarily mean their nationality during the time of interviews taken but indicates the place that participants grew up and finished the primary and secondary education. b This column indicates the formal leadership participants took before or during the interview. c All of these scientometric data were applicable due to the time of interview (from July 2018 to May 2019). Inside the bracket, the sources of the information are indicated, such as the scholar hub in the university, Google Scholar, official and personal academic profile website or CV, the online tool investigating index and citation Publish or Perish (PoP).

a

Medicine

Lucy Ng

17

Architecture

Faculty

Pseudonym

No.

Table 4.1 (continued)

4.1 Introduction of the Category 79

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Case 7 Grace Cho, Professor in Social Sciences Life Grace was an overseas Taiwanese who grew up in a middle-class family in the US. She was trained as a political scientist in top universities in the US for her undergraduate and postgraduate education. Before joining a research-intensive university in Hong Kong, she had worked in two universities in the US. The second university she worked in was where she rapidly grew as a productive scholar. In the early 2010s, she decided to move to Hong Kong with her family. The decision was made based on the promising future development in the research field as well as a desire to escape the administrative responsibility overload in her previous position. Work Before pursuing her doctoral studies, Grace graduated from a prominent university in the US. After graduation, she worked as an analyst in an international organization related to finance. Then she started her Ph.D. study in a very competitive program, receiving a Fulbright Scholarship that supported her fieldwork in China. Grace’s research expertise was on financial development related to China studies. Her doctoral thesis, which was edited into a book and published by an established academic publisher, became one of her masterpieces. With a positive academic record, Grace was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship shortly after starting her faculty position, which significantly accelerated the progress of her academic career. She was wellestablished before she decided to have her first child. At that time, the head of the department allowed her to reduce her teaching workload and adopt a flexible arrangement to balance her research with the NSF grant. When Grace got a job invitation from another top university, her employing university offered her promotion to full professor within two years; thus, she became a full professor at a world-class university in the US at a very young age. Benefiting from the institutional environments in these top universities, Grace became the dean in the faculty in her early 50s. She actively promoted a female-friendly academic environment and advocated for women academics when in her leadership position in Hong Kong. Case 12 Teresa So, Professor in Management Life Born in Taiwan, Teresa So earned her first degree at a local university, then pursued further study in the US, getting her M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the same university in the late 1980s. Before joining the Ph.D. program, Teresa had a short-term experience of working for a few international hotel groups. By the time she completed her doctoral study, she had a total of ten years’ teaching and research experience in two state universities in the US. In the early 2000s, she was persuaded to go to Hong Kong through her Asian connections. Teresa was married and her husband was a faculty

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member. When she considered relocating to an applied sciences university in Hong Kong in mid-career, her husband was very supportive and moved with her. Work Teresa specialized in hotel management and tourism. Her Ph.D. was completed in the US and her supervisor was pivotal in introducing her to a Ph.D. program and her later position in the university. Her specialty was in a very applied and interdisciplinary field. Teresa’s choice to move to Hong Kong was closely related to the internationalization trend in the tourism industry. Much of her research was driven by practical needs and used theories that originated in other disciplines. In recent years, Teresa has devoted herself to theory building in practical and interdisciplinary areas. Teresa had secured numerous extramural and intramural grants. Apart from journal articles, she was the leading author of three books and the editor and co-editor of four books. Teresa also authored two Chinese textbooks on tourism marketing published in Mainland of China and in Taiwan, respectively. At the time of this research, she was one of the very few women Chair Professors in the university and had taken a leadership role as associate dean in the faculty. Teresa was the editor-inchief of a major journal in her field. Her working experiences included positions on journal editorial boards, being a consultant to various hospitality organizations, and providing training to management teams in hotel and tourism organizations in the areas of service quality, branding, and marketing. She received several international lifetime research achievement awards in the field. Case 14 Wen Li, Professor in Science Life Wen Li was born and grew up in China’s Mainland. She was in one of the first cohorts of undergraduate students after the Cultural Revolution. In the mid-1980s, she was one of the very few women to graduate with a master’s degree from a university well-known for its textile sciences. She stayed at the university to be a lecturer in her major for several years, then pursued her Ph.D. study at a prestigious university in the UK, with a national scholarship. Upon graduation from her doctoral study, she successfully applied to an applied science university in Hong Kong, where she has worked ever since. She was happily married with one child and felt satisfied with both her academic career and family life. Work Since joining an applied sciences university in Hong Kong in the mid-1990s, Wen had been a productive scholar in and beyond academics. She had published journal papers and patents, books, and book chapters extensively. She was awarded many prizes for her academic contributions, achievements, and industrial innovations. She also taught a wide range of subjects and supervised B.Sc., M.Phil., and Ph.D. students. Wen had led several large-scale research projects in such research areas as shape memory materials and textiles, structure, and mechanics. Collaborating widely with

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local and international researchers facilitated her to broaden her research areas remarkably. She was well known for one of her key findings on smart material, making her one of the most sought-after scientists by industrial partners. Case 16 Fei Gao, Professor in Business Life One in the emerging generation of scholars, Fei Gao was in her early 40s and had secured her full professorship in a research university in Hong Kong at the time of this study. Fei completed her undergraduate study in China, a master’s degree in Singapore, and pursued her Ph.D. degree in the US. In a smooth transition, she joined the faculty of a comprehensive university in Hong Kong. Fei was one of the youngest women full professors in the history of the faculty of business school at that university. Beyond academic work, she seemed to have little engagement in public activities, so little information was found through other sources (e.g., Google Scholar, ResearchGate.net). In the interview, she revealed she was married and had a young child who had been born after she secured her tenure position. In the interview, Fei said that being a mother slowed down her research and that it was hard to regain the same momentum and speed later. Work Fei’s primary research interests related to marketing, social exclusion, social environments, consumption decisions, and consumer behavior. She published research outputs in premier academic journals, served as the co-chair for a top professional society in her field, and on the editorial boards of some major journals. She emphasized that high-quality training in methodology and research norms benefited her career tremendously. During the interview, Fei said that academic rank for scholars in the field denoted no more than a title. Ideas were valued the most, regardless of whom delivered them. Though she did not desire to take administrative leadership in the faculty, she was the associate director of a research center. She considered it an excellent chance to upgrade the facility for other colleagues and postgraduate students. Case 17 Lucy Ng, Professor in Medicine Life Raised in Hong Kong, Lucy Ng finished her undergraduate and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in local universities. Receiving a highly prestigious scholarship in Hong Kong in the 1980s, Lucy gained her Ph.D. at a world-class university in the UK. Work Lucy was trained as a biochemist. She worked on genetics in a national institute overseas before returning to Hong Kong. She was currently professor and convenor of a research center in the Faculty of Medicine in a research-intensive university. Lucy’s research interests were in developmental biology and molecular mechanism

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of development. She had published more than 70 international peer-reviewed journal articles, including in top-tier natural sciences journals such as Cell. Lucy served as the associate vice-president of the university for three years. She was invited to be a keynote speaker many times at international conferences. When discussing the gender issue in the interview, she considered that only research trends and personal priorities among different goals mattered. Men and women faced equal challenges when they conducted research and desired to gain recognition. In the interview, Lucy stated that the gender gap in science was more a self-fulfilling phenomenon than a structural problem. Case 18 Renxi Lin, Professor in Architecture Life Like Anyi Wang, Renxi finished her undergraduate and master’s study in top universities in China. After that, she pursued her Ph.D. study in the UK and became a post-doctoral fellow in the US in the 2000s. After working as a faculty member in a first-ranked university in Southern China for six years, she moved to Hong Kong. She considered international exposure very important for her career advancement. She was married and had a daughter. Her husband supported her decision to relocate to Hong Kong from the southern mega city. They decided to work in different cities and commute weekly and were both happy about this lifestyle. Work Renxi’s research interests focused on urban redevelopment, rural–urban migration, and related projects. Publishing extensively in both Chinese and international journals, Renxi was the co-author and co-editor of four volumes in the field. Her supervisor in the Ph.D. program also collaborated with her. For four consecutive years, Renxi was identified by an established academic publisher as one of the most cited scholars in China’s Mainland (social sciences) and was among the top 1% of scholar at her present university in 2016 and 2017. Renxi had been professor and assistant dean at the School of Geography and Planning in a first-tier university in a metropolis in China before joining a researchintensive university in Hong Kong. Prior to that, she had been a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School and research fellow at a top university in the UK for three years. Seeking new intellectual challenges and more space for research, she decided to move to Hong Kong. In the beginning, she came to the university as an associate professor. She was newly promoted to full professor before the interview. She had been the editor of a highly-ranked international journal since 2012 and served on the editorial boards of several international journals (there was a YouTube video of her narration promoting the journal as an editor). She was a mentee of a women professor mentorship program at the university in 2019. The program selected one mentor and one mentee in each faculty across the university.

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Case 19 Shirley Rai, Professor in the Faculty of Education Life Growing up and completing her undergraduate study in a South Asian country, Shirley Rai pursued her master’s degree and Ph.D. study in the US. She had been at the research university for more than three decades after earning her Ph.D. degree. Attracted by an opening for a post-doctoral fellow in Hong Kong, Shirley had started her career in Hong Kong and spent around three decades at the same researchintensive university. She was married and had two adult children. Her husband worked in the business field and her family was very supportive of her academic work. Work Shirley had spent her whole academic career at this comprehensive university. She had published widely and had authored journal articles, books, book chapters, and research reports on educational psychology and early childhood development. She and her team worked closely with governments and international organizations such as UNICEF and UNESCO. Shirley actively collaborated with these organizations and developed her expertise in different international and national contexts. She served as an associate editor for two major journals in her field and on the editorial boards of a few prestigious journals. Shirley was involved actively in international organizations’ projects that supported children’s healthy growth through research and advocacy activities. In 2013, she was awarded an endowed professorship and currently would like to conduct impactful research in scale as an established professor.

4.2 Conceptualization of Intellectual Leadership 4.2.1 Views on the Concept Paper Intellectual Leadership Independent from Institutional Leadership Three participants (Anyi Wang, Fei Gao, Shirley Rai) had read the concept paper before the interview. Anyi Wang took a close look at it and printed out a few highlighted paragraphed before the interview. She highly agreed with four quoted paragraphs about, respectively, the definition of intellectual leadership, the associated qualities, and the relation with formal leadership. She trusted the publication-based authority of intellectual leadership and that intellectual leadership could be independent of formal leadership. It mirrored what she experienced in developing her capacity—integrating a theory regardless of “destroying” the harmony of other senior scholars in the field. Shirley Rai also read it and remarked that it was an interesting and meaningful article and pinpointed one of the arguments she found interesting— the extra obstacles for minority and women scholars. She said she did not experience these challenges as a woman and minority scholar because “my professional identity has been stronger than my identity as a woman or as a minority.”

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Intellectual leadership was often regarded as different, even independent, from formal authority and power by this group. Shirley (education) felt intellectual leadership included research leadership and managerial leadership could be part of intellectual leadership but could not go far without “forward-thinking.” Fei Gao considered that formal authority and leadership meant something different from academic rank or administrative position in the institution. Formal authority and power for us, for our intellectual life, is not about hierarchy in the institution. It is more about your position in the academic community or is premiere about the academic journal. If you say they are the authorities, they play an authority role, not because of their own research, but because they are the gatekeepers for the publication, which is super important for an academic career. (Fei Gao, Interview 16)

Other respondents tended to have a neutral attitude toward the performativity and output-oriented academic evaluation processes discussed in the article. Some thought it was rational to use publication-based evaluation to measure a scholar (Fei Gao, Lucy Ng, Wen Li), while some expressed that the impact of academic policies on both male and female scholars was similar (Anyi Wang, Renxi Lin). Such views may relate to age. Some relatively younger scholars (e.g., those in their early 40s) started their careers in managerial, neoliberal universities and so they might regard them as the norm (Tight, 2014).

4.2.2 Perceived Qualities of Intellectual Leadership Pioneers Leading Disciplinary Research Scholarship and knowledge in the field were the most commonly commented on subjects for all four types of participants. The second most frequent, which was repeatedly mentioned by different groups, addressed the moral aspect of leadership. Qualities depicting intellectual leadership repeatedly appeared among all types of respondents. Strategic gamers more often outlined intellectual contributions in terms of disciplinary knowledge. Anyi Wang (education) stated: “One must be a pioneer in one’s field. One has to be intrinsically motivated to do the research, instead of thinking about being recognized as a leader (to be an intellectual leader).” Similarly, Grace Cho (political science) highlighted the contribution of intellectual leadership connecting with “the way people think” by putting forward important concepts and explaining social phenomena. It was also about capacity in leading a stream of research and attracting researchers to follow (e.g., Fei Gao, business; Lucy Ng). So, the most evolving policy, of course, is that you demonstrate your ability to generate the knowledge in that particular research area that you define. Let’s say I am a developmental biologist. So, as a leader in developmental biology in my field of interest, I must be contributing to discoveries in this field. So, I think the quality…is what your contribution and how you are recognized as somebody who was making a significant contribution in that area. (Lucy Ng, Interview 17)

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As a STEM scientist, Wen Li (science) underlined the importance of “innovation,” which means the capacity to explore and associate the scientific connections between different things and phenomena. In a previous interview, she expressed the view that many objects in the world had some kinds of links, and scientists’ responsibility was to explain these links scientifically. Similarly, Renxi Lin (architecture) stressed that not only the number of publications but also the quality of publications, services delivered, books written, and engagement in the community should be counted as the features of an intellectual leader. “Open-mindedness,” as one of the often-repeated words, was used with alternative words like “inclusiveness.” It was highlighted by Shirley Rai (education) that an intellectual leader should “be willing to appreciate diverse paradigms.” Ethical and Moral Leadership The broader function of intellectual leadership beyond knowledge concerns its ethical and moral aspect, which indicates the intention and capacity to help and to cultivate the young generation of scholars. Anyi Wang marked down typical words in the interview protocol before the interview: “consciousness, open-mindedness, risk-taking, intrinsic motivation, persistence, generosity (sharing, willingness to serve).” Fei Gao and Shirley Rai stressed that an intellectual leader should nurture research students and junior scholars. Teresa So thought it very important “to be ethical” and to have a sense of service “for the public good.” Under the stressful academic competition environment, academics may race for short-term benefits. However, it was crucial to aim at long-term benefits, to keep the reputation by helping others and moving the discipline forward. (Shirley Rai, Interview 19)

Anyi Wang underlined “generosity” and thought it was essential to offer help to others and contribute to services in the community (e.g., sharing ideas, sharing research tools, providing feedback to colleagues’ manuscripts for publications, taking up editorial responsibilities). She agreed that offering support and help to others could also benefit one’s work.

4.3 Advantages These cases shared the commonality that all went directly from doctoral training to their academic career, without (or with minimal interruption by) other job experiences. These interviewees had had strong academic records since their undergraduate studies. Being trained in a research-intensive prestigious university and mentored by prominent supervisors were common to this group of professors and played a paramount role in paving their way up in their early career, as did influential supervisors and mentors and a research-friendly institutional climate.

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4.3.1 Discipline-Related Advantages at the Early Stage Top-Tier Postgraduate Training and Supervisors Postgraduate training at first-ranked institutions led to multiple merits for these female professors later in their careers. From a disciplinary perspective, supervisors and mentors who inspired and supported them were the ones often mentioned when they cumulated the disciplinary experience in research (Anyi Wang, Grace Cho, Renxi Lin, Teresa So, Wen Li). Anyi Wang (education) showed sincere gratitude in the interview as well as in the acknowledgment in one of her recent books for her mentor’s “encouragement and support, and for having set an outstanding example for me on my journey in pursuit of excellence” (Anyi Wang, pre-analysis). Anyi described her supervisor as having played a pivotal role in shaping her “professional standards, values, and ways of thinking.” In a follow-up interview, I asked her to clarify how her supervisor encouraged her. She responded with the following, which also mirrored how she understood the printed highlights of the concept paper. For example, based on my repeated research findings, I proposed a theoretical model that combined his model with many others in the field. One of the scholars (whose model has also been integrated into my model) became “upset” with me because my model seemed to have “devalued” his. However, my mentor was extremely encouraging. Instead of getting upset with me, he acknowledged my model in several of his publications. (Anyi Wang, Interview 1)

Similarly, Fei Gao highly appreciated of the doctoral training in the business school degree. She got used to the highest standards of research publication in an extremely competitive environment for doctoral students. They were expected to make high-quality research output, in which the methodology could be used for decades. Apart from rigorous and advanced research training, Wen Li (science) was deeply grateful toward her mentor, the supervisor of her supervisor in the UK. Wen explained his influence in terms of advice of methodology, support for publications, as well as deepening her understanding of the research field. I remember he said that the textile structure is unique. We can use the mathematic concept “curvature” to describe anything curvy. Usually, one thing only has one curvature, but clothing has two (illustrating to the interviewer with her clothes). So, there is a derivative to describe it mathematically. Small talks with him like this, enhanced my aesthetic appreciation in textile. I have always been very proud of the textile structure industry. It has been invented for a few thousand years. Everything around us has been changed drastically, but textile remains similar, only with more patterns, more diversity, better quality, and more efficient methods……. But the basic principles, what we call “double curvature,” remain unchanged. It is the feature of textile that that fits users’ body and adapts to their movements. (Wen Li, Interview 14)

Rigorous training is inevitable and they all received different styles thereof. Grace Cho reflected that it was a “very Darwinian” competition in her Ph.D. program in the US. Among 86 doctoral students, she was one of only 36 who survived the first year and was one of seven in the group. At that time, she felt “very unsupported and

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challenged.” Grace (social science) revealed that several mentors always believed in her and reassured her she was doing well, which soothed her immense insecurity and anxiety. Hence, support from mentors was both emotional and spiritual. Teresa So (tourism management) highlighted that her supervisor in her master’s program encouraged her to pursue doctoral study, supported her application for a faculty member position later, and more important, boosted her confidence over the rest of her career. Scholarship and Research Funds Prominent scholarship and research grants are unquestionable favors for women professors. Grace was the recipient of the prominent National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship as soon as she entered a time-honored research university as an assistant professor. The fund accelerated her promotion in academic rank to a large extent. With the funding, she was able to publish several important works and get external recruitment opportunities from another leading university. The flexible arrangement for using the fund permitted by the university benefited her research as well as the balance of family life (discussed in the next part of institutional merits). Wen Li started her Ph.D. study because she successfully applied for a Sino-British joint scholarship. This opened the gate for her researcher’s journey. It brought her to a higher level of the platform compared to domestic academia in China at that time, as discussed in Top-tier postgraduate training, above. She did not realize the gap in academic standards between China and the West until she had the chance to research in the UK with the overseas study scholarship. Lucy Ng (life science) was awarded a Croucher scholarship, a highly prestigious scholarship for Hong Kong researchers in the fields of natural sciences and technologies. She started her doctoral program in the UK. When I asked the most significant factor for her success, Lucy only responded: “Working on it.” When I further probed whether the Croucher scholarship or the top publications she had in top journals like Nature and Cell had had an influence, she denied it and said the scholarship provided the opportunity for rigorous training and access to a suitable institutional environment, but did not pave the way for achieving intellectual leadership. She underlined that the research opportunities in different countries and areas were imbalanced. She also shared examples of her peers in the same prestigious university with the same type of scholarship, but they had average academic careers. Learning experience in top-tier universities brought collaboration opportunities and other chances to build professors’ capacity. International exposure during postgraduate study was critical, especially for those who had their previous education in China’s Mainland. Renxi Lin’s experience in the UK as a doctoral student and in the US as a post-doctoral fellow made her reflect on the different academic styles in the two mainstream higher education systems. She mentioned that the Urban China Research Network had a high impact on her. She attended conferences organized and funded by the organization and became connected to established scholars, who later recommended literature and wrote reference letters for her. To sum up, rigorous doctoral training in top-tier universities, especially those in developed countries like the US and the UK, led to multiple merits, including meeting

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elite scholars (supervisors/mentors/collaborators) and networks, as well as financial support to travel and to explore, and smooth transition to employment immediately after graduation.

4.3.2 Institution-Related Advantages When asked about the most critical factors for success, a few interviewees emphasized institutional merits, including a safe and supportive atmosphere in the department and university, academic freedom to research the topics they were enthusiastic about, multiple choices of financial resources, and a prospective future in the discipline. Those who stayed in one institution for a long time accumulated a reputation in a relatively stable environment. Those who changed to another university mid-career considered the shifting trends in their research field, such as internationalization. Freedom and Flexibility in One Institution Five professors (Anyi Wang, Fei Gao, Lucy Ng, Shirley Rai, Wen Li) stayed in the same university their whole academic career. Anyi Wang mainly stressed two points: the department’s very reliable administrative service, which allowed her to focus on research, and an inspiring intellectual environment, rife with opportunities to meet top scholars and top students. Shirley Rai said she had been in a very supportive university for more than 30 years after post-doctoral days. Shirley was grateful for all kinds of resources she had enjoyed at the institution, including the academic climate, excellent mentors, financial resources, and chances to meet world-class colleagues. She learned from participating in and leading government and international organization projects, conducting comparative international studies, and getting connected with the top scholars. Her academic network helped her much to attain her accomplishments. Both Lucy Ng and Shirley Rai underscored academic freedom at the university. Lucy mentioned that she felt she was running a business under the framework of the university, and had abundant autonomy to operate and make decisions. Grace emphasized the flexibility provided by the institution. Academic freedom was crucial. Shirley said she had the choice to devote herself to either macro or micro aspects of the research topic at different levels of the education system (either early childhood education, K 12 education, or beyond). For Grace, sufficient “space” was given by the first university in which she was first employed in the US, such as being allowed to teach fewer new courses as a junior associate professor and being given flexible arrangement to use her national grant, both of which allowed her to develop her research expertise. Hence, she did not have to worry about her time because the university permitted her to change her one-year research into two years, with half spent on research and half on teaching. Thus, she could conduct fieldwork in China for half a year and came back to teach for the rest of the time. At the same time, she started a new family and had her first baby. The arrangement was “ideal and indispensable” for her development as a young faculty member. To contribute to the virtuous circle, Grace devoted herself to giving space to other junior

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faculty members, especially women, when she was at a higher academic rank. When she was division head, she showed her supportive attitude by promoting teaching load relief and the four-year substantiation clock for every baby they had. Geographical Mobility At mid-career, three professors chose to change their employing institution or the city for better chances in the research field (Grace Cho, Renxi Lin, Teresa So). The discipline-related advantage in the region attracted scholars. Both Grace Cho and Teresa So moved to Hong Kong from the US after researching and teaching in universities there. Grace Cho decided to move to Hong Kong for several reasons: (a) the conflict between the over demanding administrative responsibilities of her position as dean and time for her family and young children; and, (b) the attractiveness of East Asian cities. Hong Kong became an ideal destination for her due to its dynamic and international environment, use of the English language, and proximity to China for convenient fieldwork. Teresa had spent more than a decade in two state universities in the US as a faculty member. She decided to change to an institution in Hong Kong because she anticipated promising research opportunities with the growth of the Chinese market. In addition, Hong Kong was considered to have a more international environment and was close to an emerging tourism market—China. Renxi Lin came to an institution in Hong Kong from China because she thought there would be more academic freedom there, which she considered worth the compromise of a lower academic rank (from full professor in her original institution to associate professor). There were more than these advantages mentioned by this type of women professors, but they emphasized the points mentioned above in the initial years of the academic career. The discipline-related and institution-related advantages sometimes overlapped and interrelated, as expected.

4.4 Disadvantages and Counteractions Most women professors in this group emphasized their adversities rooted in disciplinary research, perceiving them as the nature of their academic work. They also found current rules of research funds and grants sometimes impeded or slowed their research progress. In terms of being women scholars, strategic gamers generally merely stressed childbearing and childcaring challenges and did not have much experience related to other forms discrimination or inequalities.

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4.4.1 Discipline-Related Disadvantages Knowledge Production Challenges Overall, women professors in this category had a relatively smooth career, aside from a few adversities regarding the development and hierarchy of disciplines. For instance, in the initial years of their career, western scholars in education psychology were at the top of the discipline hierarchy, which created difficulties for scholars in different areas and cultural traditions. Shirley said, to survive in the demanding academe, one must do high-quality research that lasted a long time, yielded long-term benefits instead of short-term ones, and was beneficial for the whole community. When I started, you know, so this is in the early stage, and also there was very much dominance of first world scholars in publishing. So, for example, you take some top journals in education, says an American education researcher maybe 10, 15 years ago or some journal in psychology. I remember sending a paper on Hong Kong or China. They said, oh, what does this have to do with the American public education system? So, they were very narrow focuses. But the field itself has changed. People now feel they can learn from other cultures…… We are part of the movement, you know, to make a sort of non-US studies mainstream, you know. (Shirley Rai, Interview 19)

Knowledge updates rapidly and it becomes more demanding for senior professors at the advanced stage of their career to pick up emerging technological approaches or popular topics. Renxi Lin considered it a challenge to get familiar with all kinds of statistical analysis tools and big data methods and applications. Her counteraction was to collaborate with scholars of diverse backgrounds and expertise to “compensate her shortages.” Interestingly, Wen Li saw it as a way to enrich her research profile by collaborating with scholars in other fields and seizing opportunities to expand her expertise. Generally, Lucy Ng suggested the real challenges of scientific knowledge generation relied on the uncertainty of research, which was also the nature of academic research. The trendy topics were influenced by many factors and hard to predict. The successful chance was not always the necessary outcome. It took both time, effort, and luck. So, that there are real challenges within the actual discovery in any research because in this incremental way. Figuratively speaking, it is that if you have contributed to your research but be able to take a quantum leap that makes it very, very phenomenal change. Then other people will recognize you a lot more easily and readily. But not everybody gets this chance. Sometimes it’s the nature of your work, right? Therefore, these are new challenges for everybody, for everybody who is in the research career because everybody will work and getting them incremental addition to the knowledge, but not everybody’s work will get a quantum leap, right? Because it’s intrinsic to do with our knowledge generation. I’m sure that we are all going up and up, but you’re not necessarily going this quantum. Somebody is just so lucky, or somebody is so clever that they immediately changed the way that the world is looking at this particular… So, other than your abilities, sometimes it’s also the actual specific question and so on so forth. So, research does go up and down, and there popular times and not so popular time. These are what I mean, and there are challenges. There are very different difficult things that you can do other than just to be resilient. (Lucy Ng, Interview 17)

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For Wen Li, as one who crossed cultural backgrounds, one of the toughest parts of her research in her doctoral study in the UK was language barriers. In a previous interview video she did for an association of Chinese overseas graduate students and scholars, she mentioned her effortful process to improve her English competence: When I first arrived in the UK, my English was not sufficient. To increase my vocabulary, I turned on the TV news channels every day. I didn’t care about what was on, and it created an English environment. I didn’t always understand what the news was about. Sometimes I got a vague impression of a story, and the next day I read newspapers in the library with a thick English dictionary. I got three different newspapers and selected a major coverage. I already watched it on TV and got the basic idea, so I studied the three different versions of the piece of news word by word. To do so for a few months, I felt my English level had significantly improved. For writing, I got my Master thesis (written in Chinese) to pick up the keywords and read extensively academic books and articles related to these words. After reading a lot and tried to mimic the writing in these works, I selected an aspect of my master thesis and wrote an article that was published in an English journal later. I read the article today and still think it is well written (laugh). (Wen Li, a previous interview video available online)

These senior scholars saw the most significant challenge as making a breakthrough in their research. Some also encountered difficulties in crossing the boundaries of language and culture. Research Grants and Funding Commonly, they took roles as research center directors or heads of schools/divisions. They admitted they were under high pressure to get research grants and funding for research students to facilitate future research agendas. Anyi Wang said she did not need that much money to support a postgraduate student, but recent regulations in Hong Kong required her to have the funding to recruit Ph.D. students. Wen, too, stressed that, in science fields, only research grants lead to sequential research activities by recruiting research students and RA. If a project showed outcomes, it was possible to continue it and broaden the research scale. Therefore, Wen said she always tried out new ideas, kept putting proposals together and applying for different research grants to increase her success rate. She felt insecure if she only concentrated on a few research proposals.

4.4.2 Gender-Related Disadvantages Motherhood and Family Responsibilities Conflicts between an academic career and other life priorities repeatedly appeared in the interviews of this group. Five participants in this group shared opinions about family responsibility and motherhood. As members of the younger generation (in their early 40s) who faced a competitive academic environment, Fei Gao and Renxi Lin stated that the responsibility of childbirth and childcare slowed women scholars’ careers significantly. When their children get to school age, academic mothers have to invest considerable energy and time in managing and monitoring their

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academic progress and achievement, from kindergarten to university. The momentum of research was difficult to pick up as before for at least a couple of years. Especially in Hong Kong, basically, it’s a highly competitive place. You have to care about your children’s education and schooling. Most women play a very important role. I observe that some of my colleagues are very brilliant colleagues, but they also spend lots of time on their kids. Usually, male professors take a sabbatical leave because they can go off Hong Kong, leaving their children and wife in Hong Kong. Sabbatical leave means at least you have three months away. Ladies cannot, because your husband wouldn’t be able to take your care of your kids even if you want. Some female professors actually take the kids oversea, but it’s also unlikely because in HK, the place in school is very important. If you leave, you cannot get it back. So, in the first few years, you’re fighting for your child’s place in school. So, those years you can’t leave. Once they’re in school, you cannot leave. You cannot take them away either. (Gao Fei, Interview 16)

That is why some of them chose to have children only after getting tenure (e.g., Grace Cho and Fei Gao). These professors (most of whom grew up in Chinese society) appeared to take childcare as an individual or family affair and tried to minimize its influence at work. As mentioned in Chap. 2, child-raising responsibilities in individual families largely fall on the shoulder of mothers, because of the lack of systematic support in Hong Kong society (as stated in Tang & Lou, 2009). Hence, these professors mostly felt blessed to have a supportive partner and much help from family members (Renxi Lin, Shirley Rai, Teresa So, and Wen Li). Teresa’s husband was willing to give up his faculty position in the US and move with her to Hong Kong, and Grace Cho’s husband was glad to relocate after her appointment in a completely strange city. Also, Grace Cho was so grateful to have a husband with different personalities; she was a workaholic, and her husband was the relaxed type, which helped her balance work and life. Another factor was the availability of domestic helpers in Hong Kong. Both Grace Cho and Wen Li appreciated the service provided by domestic helpers and regarded it as critical to reducing their housework time and increasing their focus on research. Shirley admitted it was hard to balance family and academic work and that she was lucky to have raised her children in a less competitive atmosphere, some decades ago. There are always trade-offs. If you don’t spend time with the child when he is young, you can’t develop an intimate relationship with him. Being a mother always means sacrifice. I felt so hard at that time, and I wonder why everything could be so difficult. But it passed, and it was worthy. I enjoyed my time with my son and learned a lot from him……. One good thing about Hong Kong is the help of a domestic worker, and it is so important! I would save other costs to hire one. (Wen Li, Interview 14)

Gender-Neutral Perspective Regarding their views on gender and women’s professorship, responses to the question of whether being a woman influenced one’s academic career were quite coherent. As a scientist, Lucy Ng did not agree there was a gender influence on academic careers at all. The challenges in research remain the same for research scientists, and are all about resources, competent trainees, and time spent on cultivating them. This

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view was echoed by another STEM scholar, Wen Li, who explained that her primary concern as leader of a research center was funding, followed by finding people to deliver and execute good ideas. The process was like rolling a snowball—get it started with a research assistant, then add a few research students and expand the research group step by step. The difficulties were “how to manage the team, how to handle all kinds of uncertainties.” Lucy Ng also argued the issue was not about gender but personal choices. Some scholars considered research as life, while others saw it as only one part of life. She gave a few examples of men colleagues who did not go for promotion because they opted to spend more time with their children, their hobbies, or outside business. This applied equally to academic mothers and fathers. She believed women could make the same choices as well. Wen Li also claimed she did not experience bias or feel discriminated against. Some colleagues might try to thwart her research opportunities and make troubles, but she saw competing for limited resources as inevitable, regardless of gender. Her solution to it was always to stay positive and keep working on her projects. Fei Gao did not consider it an issue either. She observed that many influential scholars in her field were women and from different cultural backgrounds. Meanwhile, she conceded that the center of marketing research was in the US, which had a distinct context from that of Hong Kong. The business school where she was currently employed had started to take a research output-oriented approach to assess faculty members. She thought that created a more favorable place for women to compete, compared to one or two decades ago, when the lack of emphasis on research made it more difficult for women to get promotions, as they lacked the measurable criteria. Senior male professors had often occupied top positions and seniority and networking were the main criteria for promotion. In the end, Fei was quite confident that the ratio of tenured women professors and women full professors would increase significantly in the future. To conclude, in their counteractions, women professors moved to another institution or moved internationally to mitigate such challenges as disciplinary imbalance and institutional obstacles. They also relied on institutional flexibility to overcome the burdens of motherhood and family responsibility.

4.5 Chapter Summary Women scholars, as strategic gamers, worked in relatively codified disciplines (either soft or hard, and applied fields) using relatively standardized criteria to conduct research. They saw the primary qualities of intellectual leadership as leading scholarly ideas, with moral and ethical concerns for the academic community members (e.g., colleagues, students). Two talked about the time conflicts between institutional and intellectual leadership, while others viewed the possible integration of the two.

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Women scholars, as strategic gamers, gained most merits from the perspectives of discipline and institution. Their discipline-related advantages were mainly accumulated at their early career stage, including top-tier postgraduate training and prestigious scholarship and research grants. Therefore, they embarked their academic career from a higher starting point and they also went faster and smoother at their career track. The institutional aspect advantages consisted of two parts: one concerned freedom and flexibility within one institution to conduct research, to use research grants, and to have administrative and financial support for their daily routine work. Three professors in this group felt that their geographical mobility in mid-career gave them more space in the academic community and more systematic support that they desired. Regarding adversities in their academic development, they suggested that making a disciplinary breakthrough was always the most demanding part, coming with numerous setbacks. Except for two young professors (Fei Gao, Renxi Lin) who might not have experienced the “good old days,” other professors recognized some impacts of marketization and managerialism, such as the pressure to obtain research grants and recruit research students. Gender-wise, only one professor who used to work in a mainland university considered that some practices at the institution underestimated women scholars and excluded scholars trained in other institutions or abroad. Other respondents centered their challenges in terms of motherhood and childcaring, which meant interruptions and slowdown of their research momentums. Little systematic support was provided, and individual households had to bear the responsibilities. At the same time, domestic workers allowed some of these professors to outsource their housework and childcare. Disadvantages and advantages in different dimensions affected each other. In this group, women scholars encountered imbalanced development of knowledge production in their original institution, some of them chose to move to another institution, at home or abroad, to seek a more international environment and more beneficial resources in their fields. Some stayed on in the same institution but widened their international collaborative research projects or collaborative authorships to aggregate their research impact worldwide.

References Tang, K., & Lou, V. W. (2009). Social welfare and women: The dominant approach and its critique. In Mainstreaming gender in Hong Kong society (pp. 181–210). Hong Kong. Tight, M. (2014). Collegiality and managerialism: A false dichotomy? Evidence from the higher education literature. Tertiary Education and Management, 20(4), 294–306. https://doi.org/10. 1080/13583883.2014.956788

Chapter 5

Persistent Navigators

Abstract This chapter examines the second category of women professors—persistent navigators. This group comprises four women professors who can be likened to skilled sailors, steering their academic paths with determination toward their destination, overcoming both expected and unexpected obstacles along the way. Their journey was marked by tenacity, primarily because they worked in soft or interdisciplinary fields that didn’t readily grant recognition during their early careers. These female professors valued leadership in their disciplines, along with qualities like flexibility and open-mindedness. The most significant advantages for persistent navigators emerged at the disciplinary level, typically accumulating during the mid-career stage. Scholars in this group faced challenges in publishing and securing grants in new or interdisciplinary fields and encountered gender discrimination at the disciplinary and institutional levels.

This chapter analyzes the second type of women professors—persistent navigators. Four women professors were categorized into this type. Firstly, it briefly informs the main features of this group of women scholars and gives snapshots of the four cases. Secondly, it accounts for persistent navigators’ views on intellectual leadership based on their personal experience and debates the links between institutional leadership and intellectual leadership. These female professors perceived leading scholarship in the discipline and flexibility and open-mindedness as the key qualities. The third part underlines discipline-related and institution-related advantages. Then the fourth part delineates their challenges to get published and recognized in the academic community, and their encounters of gender-related difficulties.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3_5

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5.1 Introduction of the Category 5.1.1 Category Overview: Persistent Navigators This group of women professors was described as persistent navigators. The name highlights two aspects: persistent indicates their perseverance despite opposition, obstacles, and discouragement in their academic journey; navigator represents their clear career goals and their efforts to plan, design, and conquer the adversities on their journey. At the beginning of their careers, they might be in a rather disadvantaged status because the research fields they worked in or the topics they studied were not accepted as mainstream knowledge. Most of these women scholars were in rural and interdisciplinary fields, both soft and hard. Some were in cutting-edge fields that might have been marginal research domains one or two decades ago. This group of professors to some extent demonstrated similar features as the deviant resistor in Leisyte’s study (2016), which describes those academics who have lower levels of authority and power in autonomous units are “symbolically compliant with new initiatives, resisting new administrative roles” (p. 63). This group of women professors needed to survive at university and strive for resources to pursue the research topics and academic duties they thought worthwhile. These professors recognized the hardship to survive in academia and they persisted to take their own way to reserve research space for themselves. Overall, persistent navigators thought the academic environment problematic for intellectual leadership development and were concerned about its negative influence on the next generation of scholars and university students. Their major accomplishments were achieved relatively late, usually in the middle of their academic career. Their ultimate concerns in their academic careers were mainly intellectual curiosity and contributions to the academic community. The major advantages they accumulated relied on mentorships at different levels of study and work and merits in terms of teaching and services. In the sense of striving to pursue the research they were passionate about, some women intellectual leaders shared characteristics with unconventional fighters (Chap. 7). The difference between these two types mainly shows in the ultimate concerns of their academic career. For persistent navigators, their keenest interest was knowledge production and the benefits it might bring to the public, whereas unconventional fighters prioritized their social and political impact and regarded academic pursuits as only meaningful when they could practice them (Table 5.1).

Education

Catherine Lau

Huanhuan Yang

Karen Law

Vera Chan

3

8

11

13

Medical

Social sciences

Arts

Faculty

Pseudonym

No

Table 5.1 Persistent Navigator Cases

Comprehensive

Comprehensive

HEIs

Family medicine

Comprehensive

Art therapy Comprehensive

Literature

Language education

Field

30–39

20–29

20–29

20–29

Years in academia

HK

HK

Mainland

HK

Country/region

Faculty

Research center; department

School

Faculty

Levels of formal leadership taken

60 + articles, 17 book chapters, 6 edited books, 1 authored book, 500 + citations (PoP)

110 + articles, 13 book chapters, 2 authored books (scholar hub); 2400 + citations (PoP)

10 + articles, 3 book chapters, 1 authored book and 2 edited books (scholar hub); 270 + citations (PoP)

35 + articles, 50 + book chapters, 1 authored book and 1 edited book (scholar hub); 2000 + citations (PoP)

Publication and citation info

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5.1.2 Snapshots of Persistent Navigators Case 3 Catherine Lau, Professor in Education Life Raised in Hong Kong, Catherine got her bachelor and MPhil degree in Hong Kong in the 1980s and worked as a teacher at a secondary school and a college. In the 1990s, she pursued her doctoral studies in North America on a prominent scholarship provided by Hong Kong. After completing her Ph.D. degree, she came back to Hong Kong to be a faculty member in an applied sciences university. Later, she had worked in three different institutions (both comprehensive and applied ones), due to the restructuring of departments and better opportunities in other institutions. Currently, she was a guest professor in both a research-intensive university in Hong Kong and a professor in Canada. She revealed that she had lived an extremely diligent life and did not have much leisure time in the early stage of her career. Fully dedicated to her academic career, Catherine had never established a family. Work Catherine had led highly fruitful teaching and research academic career. She had a wide range of research areas, including second/foreign language acquisition, language education policy, discourse analysis in the classroom, cultural studies, academic literacies, linguistic studies, youth culture, and media studies. She was the first Hong Kong scholar to work on developing interdisciplinary approaches to her fields by drawing on cultural, language, and identity research. She was a leading professor in innovative theories on English teaching and interaction in the classroom and is known for her “versatile and interdisciplinary” intellectual scholarship, as indicated in her autobiography. On YouTube, a few of her keynote speeches could be found on such topics as TESOL pedagogies, bilingual education, and popular culture. She authored and co-authored more than 90 journal articles, books, and book chapters. In the faculty of her current university, she had served as the director of the language education research center, head of the division, and associate dean. Case 8 Huanhuan Yang, Professor in Arts Life Huanhuan was born and raised in China in the 1960s, amid the 10-years’ political turbulence of the Cultural Revolution. She was among the second batch students to resume undergraduate study after the Cultural Revolution. Being smart and lucky, she was able to join the university at the young age of 16 and then continued her master’s program study in a historically-honored university in South China that was strong in the arts and humanities fields. She studied traditional Chinese literature in her bachelor and Master studies. Upon graduation with Master degree, she became a lecturer in the same university, which seemed a decent career for a woman in those years. She taught at the university for 10 years, during which time she started a

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family and raised a young child, as stated the acknowledgment section of one of her books. In her middle career as a lecturer, Huanhuan got an exchange opportunity to Australia to take a training course, which she described as “culture shock” in the preface of one of her books. It turned out to be a life-changing event for her. She was offered the chance to pursue her Ph.D. degree in Australia on a scholarship. In the acknowledgment of one of her books, she thanked her like-minded and supportive husband, also a humanities scholar, for discussing research ideas with her and being the first reader of her manuscripts. She and her husband collaborated to apply for a government research grant in Australia, which was fundamentally important for her study during the few years. Work After Huanhuan completed her doctoral study in the early 2000s, she spent 8 years as a faculty member in another university in Australia. Then she moved to Hong Kong, joining the School of Chinese in a comprehensive university. Huanhuan was an expert on traditional Chinese literature and published widely in both Chinese and English on classic Chinese literature and on gender and sexuality in Chinese history. She had published around 20 journal articles, books, and book chapters. She also translated and co-edited a sourcebook for researchers. Within 5 years, Huanhuan had successfully secured two GRF grants. A few years ago, Huanhuan was invited to become head of the school. Despite having no desire to take a leadership role, she was convinced to do so for three years. During her appointment, she tried different approaches to practice internationalization and collegiality in the school and was delighted to see some positive changes (as indicated in a few newsletters in the Chinese School). Case 11 Karen Law, Professor in Social Sciences Life Hong Kong born and raised, Karen Law envisioned her career goal as a scientist since she was a child, when she had first become interested in life in its various forms, from plants to animals and people. She achieved her dream of being a biologist in a research position after obtaining her degree in life-science-related subjects in Hong Kong. After working as a researcher in life sciences for 8 years, the watershed event in her career emerged. She determined to quit her job and registered in an art program, as she desired some changes in her career. She had been enthused by dancing since she was a child and dedicated herself to combining arts in different forms with life sciences in social sciences. Karen was married and had no child. Work Karen was keen on interdisciplinary research across the arts, humanities, biomedical, and social sciences fields. Her research concentrated on the effects of psychosocial interventions for enhancing people’s health and well-being. Her research focused on developing biomarkers and combining art therapy and social work practices. She endeavored to promote the integration of arts and sciences for a variety of populations.

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Karen’s transition from sciences to social sciences was full of challenges. At that time, it was a new area in Hong Kong, without any organization to provide formal training. Karen became an esteemed interdisciplinary scientist. Her work was recognized as original and cutting-edge in the areas of healthcare, psychology, social work, and behavioral sciences. She led a research center related to public health and social behavior. Case 13 Vera Chan, Professor in Medicine Life Vera Chan spent most of her life in Hong Kong, studying and working without leaving for more than a few months. She completed her M.B.B.S. degree in physiology and pharmacology at a research university in Hong Kong in the 1980s. Since then she had been a medical consultant in hospital for more than two decades. Meanwhile, an international training opportunity in the UK had greatly inspired her academic interest in family medicine. In the following years, she completed her Doctor of Medicine degree (MD) in the early 2000s and invested more time in academic research at the university. She built a family and raised children in Hong Kong. Work Vera was a registered specialist in family medicine and an esteemed scholar in the field. She joined the medical school in a research-intensive university as a lecturer in the late 1980s. Her key research areas were health-related quality of life and health services in primary care. When she was first interested in the field, primary care and family medicine were not highly recognized in Hong Kong. Believing in working with families in health care and the benefits of multidisciplinary care, Vera spent many years conducting research, keeping publishing, and making it a recognized scientific field in Hong Kong. She was promoted to clinical professor in 2008, after having spent 12 years as an associate professor. She was awarded an endowed professorship in the early 2010s. Beyond academics, she also actively engaged in public campaigns and knowledge exchanges that were beneficial to promote family medicine. She published not only in international journals but also in local journals. She was the leader of a longitudinal program to advocate family medicine among the public, which had been organizing monthly public seminars on various topics of medicine and healthcare since 2008. The material and scripts of these seminars were edited into a series of encyclopedia-type of books in Chinese (as found in Vera’s online profile and related links in the School of Medicine). In the past decade, she had been the principal investigator of five large scale research projects in primary care and family medicine, some of them exceeding five million HK dollars.

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5.2 Conceptualization of Intellectual Leadership 5.2.1 Views on the Concept Paper This group of women professors did not take a very close look at the published paper that I sent to them in advance. After I briefly explained it, they expressed their opinions as follows. Close Connections Between Intellectual and Institutional Leadership In terms of the relation between formal leadership and intellectual leadership, participants in this category saw it as a complex concept, which ought to be independent from but somehow related to institutional authority. Intellectual leadership stands alone in terms of its capacity to deal with professional knowledge, regardless of one’s status at the institution. In contrast, one’s rank at an institution did add value to one’s intellectual leadership. From Catherine Lau’s point of view, without academic rank, it was not easy to get an audience for one’s intellectual talent, especially in a hierarchical academic environment. Intellectual leadership goes hand in hand with your rank, with your research achievements, but even you are in a lower rank. You are still able to demonstrate intellectual leadership if you are very good at your area of research. And I think you have to be an expert; you have to have insights; you have to know the whole area of research. You need to know it just like you can tell it right away. You almost have a road map. You can point out to your colleagues whether they are superior to you or not superior to you at the institutional ranking. But if you can show your expertise, then you can assert your intellectual leadership even though your rank or institutional status may not be the highest…… But it is not easy to do because people may not listen to you. You might not be able to get your speaking turns, and people might interrupt you frequently. And when you speak, people don’t pay attention to you. The two go hand in hand that you need to have some institutional status. But you also really have your expertise in your areas of research. (Catherine Lau, Interview 3)

Huanhuan Yang felt intellectual leadership should be the premise of institutional leadership. Without it, one cannot lead a department/school/faculty professionally because, “when one is leading a research institute and one needs to have charisma with research excellence.” Otherwise, “who will listen to you? It is hard to have real authority,” asked Huanhuan. At the same time, she was against the “academic oligarchy” who gather “like-minded” students and followers, while excluding dissidents. Hence, the collegial environment was critical to cultivating intellectual leadership, which allowed young/marginalized scholars to be treated as peers who had something valuable to offer (Catherine Lau). It also became the moral aspect of the qualities of intellectual leaders: being able to identify and offer help to the young generation of scholars, such as by creating a proper environment for intellectual leadership cultivation and development. Catherine said she often bore in mind that she should not be co-opted by the masculine academic environment. In terms of attitudes toward formal leadership, two professors in this category showed reluctance to take formal leadership in their department or faculty. It was

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like the hot potato that everybody wanted to get rid of but had to take a turn holding. Catherine Lau complained that spending hours in meeting rooms took too much time out of her research, so it was not her cup of tea. Huanhuan Yang expressed that she never thought of being a leader in the department but was eventually persuaded by her supervisor. I am very interested in my research. I consider administrative work very time-consuming. The dean approached me and said that life should be more diverse, and I should engage in different things instead of always delving into research solely. Then I was convinced that I should try new things as I was in my 50s already. So, I began to take the role. It takes a huge amount of time out of my research. Administrative responsibility involves a lot of things. So, I was extremely busy, hectic. Recently our school has been doing well. We have recruited quite a lot of people, and some have retired. The overall trend has been good, and I am quite delighted. But I don’t think I will continue to serve another term (Huanhuan Yang, Interview 8).

Karen Law also candidly said her reason for taking a formal leadership role was to show her gratitude. She thought she should serve the university after having received so many opportunities from it. The three professors showed their concerns about and critical views of the liberal academic atmosphere. Even though formal leadership was not initially in their sights, they endeavored to enhance the intellectual environment for colleagues in the faculty by mobilizing resources and power by institutional rank. One of the positive points was that Catherine was able to invite scholars to visit and do seminars. In addition, internationalization had previously been ignored in Huanhuan’s department, so she steered the research direction in a more open direction. She intended to recruit new faculty members in new research areas, to revitalize the atmosphere in the department by conducting regular seminars and issuing newsletters to end the isolation of individual scholars.

5.2.2 Perceived Qualities of Intellectual Leadership Pioneers Leading Disciplinary Research Similar to strategic gamers, this group of scholars also saw excellent scholarship, knowledge, and expertise in the field as the key indicators of intellectual leadership. The core of intellectual leadership was a passion for research and persistence to overcome challenges. In this regard, persistent navigators largely mirrored strategic gamers. This group of women professors emphasized more the ability to connect ideas across disciplines and the broadness of insights. Flexibility and Open-Mindedness Flexibility and open-mindedness also constitute intellectual leadership. As Shirley Rai and Renxi Lin mentioned in this chapter, some highly ranked scholars might research deeply in their field instead of accepting diverse ideas in the community.

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105

Huanhuan Yang expressed her dislike of the “academic oligarchs” who impede intellectual development, especially among young scholars. Karen also saw “flexibility” as a very important quality for intellectual development, one that allows one’s research and others’ to integrate. She emphasized forward-looking ability and the imagination to combine trends in different fields: In addition to knowledge, you need to constantly update your understanding of the whole world. You should pay attention to what happens in all directions, even if it is not your field. In modern society, we often talk about interdisciplinary research and topics. Things in other fields will affect your field. For example, artificial intelligence, its implementation in any field will be affected by artificial intelligence. In addition to this relatively hardcore knowledge, there are also some ideologies, social trends and so on. (Karen Law, Interview 11)

Even though this group of women professors did not make many comments about the quality of intellectual leadership, what they mentioned later in the interview showed their intellectual leadership in moral aspects. For instance, Catherine Lau regarded postgraduate student cultivation as very significant and was willing to spend much time mentoring them.

5.3 Advantages 5.3.1 Discipline-Related Advantages High-Quality Mentorship at Different Levels Persistent navigators attributed their success to valuable mentorship at different levels, including undergraduate study, master’s degree study, studies for professional certification/examination, and at the early stage of their academic career. As written in this chapter, high-quality doctoral training, especially mentorship for methodological and research norms, was seen by strategic gamer women professors as the key to their rapid development in the field. While this group of professors might progress more slowly, they knew where to go from their early career. For Huanhuan Yang (history), her undergraduate learning experience paved the way for her further study. After 10 years of political turmoil in China from the Cultural Revolution period of the 1960s and 1970s, professors at the university treated undergraduate students as elite young people and used very high standards to cultivate their scholarly tastes. The professors were different from the attitude toward undergraduates now. They all treated us as graduate students. As soon as we entered, we had to read thread-bound books.1 We were expected to achieve high. Due to 10 years of political turmoil, everyone had the kind 1

A threat-bound book is a type of binding invented in ancient China and many traditional books on literature were published in this form. Here the interviewee referred to that undergraduate students were required to read the original versions of classics.

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of energy and attitude to study very earnestly. Several scholars have influenced me deeply, who taught me how to enter the world of literature, how to read literature, and how to read history. (Huanhuan Yang, Interview 8)

Karen Law (social sciences) was very grateful to two important mentors she met. The first was her direct boss as head of the department when she worked in the college as a biologist. She was given much latitude in areas “from funding to the operation of the projects,” could conduct research independently, and dared to innovate. At that time, she tried out the new idea of biomarkers, which was a new and risky topic for her mentor as well. Meanwhile, she managed to master research skills, such as grant application writing, which that served her well in her later academic career. Another important person was Karen’s Ph.D. supervisor, who deeply trusted Karen because she was like “an autopilot.” During the Ph.D. program period, she was allowed to take time to finish her professional certified art training in the US. The supervisor’s expertise was not in Karen’s field but social work, but she always supported Karen’s pursuits across the disciplines. Two mentors were the key persons in Vera’s (family medicine) career. One was the professor she met when she studied for her professional examination in the UK, showing “how one could make general practice an academic discipline, how one could articulate it to show what is so special, how it actually distinguished from the other medical disciplines.” Another professor was the dean of the faculty when Vera was a junior researcher. The professor cared about family medicine even through his specialty was not family medicine. After his retirement, he came back to Hong Kong to visit and was so glad to see that family medicine had become a department. He also supported the department’s development by setting aside a small amount of funds for excellent students in the field. Catherine Lau (language education) benefited most from the guidance of her Ph.D. supervisor in Canada. She spent a few years of full-time training with a small group of fellow doctoral students, recalling the experience as irreplaceable. They read master scholars’ articles and books and discussed materials critically in teams of 10–12. She learned how to analyze data line by line sitting with her supervisor, an esteemed scholar in the field at that time. Later in her career, she was grateful for one scholar, a Chinese American scholar researching in a similar field, for connecting her with other scholars, validating her work, and encouraging her. She also mentioned another senior woman professor in the same institution and expressed her gratitude to her, saying “Professor X supported me, and she recruited me back then. She is a very good professor. Only good scholars can identify good scholars.” Training and excellent mentors or supervisors were important, as always. Compared to strategic gamers’ smooth journey and important mentors encountered in early career, this group of women professors tended to have multiple influential mentors at their early and middle stages of career, some of whom led to turning points in their careers.

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Previous Work Experience Unlike strategic gamers, who got little practical experience beyond academic work, persistent navigators were more likely to spend a long period working in the same or relevant fields. Such work experience proved to be very valuable for their later academic work. Huanhuan Yang was an associate professor at a top-tier Chinese university from the 1980s to the 1990s. Her 10 years of teaching and research helped her cumulate publications and teaching experience and gave her an advantages over other candidates when she applied for a scholarship for her doctoral study in Australia. Even after her completion of the Ph.D. program in arts, it was competitive to secure a job. So, I think that I was not on the same starting line with others, because I have published a lot of things before going to Australia. So, my publication list looked better than others. So, it’s easier for me to get a scholarship or get anything else. (Huanhuan Yang, Interview 8)

For Karen Law, researching an institute for 8 years before she continued to study in the Ph.D. program sharpened her skills for conducting research and made her confident enough to try out new ideas. She mastered the skills to write grant applications and got familiar with academic norm of the field in which she worked. Vera found her enthusiasm for conducting academic research and building the field of family medicine. At the same time, she was a clinical doctor who had been inspired during her professional training when she was in her 20s and met an influential senior scholar through her job at the university. Unlike the other three professors, Catherine Lau did not mention much about her gains as a secondary school teacher and university lecturer before her Ph.D. study. However, her publications were largely based on her early experiences as an English teacher. It is noted that the merits of this group of participants were gained more through detours than direct avenues. Researching in Interdisciplinary Fields Among the four professors in this category, three were interdisciplinary scholars and usually mentioned the advantages and disadvantages of being interdisciplinary scholars together. When asked what kinds of major benefits were bought by being an interdisciplinary researcher, they gave several arguments. The bonuses of being an expert in interdisciplinary fields include being able to adapt to changing departmental or institutional strategies or research goals (as Catherine Lau experienced) and developing the capacity to understand and communicate with scholars in other disciplines using insiders’ language. For Karen Law, mastering knowledge in life sciences and social sciences gave her the confidence to engage that knowledge in various fields. This is the nature of interdisciplinary research and can be an advantage for researchers. Now I feel like I can talk to people in all fields. I know about medicine, I can talk to professors in medical schools, in social sciences, to experts in art and education. So, interdisciplinary researchers can apply their knowledge to a wide range of fields. Now you see my studies very diverse, including those on the elderly, on children, on the sexually abused, on young people or adults with drug addicts, and even gambling. Why can I do so many things? Because I

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can apply a concept, a technology to different populations, in various contexts. That is the characteristic of interdisciplinary research. (Karen Law, Interview 11)

Karen’s case manifested that interdisciplinarity could be driven by external demands and the need for innovation, as discussed in Sect. 2.2.2. In other sciences, like Vera’s field of family medicine, the collaborative nature of interdisciplinarity is more endogenous. This means that the concept of family medicine includes different domains of knowledge and should be studied with other subjects. And as you have pointed out, family medicine is very diverse. It actually works with a lot of the other disciplines. So, it’s very collaborative, which is a disadvantage as well as to an advantage of family medicine. In that we can research any topic as a subject. And we can collaborate with a large variety of disciplines ranging from psychologies, sociology, social sciences and any of the medical disciplines, surgery, medicine, nursing, orthopedics. So, the difficulty is then how do you identify yourself. As I’ve said, so it’s really about the concept of the whole person approach, the patients, and this is why I focused on health and quality of life. (Vera, Interview 13)

In another aspect, engaging in research in a different field may enhance scholars’ visibility at their institutions and therefore be a plus; in other words, the advantage brought by their interdisciplinary practices strengthened their status in their institution and native field in return. Organizing public lectures and coordinating the compilation of lectures into Chinese books was not something that Vera thought to be useful in her CV. Nonetheless, she believed it was meaningful and important to do “the work that nobody wants to,” though she did take on roles as an academic citizen and public intellectual, based on Macfarlane’s four-orientation model. Vera expanded networks at the institution and gained higher visibility by chairing a committee advocating health education issues for the public, which involved a series of knowledge exchange activities. She exercised what she believed to be intellectual leadership by “not only thinking about what one needs but also what the faculty, the university, the community need.” At the same time, she got the chance to use her concept of family medicine to influence other medical fields. I’ve really not thought about how it’s going to help me academically, but it is very much a service for the faculty. I have served this committee so that we can organize public lectures for the people in Hong Kong, to share the work of our faculty. So, it’s not only related to family medicine. It is a cross-discipline, basic science of the faculty of medicine, including nursing biochemistry, physiology, anatomy, drug development…… So, I chaired the committee and then I actually apply my perspective from family medicine and what I think the public would benefit from in terms of health education. And then to be able to identify speakers and design a topic on what I think the public would be interested in and would benefit. So, in a way that I, I applied my concept of family medicine in organizing or in designing the program. I think the other very important thing from the point of view of my academic work is that I’m able to network with all teachers of all the departments, faculty, schools of the whole faculty. (Vera Chan, Interview 13)

Therefore, interdisciplinary research can aid individual scholars’ adaptivity to institutional changes, research versatility, network expansion, and internal institutional status enhancement.

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5.3.2 Institution-Related Advantages Substantiation and Internal Support There were mixed causal relations between different kinds of advantages and disadvantages mentioned from the institutional level. For instance, faculty members asserted that getting substantiation early in their careers gave them the freedom to develop ideas that might not be recognized in the mainstream at the time. Substantiation was like a greenhouse that allowed tender plants (new disciplines) to put down roots and become strong. Vera was very grateful for her tenured position, which offered her opportunities to do research based on local communities. I must say, what’s being useful when I first started was that the university already offered tenure position and substantiation of my appointment. It has enabled me to feel that I could pursue what I thought was important and useful and not to have to worry too much about whether I’ve actually got enough publications, whether I’ve actually been able to reach the standard for promotion. So, I was able to start doing something that people might not recognize at the time. And I was able to publish, not have to worry about going for the highest impact factor journal. I was able to publish a lot in local journals so that I created that visibility, impact, and recognition in the local profession, and also among the other researchers in Hong Kong. So, they would know what I’m doing. Then we start collaborating and then build up a network, and then also to make people in Hong Kong, notice the academic base of family medicine. (Vera, Interview 22)

Huanhuan Yang did not mention much about the merits of her alma mater in China. Huanhuan admitted that she felt very confident when she did an exchange study and later applied for Ph.D. study in Australia because she was already tenured as an associate professor. At that university in Hong Kong, Huanhuan highlighted that the institution and faculty supported her greatly when she successfully applied for a Yen-Ching scholarship to become a visiting scholar at Harvard University. When asked how the university might have facilitated her research, Karen Law showed mixed feelings about the institutional support. She said there was great initial support from the university to operate the interdisciplinary research center; however, the center was under significant pressure to generate a profit after its first few years. She thought it pushed the center to seek financial benefits from the market. Generally speaking, of course, our university has given me a lot of support. Our university is in pursuit of academic excellence, which I agree with. But there are some details that may not be particularly advantaged, such as some administrative matters. I am now leading this research center, which is completely self-sufficient. The university gave us the office, but all our operating expenses, except for the first few years of funding, have to be covered by our own. We have been running for more than 10 years. At the beginning of 5 years, our center has a certain amount of seed funding from the university. If we couldn’t maintain after the fifth year, we might not be able to continue to exist. This policy applies to all centers. But then there will be no following support, and we have to find our way out. (Karen Law, Interview 11)

To conclude, this part analyzes the main aspects of discipline- and institutionrelated advantages enjoyed by persistent navigators—mentorships, work experience, and interdisciplinary engagement in disciplinary aspects, and tenure and support for the research center at the institutional aspect.

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5.4 Disadvantages and Counteractions 5.4.1 Discipline-Related Disadvantages (Some Becoming Advantages Later) Difficulties in Publishing and Securing Research Grants For researchers studying in interdisciplinary or relatively under-researched fields, a key problem is getting their work published. Except for Catherine, who did not mention specific challenges concerning publishing, the other three professors all experienced this issue. Huanhuan told the researcher of her several failures to have her research on homosexuality published a few decades ago, because it appeared to be “too weird and too narrow.” Her colleagues told her that the research topic was just “an eye-catcher,” rather than something solid and researchable. Huanhuan ignored their opinions because she was “attracted by the topic,” which was “so different from the world [she] used to know, and so different from the history [she] used to understand.” Her articles were rejected by journal editors, who added such comment as “the paper is interesting, but it is too strange, and we do not want to publish it.” Huanhuan met a visiting Japanese scholar when she worked as a lecturer at the university in China and talked about her anxiety over not being able to publish. After learning the situation, the Japanese professor was fascinated by her work and offered to translate her article into Japanese and publish in Japan; it thus became the first article she published. Later, the Japanese professor also helped translate a book of her research on the Ming and Qing Dynasties; unfortunately, it failed to be published in Japan. After many detours, Huanhuan eventually got her book published a few years later, but still felt regret that the Japanese version remained unknown. Karen encountered a similar dilemma, in that her articles were rejected because of their unrecognized novelty and originality. She asked herself, “where is this going? Social science, medicine, or educational journals? Should the articles on art therapy be published in art journals or medical journals?” At the same time, she understood it was normal for people to be reluctant to accept new research topics. If scholars do not have a channel through which to release their outputs, their accomplishments are inevitably less likely to be recognized. Vera was also aware of the combination of advantages and disadvantages in interdisciplinary fields. She stressed that the difficulties in getting published proved the symbolic meaning of establishing a new field—not only validating individual scholars but also “accumulating the evidence of how the discipline makes a difference.” It is a great challenge when you are trying to create something out of nothing. So, when I first started, nobody recognized the practice of family medicine as they thought this discipline was not even scientific. In order to be able to qualify a discipline to be an academic discipline, scientific research and publications are important. It’s not only about building the curriculum, validate me, it’s really about accumulating the evidence of how the discipline makes a difference. (Vera Chan, Interview 13)

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They travelled bumpy roads to secure research grants, as a result of which they had a hard time getting published. Both Karen Law and Vera Chan highlighted their major challenge was obtaining research funds. Even though Karen had successfully secured many research funds in recent years, it was very hard for her at the beginning. ……a dozen years ago, when I was writing a research application for dance therapy, the person who reviewed my application was a team from the medical field. They wouldn’t believe this stuff. We started using biomarkers at the time, but they would still laugh at us and suspected whether saliva could be used to measure it…… That’s the problem because people don’t understand. (Karen Law, Interview 11)

These professors repeatedly tried various measures to overcome their difficulties in securing funds in the early stages of their careers (Catherine Lau), including using external funding and collaborating with scholars from other countries. (Catherine Lau and Huanhuan Yang) Expanding Research Expertise and Finding the Niche As addressed above, intertwined advantages and disadvantages were often mentioned by interdisciplinary scholars. Three professors—Catherine Lau, Karen Law, and Vera Chan—worked in research across fields and almost all mentioned the pros and cons and possible shifting of two sides when researching across disciplines. Among them, the experiences of Catherine Lau and Vera showed the mutual causal relationship between interdisciplinary advantages and disadvantages. For instance, Catherine saw herself as “the most interdisciplinary scholar in Hong Kong in the area of multilingual and bilingual education” and “the first professor to use a language theory (originating from Europe) in the Asian context.” However, she did not begin her cross-fields research spontaneously. Catherine Lau recalled that she entered inter-disciplinary fields because of institutional requirements. As the Department of English changed its name to the “Department of English and Communication,” the focus of the research in the department shifted to cultural studies and communication studies. As a result, Catherine had to adapt to the new trends and temporarily put her expertise aside. She experienced the expansion and restructuring of the department in an applied science university. A few years later, the education programs in the department of English and communication were closed down, so Catherine left for another department in a comprehensive university. This rough path made her versatile, turning into a cumulated strength. When my institution was expanding and my department became communication, I need to broaden my research areas from applied linguistics, teaching English as the second foreign language to cultural studies, media studies. Because the department went through ups and downs, because of restructuring, I had to go to another institute—the faculty of education at University A (which had a higher rank than her employed institution at that time). I have accumulated a lot of research publications and that is why I was offered the job at University A. It is very important in the first 6 years that you have to accumulate your research publications. So, that you can change jobs if something happens to your department, restructuring or whatever, programs personnel change. (Catherine Lau, Interview 3)

Persistent navigators, like those sailing boats, were relatively conservative and patiently waited out the headwinds that beset them. Being always interested in their

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research, professors sometimes had to expand their work in other research fields and return later, when they became more experienced and had more power to protect their research space. For them, the path to developing intellectual leadership, as with any other leadership, was strewn with obstacles. When her research field was immature, Vera Chan chose to contribute more to the wider community. She needed to “be diplomatic and willing to give, to accommodate other people’s needs” when her research was not properly recognized. She always reminded herself that individual scholars had different research topics that they were passionate about. In the difficult time of promoting academic family medicine, it appeared to be a wise choice to serve the faculty, the university, and the academic community, while still thinking about how her research focus could benefit others. She kept asking herself what there would be for the greater community of the university, for the faculty, and, in a way, for society, and how she could justify investing effort, time, money, and energy into her discipline. While putting efforts into academic service for others, Vera also committed to defining the features of the research area of health and quality of life assessment. She always wanted to distinguish the core of her field from others, even though most people initially considered her field very abstract and not doable. Because Vera was determined to root deeply in the field and stayed in the same institution for her whole academic career, she was able to build up a network in the faculty, which made her research capacity and reliability to be an academic leader increasingly recognized. Meanwhile, she utilized international exchange opportunities to enhance her competence in other aspects, such as teaching. I spent some time at the University of T. It was my university for a master’s degree, where they actually start to problem-based learning. And that’s where I learned about problembased learning. And I came back and brought that problem-based learning (to the faculty). At that time at our academic unit was the first one at the university to start problem-based learning. And then, subsequently, our whole medical curriculum became a problem-based curriculum.

In Vera Chan’s case, it can be seen that interdisciplinary competence could be developed as a result of institutional requirements and turned into an advantage later. Alternatively, the “compromising period” of interdisciplinary researchers could also pave the way in teaching and administrative aspects. This proves that cumulating the advantages of the role of academic citizens enhances the role of knowledge producers, while at the same time developing other types of expertise, such as teaching and learning scholarship. During a trip to a university in Canada, Vera learned problem-based learning for the medical profession. She proudly noted that, “at that time, our academic unit was the first one at the university to start problembased learning.” Teaching expertise became one of her merits. Similar cases also existed in the category of unconventional fighters and will be further elaborated.

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5.4.2 Gender-Related Disadvantages On the one hand, some of these women professors’ academic accomplishments were overlooked because of the intersection of gender and the nature of knowledge in the research areas. In these cases, the identity of academic mothers created tensions. Being Underestimated as Women Scholars Among the four professors, three grew up in Hong Kong and the other in China’s Mainland. Two respondents in soft and pure disciplines experienced difficulties in their academic careers because of gender. In soft and pure research areas, unlike in STEM fields, there are few clear-cut norms for research, which made recognition of their accomplishments difficult. One typical example was Catherine Lau, who said it was hard for her was to be a woman and be an East Asian at the same time as an expert of English language. She said that her competence and legitimacy were often doubted, sometimes implicitly, because she was an East Asian woman as a non-native speaker. Gender and race interplayed to influence her career, reflecting the concept of “intersectionality,” which was discussed in Sect. 2.3.2. What she did was to work twice or even three times harder than others to show her expertise and get opportunities. In addition, to minimize the negative effect, Catherine networked with local and international scholars who were supportive and willing to validate her work. A kind Chinese-American senior scholar with whom she connected became one a key mentor who supported her publication, collaborated with her, and recognized her research. As a woman scholar from Hong Kong doing, Karen did not emphasize the shadow brought by gender and interdisciplinarity. Interestingly, she said she was treated neutrally, showing an attitude similar to strategic gamers. Karen claimed she did not experience discrimination in this aspect. More importantly, she asserted that women should not get favorable treatment because of their gender. For a woman, to get a great achievement in any field means to make as much effort as a man. Don’t think you should do less because you are a woman. If you want to climb up the career ladder, you must be a professor with leadership, and you must do a lot of hard work. You certainly don’t think that women will have some advantages in achieving the same achievements. It is impossible. I also think there will be no difference if I am a man. (Karen, interview 11)

Karen’s response resonated with Hong Kong women’s independent and strongcareer-oriented characteristics. They think they are as good as men intellectually and should not be given advantages. Karen’s story was both coincidence and serendipity. She said her success should be attributed to her hard work and her luck in getting to know supervisors who appreciated her inquisitive mind and independence in research. Cultivated as a postgraduate student in China in the 1980s, Huanhuan Yang experienced the dilemma of female scholars when she was in graduate school. In China’s Mainland, the relationship between the supervisor and research students is often described as an academic family (shimen). The familial logic among academia

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strengthens the CHC hierarchy, with the supervisor as the academic father and fellow students as academic siblings. Huanhuan stated that being a woman among a group of men colleagues made it difficult for her to speak up. The social environment was very “oppressive,” and people were used to the “patriarchy,” she said. One example was that her two “scholarly brothers” (admitted at the same time) were allowed to select the most popular of three potential research topics assigned by their supervisor. She had no other choices but traditional literature in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which was then the least wanted topic for research students due to the pecking order among sub-fields within the discipline. Another piece of evidence was her experience when she graduated with a master’s degree and became a lecturer and then associate professors a few years later, in the same university. Her male colleagues told her that females were “successful enough” to be associate professors, which they might have said out of goodwill; women were regarded as a “decorative” feature. Huanhuan also mentioned that the pressure was twofold—being a woman and being an inbred scholar at the same time. Maybe due to my background, I studied and worked in K University, and all my colleagues were previously cultivated in K University. Most of them were inbred talents, and they always thought about men professors’ first……. My scholarly brothers were all quite powerful, and I always felt suppressed. They didn’t necessarily do better research than I did, but they would think that women professors were quite enough to reach associate professor (Huanhuan Yang).

When she moved to Hong Kong, Huanhuan said she did not feel much pressure from the gender aspect. She reflected that that might have been because she had already been tenured and had years of overseas experience. It became important intellectual capital to be taken seriously. Even though Huanhuan Yang said she was not the type of person who was good at networking, she did make some useful connections. Showing her gratitude in book acknowledgments whenever possible, Huanhuan always kept anyone who helped her with her research in mind, including colleagues, collaborators, scholars who helped translate her work, and those who helped her access ancient books and archives. Motherhood and Family Responsibilities Catherine had not established her own family and Karen did not have a child, so neither emphasized the motherhood and family responsibilities aspect. Regarding women’s family roles and responsibility, Huanhuan shared her desperation when she was a young scholar in her 20s and 30s. A sentence in the acknowledgment in her book, published in the early 2000s, reads: “after the hardship of developing career and raising a family, and the inevitable unhappiness in life, I find enormous delight in my research.” When I asked her whether the sentence accurately described her situation, she said yes, with a smile. She explained that she was once very depressed and unhappy when she had a new-born baby but got better later, when her child grew up. When she went to Australia to study for her doctoral degree, she was very happy to bring her whole family along, as the scholarship in the Australian university was much higher than her package at the institution in China at that time. As she had secured the work opportunity in Hong Kong, she said she “felt very satisfied”—her

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decision did not influence the family because her son went to college at the same time. In Vera’s case, she did not feel her gender impeded her development in her academic career, and believed everything was “merit-based.” However, she agreed that being a mother meant more responsibilities for the family. That was why she never left Hong Kong for longer than a month on exchanges or sabbatical leave and turned down employment invitations from universities outside of Hong Kong. Her counteraction was to compromise and “not be too conscious of one’s gender being a woman.” She suggested that young women scholars should “take [their] own pace” without thinking too much about getting a promotion within a certain time. She considered that the years spent on the position were necessary and worthy. The most important thing was “to enjoy the work and not be too stressed.”

5.5 Chapter Summary Persistent navigators in this study were like someone steering a sailing boat. They knew the direction they wanted to go and were highly motivated to get there. However, they had to expand their expertise in order to survive, compromise their research interests in the face of “headwinds,” develop executive and institutional skills, and wait for a “tailwind” to speed their journey. The disciplines they worked at were soft or interdisciplinary fields that did not easily afford them recognition in their early career. They experienced hardship when they were junior faculty members pursuing research and academic development. That was why they had to consistently negotiate their development—meeting the needs of the institution to survive and seeking a niche in which to pursue their research. They saw knowledge production as the core of intellectual leadership, as did strategic gamers. They valued the width of insights and open-mindedness as important properties of intellectual leaders. Institutional leadership may not hold the most attraction for these researcher-oriented women professors, but when they were in formal leadership positions, they expressed their commitment to creating an open-minded and inclusive intellectual environment for research students and colleagues. The most important advantages persistent navigators got were in the disciplinary dimension, including mentors across different periods, previous work experience, and interdisciplinary research expertise. From the institution perspective, some participants considered the tenure system protected them from their vulnerable status in their middle career. This group of professors encountered difficulties in publishing and securing grants in new or interdisciplinary fields. Some experienced discriminatory treatment as women scholars, especially in the context of the Chinese Mainland. Accumulating interdisciplinary expertise and turning it into opportunities was the strategy they took. In addition, networking with other scholars and collaborators was a very useful solution. Networking among these women professors emerged from the apprentice-mentor relationship and work experience.

Chapter 6

Unconventional Fighters

Abstract This chapter addresses the third category of female scholars—unconventional fighters. It analyzes four cases of women professors who acted as pathfinders and pioneers in new or cross-disciplinary research areas. These scholars boldly fought against inequality and advocated for disadvantaged groups. Much of their research was closely related to social sciences or applied interdisciplinary domains. They held critical views on the neoliberal academic system, seeing intellectual leadership as the power to shoulder social responsibilities and drive change. Women scholars in this category accumulated their major advantages early or during the mid-career phase. The chapter also analyzes their advantages related to disciplines and gender, such as easier access and female-appropriateness in some research fields, displaying some similarities with persistent navigators. It then discusses the interconnected disadvantages of developing marginalized and contentious research topics, as well as navigating gender dynamics within higher education institutions and the academic community.

This chapter is concerned with the third type of female scholars and analyzes four cases of women professors as unconventional fighters. The format of this chapter parallels that of Chaps. 4 and 5. The first part encapsulates properties of unconventional fighters, featuring their ultimate pursuit of using academic research to change society and showcases the individual profiles. The second part presents unconventional fighters’ critical opinions on the current academic system and their understanding of intellectual leadership as the power to take on social responsibilities and make changes. The third part analyzes their advantages related to disciplines and gender, showing their similarities with persistent navigators. The fourth part discusses the interrelated disadvantages of being a woman in HEIs and the academic community. The final part sums up this chapter.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3_6

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6.1 Introduction of the Category 6.1.1 Category Overview: Unconventional Fighters All these professors worked in relatively soft and newly developed applied research fields. They were pathfinders in these innovative research directions and relied heavily on qualitative methods in their research. Much of their research was closely related to social sciences or applied interdisciplinary domains. They held critical views on the academic system and expressed their frustrations about the negative impacts of the neoliberal system. Compared with strategic gamers and persistent navigators, unconventional fighters had different concerns about being an academic—to use their knowledge to enhance social welfare and improve policies for some parties. This goal was prioritized over generating knowledge or getting published in the research field. Women professors in this category cumulated their major advantages in early or middle career. Some of the patterns by which they accumulated academic advantages shared commonality with persistent navigators—e.g., gaining increasing status through cross-disciplinary niches. Some enjoyed relatively easier entrée into these areas as women scholars. Correspondingly, their disadvantages in the disciplinary and institutional aspects were closely linked to gender. This group of female professors was well aware of gender issues in academia, and articulated these issues well, related to their research expertise. These women professors cared about the larger community in the society beyond academia. Beyond making academic contributions, all these professors actively shared their opinions on traditional and social media and in open discussions of relevant topics as public intellectuals (Table 6.1).

6.1.2 Snapshots of Unconventional Fighters Case 4 Daisy Chau, Professor in Sociology Life Daisy Chau was born in a medium-sized city in South China and moved to Hong Kong with her family when she was a young child. She received her Ph.D. from an established university in the UK in the late 1990s, after the completion of her bachelor’s degree and MPhil in Hong Kong. When she was an undergraduate student, different kinds of feminist movements in Hong Kong were very popular. Her interest in political science and awareness of inequality issues in society developed rapidly. At that time, Daisy participated in social movements and sought a deeper understanding of social-political issues. Her motivation for research went beyond knowledge production. At first, she started her career in a comprehensive research university in Hong Kong, which was relatively new and enthusiastically emulated world-class

Pseudonym

Daisy Chau

Ella Tang

Jane Johnson

Yasmin Brown

No

4

5

10

21

Arts and humanity

Arts and humanity

Social sciences

Social sciences

Faculty

Communication studies

Film studies

Social work

Sociology

Field

Table 6.1 Unconventional fighter cases

Applied

Comprehensive

Comprehensive

Comprehensive

HEIs

20–29

30–39

30–39

20–29

Years in academia

International

International

HK

Mainland and HK

Country/region

Faculty and center

Faculty

Faculty

Faculty

Levels of formal leadership taken

50 + journal articles, 20 book chapters; 2000 citations + (PoP)

20 + articles, 40 book chapters, 4 books (CV); 1400 + (PoP)

40 + journal articles, 17 book chapters, 4 edited book and 4 authored books; 1200 + citations (Google Scholar)

20 + journal articles, 12 book chapters, and 4 authored books (scholar hub); 4800 + citations (Google Scholar)

Publication and citation info

6.1 Introduction of the Category 119

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universities. She said she did not like the rat-race competition there and once had seriously considered quitting academia to become an independent researcher and social activist. Later she had another chance to conduct her interesting research at a position in a featured applied university. She joked to me in the interview that she did move “downward” to a second-tiered applied science university, but she valued the chance because she could lead a research center and base in China to get to know the field better. Work Daisy’s study centered on labor and migration and China studies since the 1990s. The last three decades witnessed the rise of China’s economy, which drew more attention to Daisy’s studies. When she started her doctoral research on Chinese women workers, there were very few scholars and studies addressing it. She conducted her fieldwork in a factory in Guangdong Province in South China, living in the worker dormitory with her subject-participants (indicated in her early publications about women workers). During her Ph.D. study, she also founded a non-government organization to help women workers in Hong Kong. Later, her doctoral thesis was edited into a book, which won a major award for sociological studies in the US and became widely required reading for students in major universities in America, Asia, and Europe. Another book of hers, revealing the inequalities of workers in factories in China by international monopolies, attracted world-wide attention. Both books have been translated into different languages. In China, her research topics sometimes were regarded as sensitive, even threatening by some stakeholders (e.g., multi-national companies, governments) due to conflicting interests or ideological issues. Not surprisingly, her publications were censored and evaluated as being against mainstream values, and several thousand newly printed copies were destroyed. Different from many other researchers, Daisy and her fellow research scholars aimed at making real changes to social realities through their outputs, and their opponents were powerful international enterprises. They needed to pay extra attention to conducting rigorous research to avoid legal disputes. To some extent, Daisy had a very smooth academic journey in terms of promotion, and became a full professor in her 40s. In the interview, despite the challenges and threats she faced in her daily life, Daisy expressed the commitment that she would never stop doing the controversial research because it was her goal to do something for society instead of merely publishing papers. Case 5 Ella Tang, Professor in Social Sciences Life As a Hong Kong native, Ella Tang went to local universities for her undergraduate and master’s degrees. She spent a few years working as a social worker and a field instructor at a university before she went to the UK for her doctoral study. In one of her online speeches, she shared that she was attracted by the statement, “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” in the novel Animal Farm

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by George Orwell. As early as in middle school, Ella had an intrinsic interest in equality and equality issues. Her strongest research interest was inspired by one of her close friends coming out as gay. Initially, she was shocked, both emotionally and intellectually, and later found her zest in investigating homosexual groups and related political science theories. Her initial goal of becoming a university lecturer was further shaped when the department restructured. After she completed her Ph.D. study, she continued her career in a university in Hong Kong. Work Ella was a pioneering researcher in gender, sexuality, and cross-cultural comparative studies. Her studies focused on “identifying injustice and discrimination,” and “being not afraid to produce research that challenges dominant ideas about ‘the way things are’ through new theoretical ideas and innovative research methodologies.” Her research was interdisciplinary, and she used diverse forms of materials, such as documentary films and multi-media theater, to study marginalized groups (as indicated on her website, highlighting different forms of works). Apart from research, teaching, and mentoring research students, Ella was keen about debating related issues in local newspapers, magazines, and online media. She had been active in writing non-academic books, news articles, and even Facebook posts on gender and sexuality, women’s rights, culture, and politics, narrating her personal life and academic insights in simple layman’s language. Her name was well-known among the public. In the interview, Ella voiced strong criticism about the neoliberal academic environment, claiming it undermined ideas. She stated that intellectual work became less valued when numbers and amounts became the only things of importance. During the conversation, she gave many personal examples (e.g., her own and her students’ stories). Case 10 Jane Johnson, Professor in Arts Life Growing up in the US, Jane Johnson earned her Ph.D. degree three decades ago and spent the first half of her academic career in her home country. She had taught in several different universities, including liberal colleges where teaching was paid more attention. Through a few opportunities as a visiting scholar and research program collaborators with universities in East Asia, Jane got more understanding and connections. She decided to join an institution in Hong Kong in the early 2000s. Work She was a prolific professor in film and culture studies in a comprehensive university. Her masterwork on women and Asian culture in Hollywood film won her fame in the field in the early 1990s. Then she published a series of monologues in relevant topics about culture, gender, films, and China in the 2000s and 2010s. As one of the few international researchers specializing in Asian culture and movies. Jane led a research project with other scholars and students to establish a

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community and database for Hong Kong women filmmakers, sharing the latest activities and academic works related to the topic. She was keenly engaged in a research center on gender studies and was in charge of a popular MOOC course at the university. In the interview, Jane spent quite some time talking about her understanding of women scholars’ disadvantaged status regarding assuming academic leadership. She thought institutional leadership affected intellectual leadership significantly. In the faculty, she was also one of the initial members of the women studies research center, and actively talked about the resources on the website during the interview. Case 21 Yasmin Brown, Professor in Communication Life Yasmin had lived in various countries and spent many years of her career in Australia before coming to Hong Kong. In her early career, she worked in different areas, including marketing and nursing. She began her academic career at a later age compared to many other research students. After working in Australian academia for some years, she moved to Hong Kong a few years ago, having been invited to be a director of a research center at an applied sciences university. Work Yasmin earned her Ph.D. in linguistic psychology and communication and was a health psychologist in the communication field. Her research focused on interpersonal and inter-group communication, primarily in the health care context. Interactions between patients and health care workers and professionals across multi-disciplinary backgrounds were her study. Her main contribution concerns the refinement of theories from a social-psychological linguistic perspective. When she worked as a tenured faculty member in intercultural communication, she discovered her zeal for health communication. She decided to change her research direction at the cost of terminating her tenured position. She found the power imbalance in healthcare setting communications problematic. Her ambition was to bridge the communication gap between medical doctors and patients as well as among medical professionals—nurses and doctors, and doctors in different sub-specialties. Given the opportunity to lead a research center in an applied science university, she wanted to make practical impacts in the health system. In the interview, Yasmin deeply agreed with the concept paper’s critical stance on neoliberalism in higher education and talked a lot about academic ethics. As a researcher in an interdisciplinary field, she believed the disciplinary pecking order existed and stymied younger scholars’ intellectual development.

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6.2 Conceptualization of Intellectual Leadership 6.2.1 Views on the Concept Paper Being Critical About the Neoliberal Environment Jane Johnson and Yasmin Brown reviewed the concept paper carefully, while Daisy Chau and Ella Tang glanced at it. All four professors agreed with its critical stance of neoliberalism and managerialism in higher education in Hong Kong and gave examples from their personal experience of how the managerial and market-like academic environment and policies influenced their careers negatively. Daisy Chau did not make any comments on the paper but expressed a similar disappointment. In reviewing the media coverage during the data collection stage, I found her interview with a local Chinese-language Hong Kong magazine, in which she made several very relevant points. In her view, the internationalization of research promoted “unified” norms and standards and urged scholars to pursue knowledge advancement within the frame of existing academic works; “Such an international system leads to a completely separate world of academia and social reality.” Moreover, Daisy also showed regret that the academic environment for scholars had become so an extremely outcome-based, performative atmosphere, believing that would curtail scholars’ intellectual development. Ella Tang did not offer specific comments on the concept paper, but underscored the same problem of neoliberalism and managerialism with multiple examples. She criticized the misalignment between institution-defined leadership for scholars and intellectual leadership. In her opinion, teaching was not considered as important as research, and so-called cost-effectiveness was prioritized and normalized; “Intellectual is not something worthy (in such academic culture). We only need research excellence, which equals to some indicators. But ‘intellectual’ means ideas (which are different).” She considered the definition of “publication-based authority” to be too narrow and pointed out the criteria were irrational, because “only those top-tiers, the top 10%-15% of journals in the field are counted.” Ella regarded originality, rigor, and significance (which were RAE criteria) should not be the sole measure of intellectual leadership. Moreover, there are teaching, administrative, community service, knowledge exchange leaderships, and other professional leadership in one’s field. Every aspect is of significance and represents one type of leadership. So, using the publication-based standard to define an intellectual leader is too narrow, and it ignores many other contributions, especially female scholars’ intellectual contributions. (Ella Tang, interview 5)

Jane Johnson had always been keen on promoting women’s academic leadership in higher education. Her participation and speeches in relevant seminars, workshops, and intramural and extramural media could be found easily. When she received the interview invitation, she was glad to participate. After reviewing the concept paper, she told me she doubted that intellectual leadership and academic leadership in the administrative sense could be discussed separately. With the ability to mobilize

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resources and funding, academic leaders could further their research agenda and pursue their intellectual goals. In her view, these types of leadership should be integrated. On another front, she thought the concept paper was not clearly defined in terms of various types of academic roles or different styles of intellectual leadership in different research fields. The concept of intellectual leadership is also vague. Does it mean that you are the president of a society or a well-published author, or your books are read beyond academe? It varies. Academic leadership may be easier to define than intellectual leadership. Within institutions of higher education, academic leadership may be based on the rank given by your institution, and your institution has an academic ranking. So, your value is based on all that, right? But intellectual leadership goes beyond academe, right? So, if you are a public intellectual, your university doesn’t recognize you. It may not matter in your college or university. (Jane Johnson, Interview 10)

Yasmin Brown made a careful review of the concept paper. She thought it delivered a sense of “frustration toward the system,” and shared that frustration. Similar to Ella Tang’s views, she saw the competing nature of neoliberalism and academic integrity, and the contrasting concept of academic work as a vocation as contrasting leadership. She underlined that real leadership should be for the good of the community and others in it. She stated this kind of leadership should be taken from the beginning of one’s academic career and emphasized the willingness to work extra hours to “make a difference” in the community. She worried about intellectual leadership in soft disciplines because of the pecking orders of scientific disciplines. It’s all soft stuff. Who cares? Does it matter? You know when you try and teach things about communication to medical students: we don’t know about them. We want to get in there and cut up bodies [both the interviewer and interviewee giggling]. We don’t want to learn how to speak to someone. And yet, if you can’t speak well to someone and you may not get a correct diagnosis. (Yasmin Brown, Interview 21)

The four participants’ responses and second-hand information analysis showed their disappointment toward the outcome-oriented neoliberal academic environment, the narrow institutional definition of “leaders,” and hierarchical mindsets towards different disciplines. They thought “intellectual leadership” should be better recognized and not subject to only a single set of standards.

6.2.2 Perceived Qualities of Intellectual Leadership Taking Social Responsibility and Challenging the Authority Unconventional fighters valued innovative ideas and their impacts on society. The most important qualities of intellectual leadership for them were the courage to challenge the tradition and authority, to take risks, and to make a difference. Daisy Chau’s career priority was to have an influence, to help marginalized groups’ voices be heard, and to enhance the social welfare of all. Tracing back to her university time in the 1980s, Daisy developed her interest in academic career from engaging

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in discussions on disastrous social events, such as factory fires that caused multiple worker casualties. It was a time of social movements among university students. The historical background served as an important driver in cultivating her early interests. At that time, Daisy claimed her thought was to get access to these events and contribute to those in need. Without a clear goal to be an intellectual leader, she simply considered it important to pay attention to these issues, but she found very few studies to guide her thoughts and actions. Daisy saw the knowledge gap on the group of laborers and wanted to respond to these social issues. In the early stage of her postgraduate study, she built a non-governmental organization (NGO) to help Chinese women workers in Hong Kong. My intellectual path has always been doing research while responding to social issues…… At that time, I saw the gap between the huge size of migrant workers and the lack of organizations for them. Hence, I established such a network. (Daisy Chau, interview 4)

Intellectual leaders should be concerned with social development and study topics closely related to reality. On this point, Ella Tang shared a similar opinion and conducted research driven by emerging social issues. The social development trend carries me to different topics. At the first beginning, I studied homosexuality was out of personal reasons. Later I think I should come back to studies on women and the normal majority. Then I have realized the political environment links closely with individual life as witnessing the social movement. Such social movements are understudied, and these young women activists’ potential is commonly ignored. (Ella Tang, interview 5)

For Ella, intellectual leadership also meant innovation and originality. She appreciated new ideas for conducting research, interpreting theories, or exercising intellectual leadership, even when these ideas were not evolutionarily important. Innovation in tiny fields counted. An idea might look crazy and worthless unless at least one person in the world believes its importance. To be a leader, one must influence at least one person, one follower. Everyone has many ideas, but not many could be realized. So, you really want to have someone to validate your ideas. If they don’t understand your idea, you still hope they can validate your sufferings in the process of realizing the ideas. Emotionally, they are supportive of you. In a large institution, it is important to have such support. (Ella Tang, Interview 5)

To exercise what she believed, Ella applied her intellectual leadership beyond academe. She used research as a tool to promote democracy, as she asserted in the interview. Research can be a social movement. Gender studies can be a special angle. We can discuss why big data is hegemony and why alternative knowledge is not counted as knowledge. It is also a process of democratization. (Ella Tang, Interview 5)

Jane Johnson also viewed “risk-taking” as the most important feature for intellectual leaders. Intellectual leaders should take risks “because they have to communicate their ideas to advance thinking in certain areas,” and “use their academic knowledge for progressive social change.”

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Yasmin considered academic integrity important and believed an intellectual leader should be ready to do extra things to “make a difference.” This was why she quit her previous faculty job at the university to become a postdoctoral research fellow: she wanted to make a difference by interpreting and influencing the power dynamic between medical doctors and patients, as well as between intercultural and interdisciplinary doctors. That really resonated with me because I’d had experiences. I did some nursing for a while. I remember thinking about some situations that occurred on the ward and thinking, oh, that’s not the way to speak to someone. And I use that in this little essay. And that drove my knowledge about how people are scared. You talk to a professor, and you’d say, “oh, you went to the doctor, are you okay?” And they go, “yeah.” “What did the doctor say? What are you taking? what medication?” And they go: “well, I’m taking this, but I don’t know.” “Why didn’t you ask?” “I didn’t like to.” “And it’s your health……” Even people who are at high status don’t feel comfortable challenging or questioning a medical doctor. And I thought that’s interesting. The power dynamics are at play. Similarly within hospitals, nurses look up to doctors. You have to be so careful because they have power over you. It’s wrong but it’s the way it is. I would like to try to explain it at least. And so the whole notion of making a difference for, some people when they see the doctor or health professionals. They are more empowered. It’s important to me. It’s branched out from just being patient. It’s also now being how health professionals communicate with each other as well as with their patients and doctors. (Yasmin Brown, Interview 21)

Despite the differing features of these four professors’ research fields, the aspect of intellectual leadership they all desired and looked up to was the application of academic knowledge to do more in society.

6.3 Advantages 6.3.1 Discipline-Related Advantages Previous and Current Work Experience Unconventional fighters, as featured at the beginning of the chapter, sought societal impacts. At the same time, their motives to become and advance as scholars were also likely to emerge from their experience in society. Hence, their previous work experience was an important source of inspiration and paved the way for later success. “Researching while responding to social issues” could best describe Daisy Chau’s philosophy as a social scientist. In the interview, she kept emphasizing the connection between academic work and society. The NGO she established to help women workers during her postgraduate study unexpectedly benefited her at the later stage of her career, as its work and her research were mutually beneficial (as analyzed in Ruan, 2020). I haven’t expected these NGOs could help my research. They were established to help women workers. But when I look back after these years, I find NGOs help a lot deepen my research. Dislike in many cases of research, two-hour interviews being conducted with an

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informed consent form signed (laugh), NGOs require more efforts to operate and maintain. One generation after another, people come and leave the NGOs. It offers opportunities for me to see the dynamics of more workers and deepen my understandings of the whole issue and the struggles in women workers’ and other migrant workers’ life. Only with such indepth experience, I could produce research with more readability and stronger emotion. My efforts in NGOs and my research benefit each other. Some people may think it wastes a lot of time, or others consider the work of activists and academics should be separate. I have never thought that way. NGOs’ work deepens my research while my research can facilitate the frontline movement. (Daisy Chau, interview 4)

Founding and operating the NGO further connected her with other NGOs, which facilitated her research when she conducted fieldwork. Working with other NGOs, Daisy found her connections helped her access research fields in other contexts, e.g., sending staff to escort her team to the site or providing crucial information on the city. So, she thought research investigations and NGOs’ work could complement each other. Furthermore, people in the NGO, whom Daisy intended to help, gave her continual opportunities to deepen her insights and sharpen her thoughts. Her practical research experiences constantly shaped her theoretical points of view and made her rethink the value of theories. Since my postgraduate study (in the 1990s), the post-structure and postmodern theories were very popular. Later, when I came back to China, I did my fieldwork and established NGOs. Then I found a huge gap between those theories and realities. Then I started to equip myself with some traditional theories that nobody wants. So, I reread the classic works by Karl Marx and found such theories were much applicable (in China). The thing is that the Marxism theory in China has been adapted into a set of official languages and can no longer be interpreted as the original ones. As I went deeper into these theories, I discover that it is very powerful to explain the complexity of China’s development in three decades. The most powerful aspect is that the theory aims at real changes. It requires not only theoretical progress but practical actions in society. So, my works in later stage concern more macro frameworks and less micro issues such as identities and bodies. (Daisy Chau, interview 4)

After years of exploration and practice, Daisy pointed out that Marxism is not only for theoretical progress but social and political progress, which fit her initial desire to be an academic who can influence social change. Even though Ella Tang had some emancipatory thoughts since her studies in high school, a clear career goal did not occur to her until she pursued her Ph.D. in the UK. Working for a few years as a social worker and an instructor at a university, her initial motivation to study in a Ph.D. program was to meet the new requirement for a faculty position and academic certification. As she got older and more experience in academia, Ella discovered her zest for her studies and decided to “get in the game” and “maybe change the game.” Yasmin had tried various jobs before she pursued her doctoral study, including administrative and marketing jobs in companies as well as nursing. She was more mature than many other students when she started her Ph.D. program. Older age was a surprising advantage in Yasmin’s field because she had to face medical doctors in their 40s and 50s. After she graduated from her doctoral program, she taught culture and communication in a business school and a medical school. While she had a tenured position at the institution, she found a postdoctoral fellow position

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appealing, because the research areas fit her interests and allowed her to make a real impact in the field—she desired to arouse awareness of health communication and change the communication patterns in medical settings. Her bold decision was to give up her previous position and start to climb the ladder of academic rank all over again. Influential Persons at Different Stages In addition to inspiring supervisors and mentors, as mentioned in Chaps. 4 and 5, collaborators and research subjects were also found to make a great impact on this group of women scholars. For strategic gamers, their supervisors and mentors at their early career stage, especially their Ph.D. study supervisor, made the greatest impact on their research capacity—e.g., publication and networking (Sect. 4.3.1). For persistent navigators, influential supervisors and mentors in different institutions or organization could benefit women professors significantly at both the early and middle stages (Sect. 5.3.1). This type of women professors, as unconventional fighters, received significant help from supervisors as well. Also, Jane Johnson and Ella Tang stressed the importance of collaborators, who not only helped them academically, but also validated their emotions and suffering. Surprisingly, Daisy pointed out how much the subject-participants she studied influenced her career. Strong mentors and supportive scholars who appreciated research on women and related studies were very important for Ella Tang and Jane Johnson. Ella’s supervisors in the Ph.D. program did not know much about her study but supported her researching the marginalized topics. Later, when she became a lecturer at the university, Ella’s supervisor in the department allowed her to teach the newly-developed subjects. In terms of collaborators, she was very grateful for two scholars who wrote articles and books with her (she acknowledged their contribution in her preface to her book). She repeatedly mentioned that emotional support was critical for scholars like her, working in marginalized fields. Jane persisted in studying the topics of culture, film, and women for decades. She was so delighted when the research that she had spent years on began to draw the attraction of not only scholars but also the senior management team. When Jane worked in the US, her supervisors in the department and the faculty enabled her to carry on a curriculum reform project. She expressed her joy at working with like-minded colleagues on gender and cultural research topics. Yasmin spoke highly of the kind and generous mentor who introduced her to key persons in the conference and encouraged her to take on administrative roles in academic associations. My supervisor was the catalyst for the whole thing, because she was so instrumental. And she knew people who introduced me to those key figures...... I guess it was also about willing to pick up some administrative roles in associations…… And once you’re the treasurer, and then you’re on the executive, you get to know these people. And so you socialize with them when you’re at conferences. You just go to the conference and try and get some of those people who have been very receptive. And one gentleman in particular, who is, he’s a key person in my area, and I met him through my supervisor, and now we also work together. (Yasmin Brown, interview 21)

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Daisy gave a surprising answer, saying workers were the most influential persons for her. She said their impact on her was “greater than any other scholars.” During an investigation into a factory fire, Daisy was so shocked by the tragic case of an 18-year-old woman worker injured in the accident, so she established an NGO for women workers. The writing of her award-winning book started after this incident. These workers’ life stories and experience in resisting oppression always encouraged her to continue her studies. She felt obligated to appreciate the social process and be a voice for these Chinese workers. The fieldwork and interaction with subjectparticipants made her understand this group and motivated her to eliminate prejudices toward them. I think she (the girl injured in the factory fire) was the first one who had a significant impact on me. Then I established the NGO, and I encountered many enthusiastic women workers. Many people have a misunderstanding of the grass root people. They are perceived as selfish, with little social order or solidarity…… (however) working-class don’t have many resources, and they need each other’s to deal with their life…… The social ties and social bonding are stronger than many university professors [laugh]. (Daisy, Interview 4)

6.3.2 Discipline-Related and Gender-Related Advantages Regarding newly developed disciplines or interdisciplinary research that was not widely accepted, women sometimes gained an unexpected merit—they were not regarded a threat when they began their research in new territories and were sometimes deemed a better candidate to start in a new position or new place (Chan et al., 2016). In another aspect, research domains were associated with gender dispositions (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2013). Some research fields were regarded as more women-fit or men-fit, while the rest remain gender-neutral, based on socialized gender expectations. Sometimes, what was commonly regarded as “weaknesses” turned out to be favorable. Easier Entrée and Female-Appropriateness for Some Research Fields When Daisy first applied to live with workers in a factory as a doctoral student, she was permitted without much effort; “The manager did not think what kind of research I could do by living in the dormitory of the factory,” Daisy recalled. This experience allowed her to produce her first well-known article in the field. Yasmin’s field, health communication, was considered women-friendly, so she recalled almost no setbacks to her research in the field, because women were deemed good at communication and emotional labor, which was a bonus. In contrast, she pointed out that the disadvantage of “not being a medical doctor.” Very interestingly, Yasmin gave an opposite answer to the relation of gender and her discipline; she thought gender acted as a positive factor in the health communication field because “women in general tend to be better at communication. It can be a big advantage” (Yasmin, interview 21). In addition, “being too emotional” was a common “defect” of women as a group. In Daisy’s case, “being emotional” became a powerful feature. One of Daisy’s

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books about Chinese workers was awarded an esteemed writing award in US Daisy attributed her success to the emotion-attached writing in her books, which increased its readability. Daisy believed the most important and influential persons in her academic career were the workers she researched. The strong emotions she felt about the people she studied, not only as of source data for “research objects” but real people who had vivid lives, were easily seen. Ella Tang and Jane Johnson did not mention many advantages of being a woman scholar in the interview. They were more critical of how being a woman disadvantaged for them. However, Ella did reflect, in the introduction to her academic book, that being a single heterosexual woman outsider may afford her innovative insights into studies on homosexual groups. In terms of institutional merits, unconventional fighters did not mention much about their institutional merits; on the contrary, they talked about obstacles to developing their research, teaching, and to seeking promotion at the institution, which are discussed at the institution-related disadvantages.

6.4 Disadvantages and Counteractions As all four unconventional fighter professors worked in soft, rural, or interdisciplinary research domains, they expressed that they had fewer advantages at their institutions. It could also make sense that the emerging disciplines they worked in did not attract much institutional attention at the early stages of their careers. Usually, discipline-based and institution-based disadvantages combined with gender-based disadvantages to obstruct their opportunities. They saw these hurdles and sometimes they stumbled, but soon they stood up and fought back.

6.4.1 Discipline-Related and Gender-Related Disadvantages As higher education in Hong Kong has adopted the UK model of quality assurance in teaching, learning, and researching, universities have come under great pressure to compete in the global rankings. These professors expressed their concerns about publication and research grants being major criteria for evaluating academics’ performance. Hence, research in disciplines with fewer opportunities for publication or citation could be regarded as less valuable. Marginalized Research Topics Like persistent navigators, research topics that unconventional fighters chose were relatively new and marginalized (especially in particular historical periods). For unconventional fighters, some of this research touched politically controversial issues

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or conflicted with stakeholders’ interests (e.g., international companies or government); some of their studies were considered too marginalized beyond the mainstream and made little contribution to their institution’s profile and university ranking. In these areas of research, academic scholarship was given less credit, such as studies of three participants in this group: gender and sexuality, cultural studies, communication, and medicine. Ella Tang, an expert in sexuality and political science, explained that women often picked research topics that were not mainstream, so these women scholars’ work was underestimated. She thought it was a gender issue. Some scholars may study gays or other research on marginal and trivial topics out of the mainstream. Many people think these topics not important, but we don’t hold the same view. Our (women’s) value allows us to see some topics more important and worth pursuing. In the wider social context, or the institutional context, these topics are deemed less worthy. They should not be given priority because they can’t help the world ranking or assert the university’s academic excellence. Why is it a gender issue? This is because women have different life experiences. They see different things and may do research on something under-studied and something as the ignored aspects of social existences. Some women scholars may invest much of their time, even their lives, on the “marginal” and “unimportant” research. Nonetheless, they are not seen as important scholars because of the topics they study in the end. Few people see their achievements. In addition, these ignored topics may be more difficult to get awards or recognition. So, they are less visible (Ella Tang, Interview 5).

Indeed, as Ella commented on the concept paper, while universities have to be concerned about “value for money,” “competitiveness,” “accountability,” and “efficiency” (Mok, 2014), marginalized or controversial research topics may not easily get institutional priority. Female scholars’ feminist perspectives may lead to their different choices of research topics, which might cause difficulties in gaining fast recognition and funding support. Ella wrote, in the preface of one of her books (published in 2012), that she explored every revenue source, including self-funding, to initiate small projects she was interested in. Step by step, she got internal seed funds from the department and faculty that enabled her continual development of research expertise. Similarly, Jane also felt her specialty was not given much credit. Soft research, such as the fields of culture and literature, could hardly attract more resources and recognition. Jane did not reveal any particular challenges in her own experiences, but shared her observations of and her reading on relevant issues with me during the interview. She believed women scholars were not less productive than their male peers; indeed, they were sometimes more productive. Even though many women scholars took time out for childbirth, they could catch up quickly, based on Jane’s observations. Sometimes it was about topics, while sometimes where the research was published. They tended to do knowledge exchange kinds of publications rather than traditional peer-reviewed materials. Sometimes it was a more appealing choice for women to do something non-traditional, like a knowledge exchange project, or a creative work rather than a scholarly monograph.

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Contentious Research Topics Another kind of research that intersected multiple obstacles was that concerning contentious social issues and conflict with the interests of powerful authorities. The research Daisy Chau conducted was very challenging because of its nature. Unlike a standard research project that is easily assessed by academic peers and community norms, a critical report concerning certain companies/enterprises face challenges at political, legal, and financial levels. From Daisy’s case, it could be seen that scholars’ role as public intellectuals was sharply distinguished with their role as knowledge producers, reflecting the uneven distribution of power between scholars, enterprises, and governments. The most impressive one is the [F case]. At that time, I saw workers jumped from the factory building one by one in TV news. I felt obligated to investigate it. So, I advocated some scholars and experts to investigate this social incidence. The research was not a purely academic project, but data collected were far richer than an academic one. The research report should be ready to deliver to Company A, Company B, and the National Federation of Trade Unions. Of course, we have our own bias and our value, but we have been committed to the articulation of workers’ narratives, the accuracy, and depth of the data. Few errors are allowed. If one makes a mistake in a normal research result or a conference speech, s/he may have chances to revise. If we make a mistake, we may face lawsuits. So, we have two layers of pressure: one from the political side, another from the corporate side. Therefore, the width and depth of research in this circumstance is beyond normal research in academia. (Daisy Chau, Interview 4)

These multinational corporations had more resources to defend their interests. For instance, they hired professional research teams, distributed iPads to workers for surveys, and conducted a large number of interviews to produce “convincing” results. In contrast, the huge gap in resources and access to the research participants (workers) obstructed Daisy and her research team. For example, they could interview more people and study thoroughly inside the factory, but we could only study outside the factory or only with limited access to some workers. Then their research appeared to have more sizeable data with more solid methods. Their findings reported that the suicide cases were all attributed to individual factors, such as low level of individual resilience, family or marriage problems, and not a problem was caused by the factory. (Daisy Chau, Interview 4)

Difficulties in Publishing and Securing Research Grants Similar to persistent navigators, the tough process of getting research published and research grants was one consequence for women scholars in this group. They studied in relatively soft, marginalized, or critical fields. The deviation of market value and institutional competitiveness, and conflicts of interest with powerful stakeholders caused them extra trouble in publishing or securing grants. For Daisy, her studies were closely related to grassroots workers’ benefits and wellbeing, possibly contradicting the interests of powerful companies. She had faced some significant challenges pertaining to publications due to pressure by international tycoons, as well as political censorship. The publishing process of one of Daisy’s master research book about the [F] case (in both English and Chinese) turned out to

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be a disaster for various reasons. After the book contract was signed, the publisher suddenly halted everything and refused to print it. Fearing getting involved in legal disputes with the company, the publisher eventually decided to withdraw the contract. The Chinese version was printed in China, but the publisher felt pressure from the authority and decided to destroy the new copies. This was baffling to Daisy, but she did not give up. The Chinese version of the book was later published in Hong Kong, which permitted a larger degree of freedom at that time. Due to her main research interests, Ella could sharply detect gender inequality in academic practices. The relatively objective process of double-blind peer-review was not regarded as bias-free. Ella pointed its inequalities and claimed to have experienced such discriminations. The reviewers and I don’t know each other, but the editor knows me. The editor can assign my article to someone that he deems appropriate. As I mention above, many senior scholars are male and those with less prestige, especially women, are subject to the male assessors’ standards. Whether they will access you with bias or unconscious bias is out of one’s control. It is suggested that studies should be conducted to research whose articles are accepted, who assess these articles; or among the research grant application results, why these topics can be successful. (Ella Tang, Interview 5)

In the humanities and social sciences fields, the definition of “high quality” publications may not be as rigid as in STEM fields. Even if the number of women academics in HSS is higher than in STEM fields, their situation might not be easier. In life sciences, women scientists occupy as up to 40% of the population, but there is still a significant gender gap. Based on Holman et al. (2018), men scientists are twice as likely to be invited to submit manuscripts than women scientists. Researchers advocate increasing the percentage of women reviewers and women editors to change the landscape of science.

6.4.2 Institution-Related and Gender-Related Disadvantages This group of women professors worked in soft and interdisciplinary domains. The frequency and number of contents regarding the disadvantages they emphasized in the interviews were largely related to higher education institutions, which increasingly applied market logics and management. These neoliberal practices influenced not only academic women’s intellectual leadership development, but also those vulnerable members in academia, including early-career faculty members, adjuncts, and part-time scholars. This part highlights the negative effects of the institution and its links with gender. New Managerial Practices Out of the quest of world-class universities, Hong Kong, as many regions and countries in Europe and East Asia, has opted to put research excellence as the priority and benchmark top universities in nations such as the US and UK. Modeling the UK approach, Hong Kong has implemented several versions of RAE since the

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1990s. Under the institutional pressure of pursuing world-class universities, individual academics have to be assessed by the number of publications in international Social Science and Science Citation indexed. Therefore, scholars become “more ‘instrumental’ when choosing publication venues (Deem et al., 2008). In the interview, Daisy directly expressed her disapproval of the assessment of academics in the elite university. She considered that it put enormous pressure on young academics and easily made them paper-publishing machines. Regarding the institutional policies, Ella and Jane also provided multiple examples to illustrate the influence of managerial practices on universities. A few stories Ella shared with me were about how the university saw students as “customers” and required teachers to “serve” them properly. At the same time, the administration’s business mindset about lowering costs and maximizing profit obstructed her from creating a collegial atmosphere for students. She felt scholars must do what the institution measured to get fame and resources. Otherwise, they were not to be regarded as leaders of the institution, even those with distinguished intellectual skills. (In a viva) I can summarize the issue covered and point out the problems in the viva very effectively. It can be attributed to my training and my expertise in interdisciplinary fields. I think I will win if there were such a competition for examiners at the university [laugh]. I have been trained in clinical listening skills and communication. I understand why the students are nervous and what they are trying to say. I try to provide a comfortable environment for them to address the issues. I write and summarize quickly. I also articulate the evidence of the arguments for other examiners and let them have confidence in students. It is a skill, expertise that nobody would recognize…… It is a different kind of skill other than publication impact. I pick up issues and assess research’s originality. It is what I have been trained to do. The university has invested a lot in me to develop such a skill. However, it is the ignored aspect of leadership. (Ella Tang, interview 5)

Ella also stressed her hard work in recent years to teach and to translate new ideas into knowledge exchange activities. Two decades ago, at the early stage of her career, she opened a new course on gender and sexuality and recruited students freely, with the permission of her supervisor, of which she said, “He allowed me to explore the new things as much as possible, if even sometimes he did not provide much concrete support.” Nowadays, she thought the department’s implementing stricter administrative procedures, emphasizing “cost-effectiveness,” and avoiding unnecessary work may cause disapproval from other stakeholders. The new managerial practices use numbers to oversee and control academic work, to compete for university rank (Lynch et al., 2012). Too much emphasis on research input rather than output was a concern voiced in the interviews by the women professors in this group. The difficulty of securing research grants was discussed in terms of discipline-related disadvantages, where scholars committed to marginalized and controversial research had fewer opportunities to get funding. This was also associated with institutional regulations. Jane highlighted funding as the main challenge because there was a misalignment between input and output in the humanities and social sciences disciplines. When the university only recognized certain types of grants, it channelled all its efforts into chasing competitive grants.

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There is much pressure on research funding, and particular kinds of funding, rather than being given credits for other types of findings and other ways of conducting research. So, I think the emphasis of input other than outputs sometimes has been a challenge here. Because you know, funding for humanities research is just minuscule anyway. So, you spend much time chasing after money. (Jane Johnson, interview 10)

The increasingly dominant managerial practices in universities in Hong Kong since the 1990s have undermined participants’ academic development. Their personal experience demonstrated their competence in many aspects in the academic community and the university, but the assessment of academics still largely depends on measurable inputs (e.g., research grants) and outputs (e.g., publications). Different Expectations for Women Neoliberal and managerial practices exploit vulnerable members in academia, such as junior untenured faculty members, regardless of their gender, social-economic status, or ethnicity. However, the situation persisted for women professors even when they had already been substantiated. This group of participants discussed the double-standards for women scholars in senior academic ranks, mirroring what the literature calls “the double labor” for professional women—the labor to fulfill workplace requirements and the labor to take care of others, including students, junior colleagues, and other internal administrative work. As the study by Guillén et al. (2016) indicates, competence alone for professional women was not enough. Compared with their male colleagues, they must have competence and warmth at the same time to be perceived as competent. Among all categories of women professors, unconventional fighters made the most explicit statements on different aspects of gender issues for academic women. Expectations for women academics at the institution were not only about academic excellence but also administrative tasks and “caring labor,” even those who had already reached full professor rank. Ella shared a story of her previous doctoral student, who had just been promoted to full professor and asked to “take care of the others” and “give more opportunities to the junior colleges.” Ella explained that, if an academic woman refused to take on administrative work, she would be judged as “selfish” and “not a good team player”; “But if a man professor rejects it, people would show more understanding and justify that ‘he is just not interested in such jobs’ or ‘he can’t do it well because he is not the right person to take care of students,’” Ella said. Based on her teaching and administrative experience, Yasmin agreed entirely, noting that most academic women choose to remain silent and tolerate it as potential moral pressure. Tough and Slow Institutional Promotion In the humanities and social sciences, sometimes scholars need institutional rank to facilitate their intellectual development. In this regard, academic rank could validate scholars’ contributions and ensure their academic freedom to some extent. Not everyone in this category experienced difficulty getting promoted. Daisy got a full professorship in her late 40s, while the other three professors had different stories.

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These groups of women professors fought for the freedom to research, to advocate, and to be public intellectuals. Ella Tang emphasized that the seemingly objective process of promotion was closely linked with the academic culture in Hong Kong and women’s networking ability. First, Ella indicated she was never encouraged to advance in her academic career as a woman scholar. From senior to junior colleagues, both men and women, she received discouragement when she sought advice. Gradually, she realized the culture was not welcoming of women in top positions. She shared an example of a female professor, whom she had known for years and who had been co-opted by the patriarchal system, persuading Ella not to apply for promotion. Second, she thought candidates had to be able to get favorable perceptions internally in the division/ faculty to get real “peer review.” Female academics needed to be both “competent” and “nice” enough to be nominated by the department for review by disciplinary experts. She considered this procedure problematic. Jane Johnson received her full professorship in her late 50s, after being an associate professor for more than a decade. She was keen to advocate for equal opportunities for academic women at the university. She pointed out that there were systematic problems preventing female professors, ethnic minority, and other marginalized professors from advancing their academic careers. For women, these included the extra burdens of family obligations and health issues related to childbearing, without extra institutional support; childbearing and child raising were regarded as individuals’ sole responsibility. Many systems of higher education require one to be a full professor to take on senior positions, such as provost, president, or vice-chancellor. She also highlighted the case of Dona Strickland, an associate professor in Canada who became a Nobel Prize laureate at the age of 59, to illustrate the systematic problem. There are far fewer women who have the same number of years to achieve academic leadership at the highest ranks as their male peers……These jobs (in the senior management team) are certainly not available to any person who is not at that rank. Women’s participation in senior management, then, tends to be limited because they are not promoted. Women tend to be at the lower ranks. This impacts on their authority in other ways as well. You are more likely to be asked to be a keynote speaker if you are a full professor. You are more likely to serve in higher ranks in academic associations or professional societies. You are taken more seriously, and you are more often consulted by the press or the local government for your opinion. (Jane Johnson, Interview 10)

Jane also associated academic rank with academic freedom. Even though the tenure system guaranteed academic freedom to a certain extent, if one was at associate professor rank, s/he always tried to get up to full professor. So, it was likely that scholars at the associate professor rank would still do research that attracted favorable peer review and avoid taking the kind of risks someone with full professor rank could. It particularly affected women scholars’ credibility when they performed the role of public intellectual. This was especially true for academics in the humanities and social sciences.

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As women scholars, both Ella’s and Jane’s major challenge was others’ underestimation of their capacity. As Jane stated, “The major challenge is people underestimate you, underestimate what you can do when you are a woman academic.” Only with institutional recognition were they allowed to influence the department, faculty, and university. For instance, being the head of several research centers and leader of an online study program, Jane was able to impact institutional changes, working with academic leaders in the faculty with her decades of experience about women, women’s advancement, gender bias, and equity issues. Yasmine claimed that gender-related challenges were not obvious for her. However, like Jane, she emphasized the lack of women in senior positions, and that women had fewer chances to “get looked in” because the panel members selecting senior academic managers were all men. She considered this phenomenon a threat to academic women’s opportunities to get more influence.

6.5 Chapter Summary In this chapter, I have depicted the way in which unconventional fighters accumulated space, freedom, and resources for their intellectual leadership. The main distinction between unconventional fighters and persistent navigators relies on the former group’s feminist scholarship, which means they had a stronger intention to make social impacts at the institution, in the field, and in society. Women professors, as unconventional fighters practiced what they believed and advocated. They sought to fully utilize their expertise to “take risks,” to “explain the inequality,” and to “make a difference.” All of them expressed their desire to speak up for marginalized and underprivileged groups and improve the welfare of society, despite others sometimes misunderstanding the risk of losing self-benefits. Given their motivation, career trajectory, and personal experience, we can understand why they had critical attitudes toward the neoliberal academic environment developed in recent decades. In addition, the frequency with which they mentioned disadvantages and their efforts to overcome them outweighed their mentions of advantages significantly. Regarding advantages, the four women professors researched in domains that were less developed and studied in their time. Their identity as women offered some benefit to their accessing these fields. Under the framework of neoliberal universities, these marginalized research fields were more likely to be underestimated and deemed less valuable than hard/applied disciplines. Nonetheless, female academics in the group emphasized the discouraging experiences. Their academic input (usually in teaching, mentoring, and services) and outputs in particular research topics were given less credit. To strive for further advancement in academics despite all the difficulties they faced in publishing and securing research grants, they sometimes moved to more open institutions. Other times, they stayed in the same university, building networks and collaborating with like-minded scholars to improve their international reputation in the academic community. Similar to persistent navigators, networking and collaboration turned out to be very powerful means of validating these female

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academics, not only in terms of their academic research but also their emotional suffering. Interestingly, unconventional fighters regarded disadvantages at the institutional aspects as usually intertwined with the gender factors, such as research work being underestimated as a woman scholar, or promotion being delayed because of expecting women to “take care” others first. As Daisy Chau and Ella Tang compared the current academic environment and that of two decades ago, the universities have put more emphasis on research excellence and global ranking. Higher education institutions in Hong Kong has increased pressure for individual academics to produce certain types of measurable and useful output. In this regard, women’s contribution as academic citizens, doing internal services, and administrative support received less recognition from the institutions. It was even regarded as less valuable for the institution assessment in the global league table. Overall, unconventional fighters resisted bravely against the odds and tried to empower themselves and others, to change the unequal rules in the “game,” usually at the avenue of negotiating when they were young (like persistent navigators) and conducting impactful research when they could influence more people.

References Chan, A., Ngai, G., & Choi, P. (2016). Contextualising the career pathways of women principals in Hong Kong: A critical examination. Journal of Comparative International Education, 46(2), 194–213. Deem, R., Mok, K. H., & Lucas, L. (2008). Transforming higher education in whose image? Exploring the concept of the ‘world-class’ university in Europe and Asia. Higher Education Policy, 21(1), 83–97. Guillén, L., Mayo, M., & Karelaia, N. (2016). The competence-confidence gender gap: Being competent is not (always) enough for women to appear confident. Journal of Applied Psychology. Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Glynn, C. J., & Huge, M. (2013). The Matilda effect in science communication: An experiment on gender bias in publication quality perceptions and collaboration interest. Science Communication, 35(5), 603–625. Lynch, K., Baker, J., Lyons, M., Feeley, M., Hanlon, N., Walsh, J., & Cantillon, S. (2016). Affective equality: Love, care and injustice. Springer. Lynch, K., Grummell, B., & Devine, D. (2012). New managerialism in education: Commercialization, carelessness and gender. Springer.

Chapter 7

Opportunistic Achievers

Abstract This chapter focuses on the fourth category of women professors—opportunistic achievers. This group achieved high performance and made decisions based on practical considerations. Six scholars in this category worked in relatively applied disciplines that demanded practical experience and accumulated their merits for intellectual leadership mostly during the middle and senior career stages. They held varying opinions on intellectual leadership and perceived its qualities as the leadership of an academic citizen and the possibility to integrate with intellectual and institutional leadership. Compared to the other three categories, opportunistic achievers may not have initially shown intense interest in knowledge production, instead finding their passion in practical areas such as teaching, research, or clinical work. They primarily attributed their advantages to intellectual curiosity and unexpected opportunities arising from the institutions where they worked. This chapter also recounts the discipline-related disadvantages they faced during their early career stage and the interrelated obstacles tied to gender and institutional culture.

This chapter covers the fourth category of women professors as opportunistic achievers. The first part introduces the main properties of this group of women scholars and six individual cases. The second part delineates the divided opinions of opportunistic achievers on the concept paper, and their perceived qualities of intellectual leadership as the leadership of academic citizen and the possibility to integrate with intellectual and institutional leadership. The third part follows to analyze personal, institutional, and disciplinary advantages—translating to opportunistic strategies to make choices in their academic careers. The fourth part then recounts the discipline-related disadvantages they encountered at their early career stage and interrelating obstacles by gender and the institutional culture. The last part recaps the main points of this chapter.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3_7

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7.1 Introduction of the Category 7.1.1 Category Overview: Opportunistic Achievers The term opportunistic achiever denotes that women professors in this category were much concerned about comprehensive reality and the feasibility of obtaining certain career goals. They worked in both rural and urban, applied-hard and appliedsoft fields, mainly in education and medicine. They employed both qualitative and quantitative methods in their research. There might be some disputes as to whether they were intellectuals. In terms of academic publications, some were top authors with high citations, while others were institutionally or locally recognized in the research field. Compared with the previous three types of women professors, they emphasized institution-related advantages and disadvantages in their academic development journey, which may be appropriately deemed “institution-dependent.” The period in which they accumulated the advantages was generally mid-career. Some were ultimately concerned about knowledge production while others cared more about institutional development and the cultivation of the next generation. From the interviews with these women professors, it can be noted that some had deep-rooted intellectual curiosity. Some had been inspired by a mentor in their early career, or by an esteemed scholar’s work at a later point in their careers. They all had practical and professional experiences, such as having been teachers or clinical doctors. Most of the cases showed that serendipity guided them to their current position. It seemed normal to these women professors that they did not have a solid plan for entering an academic career at a young age. The work they experienced in the field, as well as unexpected promotion opportunities, made them determined to catch new chances and accomplished their goals (Table 7.1).

7.1.2 Snapshots of Opportunistic Achievers Case 2 Belen Miller, Professor in Education Life Belen Miller lived and worked in Australia in most of her career, and obtained her doctoral degree in the US. When she started her doctoral program, she had a family and a new-born baby. It was a challenging time in her life, balancing work and life. Upon completion of her doctoral study, she worked as a faculty member in two universities in Australia. Later she took leadership roles in those institutions. During her work in Australia, she forged connections with Hong Kong and other regions in Asia, and became familiar with Hong Kong HEIs. A few years ago, she decided to join a university in Hong Kong as a senior professor.

Education

Medical

Medical

Florence Lam

Irene Mok

Olivia Gosling

Stella Tse

Taylor Ho

6

9

15

20

22

Education

Education

Education

Belen Miller

2

Faculty

Pseudonym

No

Radiology

Medicine

Teacher education

Information technology

Language education

Cultural studies

Field

Table 7.1 Opportunistic achiever cases

Comprehensive

Comprehensive

Comprehensive

Applied

Comprehensive

Applied

HEIs

20–29

30–39

30–39

20–29

30–39

20–29

Years in academia

International

HK

International

HK

HK

International

Country/region

Faculty

Faculty

Faculty

Department

Faculty

Faculty

Levels of formal leadership taken

200 + articles, 7 book chapters (scholar hub); 6500 + citations (PoP)

190 + journal articles, 17 book chapters, 3 edited books; (scholar hub); 9500 + (PoP)

25 journal articles and 5 book chapters (CV); 3500 + citation (Google Scholar)

20 + articles and 1 edited book (PoP), 1000 + citations (Google Scholar)

80 + journal articles and 2 books (CV); 5500 + citation (Google Scholar)

100 + publications including journals and book chapters (scholar hub); 1900 + citations (PoP)

Publication and citation info

7.1 Introduction of the Category 141

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Work Belen specialized in intercultural education, sociology of education in wide contexts of schools, doctoral education, and research ethics. Her research focused on sociological aspects. She published peer-reviewed articles and books extensively and actively participated in research activities for years, including delivering keynote speeches in conferences (a few of which could be viewed on YouTube). She had won 40 major competitive national and international research grants and was involved in research and research collaborations across Australia and Asia. Belen revealed in the interview that she did not receive sufficient help from her supervisor when she did her Ph.D. research. She was passionate about quality doctoral education. Her doctoral teaching and mentoring were recognized by various university and national awards. Her contributions in the area have been internationally recognized. She was also the president of several professional associations in education research. Case 6 Florence Lam, Professor in Education Life Florence was a professor in Education in a comprehensive research university. Growing up as a good student with high academic achievement in Hong Kong, she taught in a very good local secondary school after completing her undergraduate study. After a few years, she started to wonder whether she would like to be a secondary school teacher for the rest of her life. Faced with a lot of uncertainty, she left her secondary school and took a teacher training position in a college; at the same time, she decided to get her master’s and then doctoral degrees in Hong Kong. Over the years of job-changing, she gained a family and children and moved to North America for family reasons, returning to Hong Kong several years later. In the interview, Florence revealed that she had been a Christian since she was a young child and felt less anxious about her career and life than many other peers. Work Florence had published extensively in language education, feedbacks of writing, and pedagogies. Before joining her current university, she worked as a faculty member in two other universities, one comprehensive and the other for applied sciences. At the time she was interviewed she was a full professor and faculty chairperson. She also took an active role in responding to various public inquiries through interviews in newspapers and other media. Case 9 Irene Mok, Professor in Education Life A local Hong Kong resident, Irene finished her secondary studies in Hong Kong. She then went to Canada for undergraduate and master’s degree studies in computer science and information systems. Upon graduation, she returned to Hong Kong and

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started to teach her major in an applied science university. She changed her research focus when she needed a doctoral degree to teach in her original college. Hence, she moved to an education position in another university while pursuing a Doctor of Education (EdD) degree combining of education and information system in a collaborative program between a Hong Kong and a UK university. Work Irene was a full professor in her faculty in charge of teaching and learning with the implementation of flipped classrooms when I interviewed her. Before joining the university, Irene worked in two applied sciences universities. The major impetus for her to move to her current university was promotion to full professor. Compared to other participants, Irene’s academic record seemed relatively weak in terms of academic publications. She had published a series of journal articles on information technology applications in the education context. She had edited one book but had not written a single-authored book. Her publications were not highly cited, which may be attributed to the change in her research focus. However, she was very passionate about teaching, more so than about research. She found these two goals competing and her ambition to create a better learning environment for students was challenging. Case 15 Olivia Gosling, Professor in Faculty of Education Life Olivia’s parents were originally from Shanghai, China. She was born in Hong Kong and moved to Singapore at a very young age. After finishing high school, Olivia went to the US for undergraduate study and continued her postgraduate study and career. Her family never expected her to become an educator; her original goal was to be a businesswoman, lawyer, or finance specialist. Choosing education was a surprise to her and her family, but she found it was her lifelong passion. Based on an interview script available online, Olivia was married but had no child. Her ties with Asia were strong, with frequent visits to and collaborative research projects in Hong Kong and Singapore during the intervening years. Recently, Olivia decided to move to Hong Kong because of a career opportunity. Work Olivia obtained her first degree in a state university and then pursued her master’s and doctoral degrees in the same prestigious university, which is famous for education in the US. When she was in a graduate school, she started to actively engage in administrative roles in research and professional training programs. These working opportunities made her a confident and independent educator at the early stage. In the following decades, she continued to contribute to the field through research, teaching, and participating in different initiatives. In 2009, Olivia successfully secured a significant government research grant, valued at around 10 million USD, on an education project. She was also awarded an endowed professorship in 2014. At the same time, Olivia took leadership positions in the department and faculty and had years of experience in administration and management. Olivia emphasized how she entered the

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education field unexpectedly. One key point she emphasized to become successful was to say “yes” to opportunities she was offered, even without 100% readiness. She also underlined the importance of support from like-minded peers and senior friends. Case 20 Stella Tse, Professor in Medicine Life As a local Hong Kong Chinese, Stella graduated from a medical school in Hong Kong in the late 1970s. She was known as an expert in the area of oral and head cancer. Working in a public hospital provided the platform and the chance for her to practice her clinical skills and study research methods. Fully dedicated to her career and research work, she did not establish a family. Work Stella worked in a public hospital after completion of her degree, where she met her first supervisor, Prof. H, who had a profound influence on her career. Prof. H had taught Stella to research while practicing in the hospital. With encouragement and inspiration from Prof. H, she began to have interest in the treatment of a unique cancer that had a high incidence rate among the population of South China but was rarely seen overseas. With the opportunity to work in these fields, Stella invested much time in the breakthrough of this kind of cancer and committed to establishing a database in this area decades ago. Knowledge production of this kind of cancer was largely understudied in the world. So, she decided researchers in this field needed to take the leading role. Stella actively engaged in international collaborative research projects, including working with the World Health Organization. She did her Doctor of Medicine degree relatively late in her career, out of an unexpected opportunity. Stella’s main research contributions focused on [the specific kind of cancer]. She served on the editorial board of many international journals and received many awards and honors at home and overseas, including a gold medal and being named a distinguished professor/lecturer, and honorary member of several international professional societies. Case 22 Taylor Ho, Professor in Radiology Life Born and raised in a well-educated family in Singapore, Taylor aspired to be a medical doctor. Upon completion of her training, she spent many years living in Singapore, Taylor came to Hong Kong for personal reasons in the 1990s. Since then, she worked in hospitals in Hong Kong and then entered academia as a medical professor later. Work With years of clinical practice in hospitals, Taylor has become skillful and experienced as a medical doctor in the field of radiology. The factor motivating her to change her role from clinical doctor to clinical professor with an academic orientation was a promotion opportunity. To take the bigger challenge and reach a further

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level of leadership, she completed her Doctor of Medicine Degree (MD) in the 2000s. Her MD thesis received an outstanding award and her academic accomplishments were recognized. In recent years, Taylor successfully secured grants from the UGC, professional associations, and government, up to 10 million HKD for one project. With these resources, she was able to fulfill her goal of contributing to institutional development and creating a better environment, so she took a leadership role in the department. However, Taylor also found the competition between conducting research in her interest areas and launching research projects that were beneficial for the whole department. During the interview, Taylor did not reveal her marital status, but said she felt quite interested in the topic of women professors’ leadership.

7.2 Conceptualization of Intellectual Leadership 7.2.1 Views on the Concept Paper This group of women professors had divided views on the concept paper. Some thought it was “eye-opening,” some considered neoliberal higher education the greatest threat to intellectual leadership, and others regarded intellectual leadership as integrated with institutional leadership. Being Critical About the Neoliberal Environment Florence Lam and Taylor Ho read the paper and were glad to know the differences between intellectual leadership and other types of leadership. Florence distinguished intellectual leadership from “organizational leadership is imposed by others,” saying “intellectual leadership is recognized by someone else.” As long as she could make impacts on the academic field with her ideas, she was confident acting as an intellectual leader. She also considered the cultural influence of the concept; “Chinese people tend to be modest, and they usually do not explicitly say that they are leaders,” Florence added. Florence had published a paper about the “publish and perish” culture in Hong Kong academia, and was aware of the negative influence of neoliberalism and managerialism (which I found when I reviewed her academic profile). She related her own experience with the article. I think it is a fascinating concept. When talking about leader or leadership, many people indicate exterior or external issues, for example, whether one is full professor, chair professor, distinguished professor; or whether one is a celebrity with some titles, or whether one is in the leading position in the department, e.g., dean or associate dean, department head, or principal in the school. I will wonder, if today I were not the department chair, or were not a full professor, for some reasons I had not been promoted, whether I could also publish that many articles as an associate professor. In this case, can I be an intellectual leader? I think the answer is yes. (Florence Lam, interview 6)

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Taylor Ho stated that the article helped her make sense of difficulties she encountered as a woman leader in the department, which had never occurred to her before. Irene Mok and Stella Tse did not read the paper, so they just mentioned their understanding of academic leadership in higher education. During the interview, Olivia Gosling gave many examples of students and academics. She worried that the impact of neoliberal logics undermined ideas and collaborations that made differences but were hard to measure. Neoliberalism is all about economics, and the economic benefits of work or processes. So, there has to be sort of a direct line between an action and an outcome, right? If you do something, there has to be some deliverable at the end. That there has to be some evidence that it has made a difference, that it was worthwhile. The whole notion of ideas, of collaboration, of some qualities actually are not measurable and yet are incredibly critical…… But in a neoliberal agenda that would not be good enough because a liberal agenda looks for concrete outcomes that lead to some increase, particularly economically. (Olivia Gosling, interview 15)

Denying the Dichotomy of Collegiality and Managerialism Belen Miller held a different opinion. She thought it was impossible to separate intellectual leadership from institutional leadership. Instead, the two were integrated and intertwined. She was not persuaded by the dichotomy (e.g., collegiality and managerialism) shown in the paper and thought there should be other approaches to make sense of this topic. That was one of the problematic conceptual frameworks. What happens is that the individual often becomes subjectiviticated to a particular sort of environment. I think it happens less in the sciences because the structure of the hard sciences is much like the managerial structure of universities. That was my only observation. And there is a sort of implication, that the intellectual leadership was separate from and different from. (Belen Miller, Interview 2)

This category of participants did not have highly homogenous views on the concept paper. They had different motivations and experiences about academic careers, which is further explained in the following sections.

7.2.2 Perceived Qualities of Intellectual Leadership Leadership as Academic Citizens Sharing some characteristics with strategic gamers, this group of female scholars valued ethical and moral leadership, mainly in terms of services within the department and the institution. These professors highlighted intellectual leadership for junior colleagues and students at the university. Stella Tse, as a medical doctor and professor, tended to endow intellectual leadership with a meaning similar to administrative leadership. Stella said leadership means helping junior colleagues and identifying the direction for the department and the faculty.

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Academic-wise, leaders can help them with the good research direction, and good research collaborators as the intellectual and academic pursuit. Junior colleagues may be inexperienced in writing grants, doing presentations, or teaching so they can benefit from senior professors’ leadership. About the moral thing, nobody can lecture them to be moral. To be a role model yourself, it may help. (Stella Tse, interview 20)

Taylor tried to explain her understanding of the arguments of the concept paper, and stressed professors’ role as models. So, it’s a very broad definition. I think, minimally, the moral aspects of it are critical. If an intellectual leader was to be considered a role model, there is good citizenship and that in our role as leaders in academia and in tertiary education that has to come through in more public service…… But beyond that, I’d like to think of intellectual leadership has been suggested in this paper as something above and beyond, where we can stand up as role models for other future academics. (Taylor Ho, interview 22)

According to Irene Mok, intellectual leadership meant “trying out ideas.” An intellectual leader should apply expertise to improve teaching and learn in practice. My students are different, or I get to know more about their competence or their expectations. So, sometimes, it could be a minor adjustment, as I have some failure cases, and I learned from my failures, and then I revised. And then it became successful. So, the important quality is to try out ideas in different populations and different contexts.”

From Olivia Gosling’s point of view, the most important qualities for intellectual leadership were the competence to raise one’s initial purpose and to question the current neoliberal system. Intellectual leadership should be always asking “what is the purpose and what is the meaning in the daily activities”. She said, when education practices in the university become normality and regularities, it becomes easy to forget the actual purpose and intellectual leaders should make differences. In these two sections, opportunistic achievers demonstrated their various understanding of intellectual leadership and the academic environment. They were apt to focus on the institutional roles of intellectual leadership, such as teaching and learning, while advocating for ideas with true values.

7.3 Advantages Opportunistic achievers had a strong intellectual curiosity in their careers and a desire to contribute to the institution. Primarily, they emphasized outstanding advantages in terms of the institution dimension, which sometimes had beneficial effects on their disciplinary development, such as creating more spaces for research and broader ranges of research. In their career decisions, they tried to balance personal and professional goals.

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7.3.1 Individual- and Discipline-Related Advantages Personalities and Intellectual Curiosity Among the six women professors in this group, Florence and Stella showed the most intense personal interest in and passion about their research topics at a young age. Before pursuing her Ph.D. degree, Florence was baffled over whether to continue teaching in a locally high-ranked secondary school. Pulled by the thrill of intellectual challenges, she chose to start a new career “seeking the larger meaning.” I am a reflective person, and I believe in human self-actualization. I question the meaning of life from time to time, even at the current stage of life. I ask questions such as whether this is the life I want. When I was younger, I questioned more often. In my 20s, I asked myself: “I am doing quite well here. Do I want to keep teaching in the same school in the future decades? But it would be quite terrifying to keep doing it. If not, where will be the better place since this is already a good college?” I started to think it might be a good idea to teach adults. I was interested too. (Florence Lam, interview 6)

If the first leap that drove Florence to a higher platform was driven by her adventurous desire to explore life, the second step was informed by her intellectual curiosity. After she completed her doctoral program, she moved to a host country in North America, doing a part-time teaching job and taking care of her young child. She had an “aha” moment after reading one scholar’s masterpiece article, which was awe-inspiring enough to change her direction of research. When I was in the host country, I found an article accidentally. MT [a scholar’s name] wrote a landmark article about my [research expertise]. I felt shocked by his statement completely against our common practices. It was extreme. I forgot many details in it, but I still remembered how shocked I was. Wow! I had never questioned my practice in secondary school before…… I didn’t have the habit of challenging authority. In secondary school, I taught English; I had never doubted the teaching practice since every colleague did it the same way. After reading the article, I felt mind-blowing, and I started to think outside the box. So, I became very interested in this topic. And I could relate it to my own experience. When I returned to Hong Kong, I told my Ph.D. supervisor my recent research on [the research expertise]. He couldn’t believe me because my thesis was about another [research topic].

Florence admitted she was lucky, having several important opportunities to advance. First, she determined to change her secondary school teacher job to attend a teacher training institution. Second, she was stimulated by teaching in-service teacher refresher programs and realized the lack of theoretical knowledge among experienced teachers; hence, she aspired to pursue a part-time Ph.D. degree, which turned out to be “a very important exposure and personal milestones.” Third, she admitted that she was lucky enough to ride a trendy research topic in the context of Hong Kong’s education reforms. Had she been born ten years earlier or later, she thought, she would not have been as successful. Attracted by the intellectual charms of education, Olivia Gosling worked in a profession she had never imagined when she was in high school. Her undergraduate study in the US turned her life in a completely different direction. Originally, she intended to study business or finance-related subjects in home countries. Later, she

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chose to go to the US for a bachelor’s degree in a top university, where she found her life-long interest. She often attributed her success to taking chances when they arose. I think that this is one piece of advice I give to everyone is, whenever opportunities presented themselves, I usually said yes. Quite often those opportunities were beyond my capacity. So, I wasn’t completely ready, totally skilled, fully knowledgeable to take on those opportunities. But I’m a risk-taker, and I’m a good learner. I also see opportunity as a learning opportunity. (Olivia Gosling, interview 15)

Stella Tse felt her career calling less dramatically. From her work experience as a medical doctor, Stella was well-informed of the most edge-cutting developments in cancer research and was keen to use her specialty to improve the public health welfare of the broader community. Stella had the shortest interview with the interviewer, lasting only 20 min, but in that time revealed her very caring attitude toward patients. Trained as a doctor, Stella cared most about the treatment and wellbeing of her patients. She underlined the importance of making inquiries; “In the field of medicine, there are always many unanswered questions. You can ask more questions to save more lives. There is never a stop to learn.” Therefore, she kept working in the field to improve public health in her specialty.

7.3.2 Institution-Related and Discipline-Related Advantages As previous findings chapters have delineated, the institution-based merits emerged from this category accentuated such aspects as the academic environment, the intellectual space given by the institution, and mentors who had important impacts. Some of these institutional advantages were also closely linked to disciplinary advantages. Many participants in this group mentioned encountering unexpected opportunities at university. Two women professors (Olivia Gosling and Stella Tse) highlighted the inspiring university environment. Unexpected Internal Opportunities Florence always had the ability to detect whether an environment suited her. Otherwise, she illustrated the importance of the institution’s space to conduct research. Florence had worked in three universities since earning her Ph.D. In the first university, Florence felt as if she were teaching at a secondary school, as teaching and administrative work filled all of her time and left no room for research. At that moment, she learned of a few openings at a comprehensive research university with a lighter administrative workload. After a long inner battle, Florence decided to leave to experience more stimulation and more development in academia. The turning point was that I saw the openings advertisement in University B, a few openings, not only one. I seemed to have some chances. So, I applied. I know I would not have to do so many administrative works there. There would be more stimulation there. Here the focuses were not very academic. Most of the time, we focused on program development and taking

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care of students, which was positive. I just desired more stimulation and development in academic, which I couldn’t achieve in University D. (Florence Lam, interview 6)

More opportunities emerged as this group of women professors encountered promotions and job changes. Their ambition to advance in either leadership positions or become qualified in a new organization led to their different career directions. For years, Stella was a consultant in a hospital, working in an oncology department. She did not have to get an MD degree. Stella was concerned little about academic career advancement or ‘publish or perish’ pressures. Inspired by her supervisor in the early years of practice, the only thing she cared about was whether she could provide patients with better treatments. Her motivation to get her MD degree was unexpected. It is unnecessary to do research. It is more about the inspiration by Prof. H. Research for me is not the criteria for the promotion. The medical question is there. All I think is whether I could address it. When I have done it, can I share it by publication or presentation? So, I keep doing the research…… And it might be a surprising story for me. When I was the head of the clinical department, a colleague told me he would like to get an MD. He is a public hospital consultant but hopes to pursue an MD degree. Then I consulted with the management team and got the response that I could be the mentor for the colleague only with an MD degree myself. The member of the management team smiled and suggested I should get one too. So, I collected my series of research and produced a good thesis. It is wonderful that the other two colleagues and I have got M.D. with years of experience in a public hospital. So, that’s quite different from those who get an M.D. right away as soon as they are qualified. (Stella Tse, interview 20)

Also trained as a medical doctor, Taylor became a scholar, because being an MD was a requirement for promotion. Later she considered it an excellent opportunity for advancing in her career. She told the interviewer: Sometimes you don’t need a lot of opportunities. You just need a couple of good ones that you can ride on and really step on that subject if it works out well. The chance of success was quite good. Well, to be honest, what motivated me was the fact that I was told by my head at that point in time that I would not ever be a professor if I don’t get a further degree. It’s actually quite comfortable for a medical profession to continue working on their clinical work. And of course, there’s a busy practice so it still takes a bit of effort to write MD at that time. It wasn’t, as highlighted as I probably am now, but I got some very good advice from my acting head at that time. So, I was at the point of wanting to apply for a promotion and I kind of thought that this would be what I like to do. (Taylor Ho, interview 22)

Besides catching opportunities, Taylor also sought out new chances to realize her vision in the department after getting a leadership position. I had a vision of how I wanted to build a department and some of these grants I got were for building the infrastructure of this department. Quite a few things in Hong Kong in my research field relative to worldwide could be considered slightly behind. So, a lot of things we have not obtained in Hong Kong. So, I realized these were good opportunities to set up these new research platforms. So, some of the grants I got after I became the head of the department was to build the infrastructure for the department. But prior to that, a lot of it was more hypothesis-driven grants because that was key to my promotion to become a professor. (Taylor Ho, interview 22)

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Another example was Irene, who used to teach in the information systems field in an applied sciences university. Later, she changed to a teaching training institution, where she integrated her background knowledge and the institutional requirement. Then she thought it would be a good idea to get a part-time Ph.D. to combine her majors in information technology and education; this later became her research into information technology in education applications. So, Irene “changed the research direction as [her] job changed.” Belen Miller experienced the institutional advantage at a later stage. From Belen’s point of view, intellectual leadership and academic leadership were integrated. I have always been a research leader, as a research manager, associate dean, or the director of the research center. So, I have one strand of research, which is research ethics and doctoral education, which reflects my management role. My other research has been around individual identity and intercultural relationships. All the other work has been around the relationships between individuals and groups from a different cultural background. (Belen Miller, interview 2)

Her research was broadened by her managerial leadership position and she gained more freedom to choose research topics about which she was enthusiastic. It did change, and it changed in response to the demand of the university for changes. And it was much more curriculum, and schooling systems, too much more around what I did my Ph.D., and that was around intercultural relations. And that was functional as I got promoted, I actually have more freedom to research in the areas which I was passionate and interested in, rather than I was to be expected to be interested in as a junior academic. (Belen Miller, Interview 2)

The inspiring institutional environment Olivia Gosling spoke highly about the prestigious university in which she had earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. This institution and its like-minded scholars created a friendly and trusted community, where she gained a series of incredible learning experiences and benefited profoundly from the community and peer support she received. I was fortunate enough to be in a great department with really good colleagues, and the students are amazing and excellent. I think that part of my development and part of my career has to be attributed to the fact that I was at such a famous place and an excellent institution. So, the status was not so much about ranking. But the institution has such a long history. It is a place where things we take for granted actually were invented. So, the institution does make a difference. I think it becomes a good cycle. The reputation draws interesting people and interesting people make a reputation. And it wasn’t just colleagues, our students too. They were people engaged in all kinds of interesting things. (Olivia Gosling, interview 15)

Olivia also got significant intellectual and emotional support from mentors and peers. Olivia narrated her experience in meeting an Asian-American senior faculty member when she was new, and they became best friends as they got to know each other. This informal female mentor had “been the greatest supporter and mentor from the first day.” The senior friend would read her work and give her advice. This

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“very generous, very kind, but at the same time, very honest” friend always gave her feedback that was both critical and positive. Overall, unlike strategic gamers, persistent navigators who had the same (or similar) goals and made continual efforts in that direction, women scholars as opportunistic achievers emphasized the importance of taking advantage of unexpected, potentially career-changing, opportunities. These women professors highlighted their “luck” and surprisingly perfect timing. For some, these opportunities occurred at the early stage of their career, changing their work focus, while for others they appeared mid-career and facilitated their going further.

7.4 Disadvantages and Counteractions These women professors, as opportunistic achievers, worked in applied disciplines. When talking about disadvantages and challenges, they tended to point to the institution level and the practical issues they faced. Some were apt to regard gender as a disadvantage when they took institutional leadership roles.

7.4.1 Discipline-Related Disadvantages Insufficient Support at the Early Stage A few women professors, as opportunistic achievers, experienced some disadvantages in their doctoral studies. A lack of training and resources to conduct research and write their thesis was a common complaint for some. When Belen Miller was in graduate school, she said she only met her supervisor a few times. She never got sufficient feedback and support for her thesis. All she could do was to supervise and guide herself, step by step. According to Taylor, she had different phases of challenges along her academic career path. At the early stage, she encountered difficulties selecting the right topic and getting resources and support to research a narrow discipline in a small institution. Eventually, she managed to tackle it by collaborating. There are different phases of one’s career. At the early phases, the challenges were with getting enough material to build research on, and finding a unique area that is a niche. I have to be quite strategic and to find something that I can cast, that is internationally going to be recognized. So, the challenge was there because I was in small institutions and there was not much in terms of critical mass in my fellow academics in the department. But I was lucky because I found a lot of collaborators and we found that subject that was not addressed in the literature. (Taylor Ho, Interview 22)

As a medical doctor, Stella thought the biggest challenge was that little support was provided in public hospitals back then; one had to make their way out if they wanted to

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develop research skills and publish articles. Stella sought alternative funding opportunities to support her research, which also accounted for her preference for working at a university in later years. As a doctor, the primary job should be taking care of patients. The working hour is all for the patient. If you want to do research, then it should be after working hours. You almost take this as your habit if you think your research finding is a worthy contribution. Then you are willing to dedicate your time…… There is little support in the public hospital. One has to seek for supporting themselves. For instance, I ran clinical research or clinical trials. I needed to look for charitable organizations to support our research assistants or so. In university, the advantage is more grant opportunities and support as well as more collaborators, who are talented and with different expertise. The environment is different. (Stella Tse, interview 20)

Conflicts Between Practice and Research Apart from difficulties faced in their younger years, mid-career setbacks were common as well. For instance, Irene Mok revealed the conflict between teaching and research. Teaching took up individual scholars’ research time and could not be evaluated accurately. She responded by integrating research data collection with her teaching. For my career, the major challenge is that I have to put teaching as the most priority. If I prioritize teaching, I do not have a lot of time doing research. So, the best way is to collect data while I teach, and then I publish. Otherwise, I have no time to go out to different schools or different sectors to collect data. (Irene Mok, interview 9)

From the institution’s perspective, teaching took a long time to generate tangible benefits. Irene mentioned that she and her team invested a lot of time in a flipped learning project but could not make an equivalent impact on the university. The targeted faculty members did not have time to join, and teachers and students showed little interest in attending the seminar where invited professors would deliver speeches. Irene stated she was sometimes frustrated, but when asked how to minimize such a problem, she just said she had a deep interest in the discipline and had balance teaching and research with great patience; “I have a passion for teaching because I was a teacher. So, it was like a good marriage between teaching and IT together.”

7.4.2 Institution-Related Disadvantages One of the disadvantages opportunistic achievers frequently discussed was the interrelated bias of being women in the institution. These issues covered aspects such as being excluded from some disciplines, being a minority surrounded by an “old boys’ club,” and difficulties in assuming leadership in the department or institution. The Gendered Institutional Environment This group of participants mentioned their experience as women in the patriarchal culture of the institutional environment. For example, Irene stressed the isolation she

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experienced in her previous office, as she was the only woman in her department. She found her male colleagues deliberately organized informal gatherings without her. Becoming a senior professor did not imply the elimination of gender issues. Speaking of her work experience in Hong Kong, Belen described the environment as still quite “patriarchal.” She said, “it was common to be the only woman in the room even when there were 30 of men because there were so few women professors here.” So, I have passed it, but it does make it very difficult for young women, particularly in a very patriarchal society like this, doing double works. If they don’t achieve or do better than men, they are told they are a failure. Women have to work—even in Australia, twice as hard as men to take it to the same. (Belen Miller, interview 2)

Indeed, being the only woman in a meeting room was not easy. Despite not having this issue in the medical discipline, Taylor encountered difficulties assuming a leadership role in the department. The first time she realized this problem was when she wanted to become head of the department. From the beginning of her promotion application, she was discouraged and questioned by senior managers. Despite making many efforts, she still felt it hard to transfer her skills in science into management, without extra support. For a short period, I did face some challenges with convincing the leadership that I could take out the post as head of the department, [hesitating] convincing fellows senior staff, and perhaps the dean. So, I felt that challenging. And after taking on the headship, I also had some challenges dealing with staff, which I think maybe unique [hesitating and pausing]. I think the challenges with becoming the head of the department is partly the lack of training in management, the transition from being a scientist to a manager. It was kind of like I had a very big vision, but I did not have a lot of experience at all, in fact on how to achieve that in terms of growing a department, or managing people...... In terms of being a female leader, I have to say, I also did face challenges with dealing with staff. It was probably more difficult for me. I would say it’s difficult to assert my authority or to get their respect, which I think if a male counterpart would have been given more easily. (Taylor Ho, interview 22)

Olivia joined a comprehensive research university in Hong Kong in recent years and was invited to take leadership in the faculty. She said she was senior enough to be past the phase of struggling to be taken seriously, but she could still sense the gender bias in meeting rooms or on other occasions; “The subtleties of chauvinism, racism, discrimination are still at play,” she commented. Florence did not talk about the personal experience of being treated unfairly because of gender. She considered women scholars (at least in her field) to be well respected in Hong Kong. The medical professor Stella Tse held a similar view, which mirrored the point mentioned by Karen (art therapy) in Chap. 6, who was also trained as a biologist. Stella emphasized that men and women should produce equal quality to get recognized.

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I think professionals should forget about their sex. The factor should not come in the professional of the job. Being a lady does not mean being given priorities. I don’t think there is any discrimination as well. The button line is that you prove yourself by your work, which has nothing to do with men or women. (Stella Tse, interview 20)

Taylor Ho and Irene Mok noticed that women scholars were sometimes not confident enough when they were junior faculty members and tended to think they were not as capable as their men colleagues. They had more fears about taking the chances presented to them, while at the same time tending to overwork and surrender their leisure time.

7.4.3 Gender-Related Disadvantages Motherhood and Family Responsibilities In Chap. 4, motherhood and family responsibilities were mentioned. In this chapter, half of the participants in this group found motherhood a challenge in their academic career, regardless of their Western or East Asian cultural background. For instance, Belen Miller felt very guilty for not being able to spend more time with her child, as she wished. She started her Ph.D. study in the US, when her child was six months old, and everything was very tough. As she was in the middle of her career, she went through career breaks due to her husband’s job relocation. Because conferences (the one she used to go annually) always happen over my birthday and when you were four or five, the most important events are your birthday and then your mom’s or dad’s birthday. And so for ten years, I didn’t go to that conference again. I mean those sorts of things that were making a decision between family and work. I also did move, drop, not stay in the same university because of my husband’s career. I have got male colleagues, and they just move around. Their wives and kids follow them. So, you know very bright women with Ph.D., sometimes with better qualifications than their husbands, don’t develop their own career because they are the supportive ones. So, that’s a cultural and social structure. (Belen Miller, interview 2)

Belen commented that systematic support for women was sophisticated in Scandinavian countries. By comparison, in Australia and the US, let alone Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, patriarchal culture still heavily affected women and the cultural and social structure. Florence also accepted the assumption that women inevitably had to invest more time than men in motherhood and family responsibility. Though she did not mention Chinese traditional culture, her priority was family and children, around which her career decisions were made. To provide better education for her young children, she chose to move to the host country; to accommodate the need for childcare, she took part-time lecturer positions there. Even though she admitted that she sometimes had difficulties balancing her family and career, she volunteered to take a family-centered role, as did many other women. Later, in Hong Kong, her decision to change her job was out of family consideration, and she regarded it a worthy decision.

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Echoing the cultural and social structural reason, Taylor mentioned how gendered expectations about women at the institutional level positioned them in academia. I think the expectations for women in Asian culture are often like that. Career would not be expected to be your main focus. So, that in itself already, doesn’t give you the drive. And you know it’s. So, I think maybe some women themselves may also accept the fact that the career is not the most important priority for them. (Taylor Ho, interview 22)

7.5 Chapter Summary To sum up, this group of women scholars applied opportunistic logic when they made decisions in career development. They worked in relatively applied disciplines demanding practical experience. Five out of six women scholars completed their doctoral study on a part-time basis and chose a professional doctoral degree instead of an academic one. Compared to the other three categories of women professors, opportunistic achievers might not have an intense interest in knowledge production at first, instead finding their passion in practice, either teaching, research, or clinical work. After that, they started to look for further intellectual stimulation and promotion opportunities, and upgraded academic credentials (e.g., Florence Lam; Irene Mok). For those who had not worked at universities but chose to pursue a career in academia, their principle was to “say yes to opportunities” and “catch the best offer at that moment” when they decided to change their career focus (professional or academic), expand or switch to another field of research, move to a new city, or leave for another institution. The classic example might be Florence Lam’s advice of “having no specific strategies” because “academia is not business.” Their perceptions of intellectual leadership were diverse. Some were either critical of the current academic system and tried to make differences at the institution, while others doubted the dichotomy of collegiality and managerialism and viewed intellectual leadership and administrative leadership as overlapping significantly. The most mentioned quality for intellectual leadership was academic citizens who contributed to students, the department, the faculty, and the university in the long term. Regarding advantages, they mainly attributed them to their interests, intellectual curiosity, and unexpected opportunities emerging from the institution where they worked. Their interests and intellectual curiosity had changed the directions of some participants’ academic careers, which may explain why they did not have the highest interest in knowledge production and pursuing academic success until they had important mentors, the opportunity to take a certain position, or a suitable research trend. Opportunistic achievers had some similarities in terms of intellectual leadership development with the other three categories of women professors, in certain areas. For instance, like persistent navigators and unconventional fighters, they sometimes benefited from previous work experience by augmenting their skills and experience,

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as well as gaining further opportunities (e.g., Stella Tse). Regarding their experiences as women scholars, some shared the opinions of persistent navigators and unconventional fighters and were aware of the gender bias within the institutional setting.

Chapter 8

Discussion and Conclusion

Abstract This chapter recaps this study and summarizes its findings by presenting four types of women scholars as intellectual leaders. It then reflects on women scholars’ perceptions and development of intellectual leadership from three aspects— academic disciplines, neoliberal higher education institutions, and the gendered sociocultural reality—drawing on cumulative (dis)advantage theory, Macfarlane’s intellectual leadership model, and cultural impacts. Additionally, it discusses the theoretical contributions made to intellectual leadership, addressing certain knowledge gaps within the cumulative (dis)advantage framework. The chapter concludes by presenting research implications to inform Hong Kong higher education policies and to re-evaluate women’s leadership roles in higher education. Finally, it offers recommendations for future research on junior and mid-career women scholars and institutional strategies to enhance intellectual leadership development.

In recent decades, academic women have played increasingly important roles in higher education worldwide. However, women scholars’ experience in academia is still laden with obstacles from various socio-cultural aspects, such as gendered labor divisions in domestic and public spheres. Professors’ academic advancement is closely linked with epistemological properties and academic practices. Furthermore, the neoliberal culture prevailing in Hong Kong pushes universities to compete for global rank, just like in many other HE systems around the world. In Hong Kong, many performance-driven and market-oriented practices have been introduced into its higher education system that have further obstructed the development of female academics, as well as other vulnerable and disadvantaged members in higher education communities. Against this background, intellectual leadership, as informal leadership concerning scholars’ ideas that facilitate the progress of knowledge, academic citizenship, and public welfare, is under threat (Giroux, 2006; Macfarlane, 2013). With these diverse challenges, women scholars’ perceptions of and strategies to form intellectual leadership in Hong Kong HEIs are the main foci of this book. This study uses the fusion of three lenses as its theoretical framework: Merton’s (1968, 1988) cumulative (dis)advantage (CAD) theory, Macfarlane’s fourdimensions of intellectual leadership roles, and patriarchal ideals from both Western

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3_8

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and Confucian cultures. The CAD framework has been used to interpret the skewed distribution of recognition and rewards among scientists. It allowed me to make sense of the process by which female scholars cumulated advantages and disadvantages, as well as their countervailing actions toward obstacles. Disciplinary features and gender are considered critical elements for appreciating women scholars’ academic development. By analyzing women professors’ in-depth interviews with the supplementation of their academic profiles and HE policies, I addressed the following research questions: How do women scholars view intellectual leadership? How do they develop intellectual leadership? In what way do research disciplines and operations in HEIs influence them? How does gender make any differences in their academic career? The results showed that women professors had different interpretations of intellectual leadership and developed various patterns of intellectual leadership. Interview data manifested the impacts of multiple dualisms in higher education, such as collegiality and managerialism, research and teaching, and academic and professional practices. Under the influence of neoliberal and managerial culture in HEIs, academic disciplines, and impacts intertwined with constructed gender roles, four categories of seeing and developing intellectual leadership were demonstrated: (1) strategic gamers; (2) persistent navigators; (3) unconventional fighters; (4) opportunistic achievers (Fig. 8.1). The first two types of women professors accentuated strong disciplinary knowledge-oriented intellectual leadership. They prioritized research, teaching, and learning in the predefined disciplines. Strategic gamers mostly worked in hard and applied fields, and their research was often closely linked to the market. Showing some concerns about the neoliberal practices in universities, they tended to recognize the productivity and performativity in HE and viewed the system as fair. Gaining rigorous graduate school training, staying in relatively focused research areas, publishing high-quality works, and obtaining research grants were their most common ways to accumulate their initial capacity. This group of scholars usually obtained their academic awards and got promotion to full professor at a younger age compared with the other three groups. As those who gained the most merits in this system, some opted to comply with the current system, further reinforcing its neoliberal and managerial culture (e.g., Fei Gao and Renxi Lin), while some took administrative roles at the institution. The others remained aware of the issue and did try to benefit other women or junior faculty members (e.g., Grace Cho). In terms of the gender aspect, a few female professors in this group who talked about motherhood and family responsibilities appeared to accept the gendered labor division. They expressed that childcare was a personal obstacle for them (especially the younger generation from the Chinese Mainland) and tried to hide or minimize its impacts (e.g., Fei Gao). Persistent navigators, different from strategic gamers, often did not have a smooth early career. They stuck to a goal along with their academic career. Even though they encountered setbacks, they tried to navigate in the right direction in good times and in bad. They openly criticized the neoliberal and managerial logics and highlighted the conflicts between intellectual and institutional authority. At the same time, they

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Cases

Perceptions of the Academic Environment

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Strategic Gamers

Persistent navigators

Unconventional Fighters

Opportunistic Achievers

Anyi Wang Grace Cho Fei Gao Lucy Ng Renxi Lin Shirley Rai Teresa So Wen Li

Catherine Lau Huanhuan Yang Karen Law Vera Chan

Daisy Chau Ella Tang Jane Johnson Yasmin Brown

Belen Miller Florence Lam Irene Mok Olivia Gosling Taylor Ho Stella Tse

mostly neutral; partly critical

concerned, critical & frustrated

concerned, critical & frustrated

Ultimate Concerns in Academic Career

intellectual curiosity research passion

intellectual curiosity research passion contribution to the institution

Main Advantages Cumulative Period

Eearly

Middle

Features of Expertise & Areas

urban; applied; hard/hard in soft fields; mostly quantitative

urban; applied; hard/hard in soft fields; mostly quantitative

Discipline-related

postgraduate training scholarship and research funds

social welfare contribution intellectual curiosity institution commitment

Early/Middle

rural; pure/ applied; interdisciplinary (soft, newly developed); mostly qualitative

high-quality mentorship at different levels previous work experience researching in interdisciplinary fields

Institution-related Major Advantages

freedom and flexibility geographical mobility

previous and current work experience easier entrée & femaleappropriateness for some research fields

substantiation & internal support Interrelated advantages

Gender/culture-related

partly concerned & critical intellectual curiosity balance of personal development and career opportunities contribution to institution Middle/Senior

rural & urban; applied with practices; education & medicine; qualitative & quantitative

Personalities and intellectual curiosity (also an individual actor)

unexpected internal opportunities the inspiring institutional environment

Early disadvantages turned to advantages later

easier entrée & femaleappropriateness for some research fields

supportive family

Early disadvantages turned to advantages later

Discipline-related knowledge production challenges; research grants& funding

difficulties in publishing & securing research grants expanding research expertise and finding the niche;

marginalized research topics contentious research topics difficulties in publishing and securing research grants

insufficient support at the early stage conflicts between practice & research

new managerial practices different expectations for women tough and slow institutional promotion

the gendered institutional environment

Interrelated disadvantages

Institution-related Major Disadvantages & Counteractions

Gender/culture-related being underestimated as women scholars;

marginalized research topics contentious research topics difficulties in publishing and securing research grants

Motherhood and family responsibilities (strong in Strategic Gamers, Persistent Navigators & Opportunistic Achievers)

Fig. 8.1 Summary of findings. Note It is designed by the author based on the findings. The dotted lines with arrow suggest the possibilities of changes and overlaps between different types of professors. The lines with arrow indicate the interchangeable relations between advantages and disadvantages at different stages

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admitted that institutional opposition might be partly because their research was harder to bring market value and did not enhance the competitiveness of the university. On the one hand, they struggled to meet institutional requirements as faculty members; on the other, they needed to protect their space to develop their passionate expertise in areas that received little support or recognition from institutions. Sometimes they had to detour to get to their destination. They were enthusiastic about research and knowledge production as strategic gamers. Hence, they collaborated widely to pursue international doctoral degrees or try various avenues to validate their competence. Some of them had to wait for years to accomplish their ambitions if they worked in innovative or interdisciplinary research (e.g., Huanhuan Yang and Karen Law). In this group, two women professors (Huanhuan Yang and Vera Chan) highlighted that their hardship of being academic mothers implicitly influenced their geographical mobility. Unconventional fighters considered the application of academic expertise to be as important as (if not more important than) academic knowledge production. They developed the consciousness to improve social welfare through their previous study or work. This type of professors worked in the humanities and social sciences, relatively soft fields, and controversial fields. As persistent navigators, this category of female professors also felt the neoliberal model of higher education in Hong Kong undermined women scholars’ intellectual development. According to some (Ella Tang, Jane Jackson, Yasmin Brown), universities with a patriarchal culture in Hong Kong continued to see women as caregivers at the institution and some procedures, such as promotion, were gender-biased. Some of this group thought having institutional authority could benefit their academic agenda and hoped to get recognition by assuming institutional leadership and making further changes to the department or faculty (e.g., Ella Tang, Jane Jackson). Opportunistic achievers often worked in applied fields. They had strong intellectual curiosity during their professional practices and pursued doctoral training at a later career stage. In their academic journey, their main considerations were to balance personal interests in research and teaching, creating a friendly environment for fellow colleges, family arrangements, and professional promotion opportunities. These scholars were likely to take on institutional leadership roles when opportunities presented themselves. The four types of women professors shared some similarities in terms of their perceptions and experiences. Their intellectual leadership development does not imply they followed a fixed formula to succeed. Instead, their academic roles, concerns, advantages, and disadvantages were dynamic across different stages as the higher education context changed. For instance, strategic gamers had their career advance early, while some professors in the other three types rapidly accumulated advantages much later in their careers. Strategic gamers and persistent navigators prioritized knowledge production, but also made contributions to shaping the institutions and creating a collegial academic environment at their senior stage of career. Persistent navigators and unconventional fighters may have experienced similar slow advancement in their early career and taken on other academic roles to accumulate professional merits. Unconventional fighters had emancipatory concerns from their

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early career stage, while a few strategic gamers showed a passion for emancipation through research. Opportunistic achievers took on similar roles when they caught an unanticipated career chance later. Even within a single type, the professors displayed a spectrum of diverse opinions on the same issue, such as the influence of gender in their career. These categories of intellectual leadership do not suggest a static leadership style or a single type of development. Overlaps and dynamic complexities can be seen across the different categories. Hence, this study has bridged the knowledge gap of intellectual leadership from women professors’ perspectives and conceptualized how they established their intellectual capacity in diverse patterns. The next part further details how epistemological, gender, institutional, and cultural elements made differences in their career trajectories.

8.1 Women Scholars and Intellectual Leadership The four categories of women professors cumulated advantages for intellectual leadership from different academic roles in the discourse of Hong Kong higher education. Referring to the four dimensions of professors’ roles by Macfarlane (2013) (Sect. 2.1.2), women professors’ intellectual leadership evolved from different dimensions—producing knowledge, being academic citizens, crossing disciplines, and engaging actively in the public debates and campaigns. Their initial strong role (either a researcher, teacher, mentor, academic manager, or public intellectual) could effectively strengthen their advantages in other roles. Strategic gamers mainly accrued their scholarship in knowledge production; persistent navigators, unconventional fighters, and opportunistic achievers also relied on teaching, services, and other engagements. Particularly, unconventional fighters highlighted the role of being a critic and taking risks. Their different patterns to accumulate intellectual leadership can be attributed to the diverse nature of academic disciplines and socio-cultural perspectives on gender divisions, and neoliberal impacts on disciplines, HEIs, and gender. All these factors intertwined and impacted these female scholars’ careers.

8.1.1 Academic Discipline: Affecting Development of Intellectual Leadership Epistemological characteristics of disciplines had a great impact on women scholars’ conceptualizations of intellectual leadership and strategies to accrue intellectual capacity in this study. Disciplinary features diverge drastically, even within one large field of research. Components such as the massification and marketization of higher education, global collaboration, knowledge exchange, and interactions with government and industries have significantly altered what it means to be in a research or study

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field. The boundaries between “soft” and “hard” and between “pure” and “applied” need to be revisited. For instance, subfields in education can be further categorized as soft-pure (e.g., education philosophy), soft-applied (e.g., language education), or hard-applied (e.g., psychology). These complicated disciplinary features affect the understanding and formation of intellectual leadership. STEM, arts and humanities, and social sciences fields are characterized by very distinctive research natures, methodologies, and communication patterns. Arts and humanities adopt unique methods to critique and analyze. As a relatively young stream of research, scientific research methods commonly applied in the social sciences stem from positivist research paradigms used in the natural sciences. This engenders hierarchies among research methodologies. Among the sciences, Merton (1979) once clarified the phenomenon by using “codification” (p. 507). Research fields with a higher level of codification denote a higher possibility of consolidating empirical knowledge into concise and interdependent theories. The comprehensive and accurate structures of these highly codified domains enable empirical data to be precisely described under theoretical frameworks. More importantly, it offers more clearly defined standards to evaluate the significance of new research problems, new data, and innovative solutions. Research and scholarship in humanities and social sciences are not the same as in natural sciences. As Clark (1986) emphasized, scholarship means principally control of primary materials. Research, differently, is essentially about finding out something new about your topic, or your author or field (p. 92).” Therefore, in disciplines that are largely descriptive and only loosely formulated by theory, scholars’ personal and social attributes have a larger impact on the visibility and acceptance of ideas. When asked their perceptions of intellectual leadership, most women professors across the four different types agreed that the core of intellectual leadership was discovery scholarship. Those professors in the sciences and health profession (e.g., Wen Li, Lucy Ng, Karen Law, Stella Tse) especially always prioritized research leadership, including innovation on research ideas and methods and the leadership of research teams. Research outputs (usually tangible, measurable, and applicable) were viewed as the most vital evidence of intellectual leadership. This corresponds with Macfarlane and Burg’s (2018) study, in which women professors viewed “researcher” as professors’ core identity and the ability to publish and secure grants as key skills. In this sense, they were “high performers” who were most likely to be rewarded by the leaderist mindset. Professors of all types underlined the moral and ethical aspects as important qualities of intellectual leadership. Regardless of their research field, many participants asserted that the managerial and neoliberal in HEIs pose certain threats to knowledge production and knowledge dissemination. A few participants in the humanities and social sciences put more emphasis on such activities as teaching, mentoring, and supporting students and other staff, and showed stronger sympathy toward disadvantaged groups in academia, such as women and junior scholars, as they themselves might have been through an ordeal to survive and were thus more willing to help others. As previous research indicates (Macfarlane & Burg, 2018), compared with

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male professors, female professors tend to recognize their moral roles in their professoriate identity as role models, mentors, advocators, and trailblazers. For those in interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary research, some women professors aspired to open-mindedness and wider insights about intellectual leadership. Owing to disciplinary differences, innovation and creativity in research can hardly be measured with the same criteria, such as the numbers and names associated with publications, channels of publishing, types of grants, and amounts of funding. In terms of the development of intellectual leadership, in the hard disciplines within social sciences (e.g., business, psychology), female professors’ focus on the role of knowledge producer permeated their career. They had earned resources and fame since the early stage of their career. Those in relatively higher codified research fields were more able to comply with standard research norms and their ideas and research were evaluated more accurately, while those working in lower codified domains and using qualitative methods trod a more contoured path to moving forward in academia and getting their new knowledge accepted. In this study, many persistent navigators’ and unconventional fighters’ careers exemplified this pattern. In the softer fields, women professors in this study, particularly persistent navigators, unconventional fighters, and opportunistic achievers, invested a larger amount of time and resources in teaching, knowledge exchange, and services as academic citizens. This may result in their obtaining rewards and recognition at an older age. In these disciplines, as well as in interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research fields, women professors had to have extra strong skills to negotiate the distribution of different types of workloads, promotion opportunities, and faculty development opportunities. Those who did not know how to negotiate were more likely to staying longer in “the ivory basement” or leave academia permanently (Gasser & Shaffer, 2014). In this study, a few women professors achieved highly in interdisciplinary research areas or newly developed fields (e.g., Karen Law and Ella Tang). On the one hand, there are some links between interdisciplinary research and gender. For instance, in a US-based study, Rhoten and Pfirman (2007) pointed out that, compared to men scientists, female scientists are more willing to adapt concepts, theories, data, and methods from other fields; they tend to engage in studies in areas at the intersection or on the edges of multiple disciplines or fields. In addition, female scientists are more apt to conduct interdisciplinary research for multiple stakeholders and broader missions outside of academe. On average, women researchers have more collaborators than their men counterparts (Bozeman & Gaughan, 2011). As men scholars’ interdisciplinary studies were not compared in this study, it could be understood that the female scholars working in these previously less established research areas might have some merits and space to develop their research capacity and reputation. The disciplinary differences can also be associated with the scholars’ age. The roles of older and younger scientists differ with, as Merton put it (1957, p. 557), the older ones “providing somewhat more for intellectual continuity by linking current work with work done sometime before” and the younger ones “pushing ahead somewhat more on their own, less ‘encumbered’ by past formulations.” Apparently,

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scholars, especially in the arts and humanities in this study, created and appreciated previous types of academic innovation, while those in STEM and new applied technology fields acknowledge the latter. Some argue that the standards of academic excellence are gender constructed (Van den Brink & Benschop, 2012). Getting published in international peer-review journals is the cornerstone of scholars’ advancement in their careers. Peer review is ostensibly regarded as the most objective avenue to evaluate scholarly works, as many participants stated. However, some professors among the strategic gamers and unconventional fighters pointed out the issue of gender bias in the peer-review process, either based on personal experience or relevant literature. In fact, fewer women reviewers, especially junior academic women, are invited to be reviewers and editors and fewer women reviewers are suggested by both male and female authors (e.g., Lerback & Hanson, 2017). Manuscripts submitted by women are scrutinized under higher standards and take more time to be accepted (Hengel, 2017). This may result in fewer women being willing to take on reviewers’ roles (Ortega, 2017). These discoveries about the peer review system to some extent explain why women publish less and slower, as shown in Aiston and Jung’s study (2015). Overall, the number of articles or books published by scholars in the soft and pure research fields is smaller than by those in hard and applied ones. As citations of academic works have become an important indicator of their reception in the academic community, this factor may impact female academics’ credibility. It makes sense that persistent navigators and unconventional fighters saw intellectual leadership differently and called for innovative definitions and measurements of their accomplishments.

8.1.2 Neoliberal HEIs: Reinforcing the Greedy Career Women professors’ agency to develop intellectual leadership is contextualized in the environment of higher education. Connotations of leadership in the discourse of neoliberal governance, as discussed in Sect. 2.4.1 in Chap. 2, have made significant impacts on how individual academics view and form their intellectual leadership. The analysis of these institutional factors helps to explain why female scholars in different academic communities took diverse actions to develop their careers. Many participants associated intellectual leadership with institutional and administrative leadership. The four categories of scholars showed divided attitudes about this relation. In most cases, strategic gamers stated they were detached about institutional leadership because they could develop intellectual leadership independently. However, some persistent navigators, unconventional fighters, and opportunistic achievers held different views. On the one hand, they desired to devote themselves to their research full-heartedly and considered time-consuming administrative leadership a burden. As described in a previous study, leadership is “perceived and experienced by women in terms of navigating a range of ugly feelings and toxicities that depleted aspirations, well-being and opportunities” in six Asian countries (Morley & Crossouard, 2016). On the other hand, some regarded that being a formal leader

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empowered them and earned them more respect from scholars who might otherwise ignore their achievements. In addition, formal leadership may help them channel resources to where they think worthwhile and create a better research environment for the department or faculty. These different views could be appreciated by delving into the influence of neoliberalism on leadership. Neoliberalism relies on the idea that all goods and services are referred to their exchange value (Lynch et al., 2012). It is closely connected to positivist and quantitative epistemologies in higher education and in other public sectors and tends to centralize knowledge created by white, middle-class, heterosexual, able-bodied males and marginalize that created by others. Under the context of global neoliberal culture fully absorbed by higher education, intellectual leadership is under threat and is a problem that increasingly attracts scholars’ attention (Macfarlane, 2013; Oleksiyenko, 2018). Leaderism means the explicit use of the language about leadership, emphasizing the indisputable power of those who are in a place to offer guidance and set the direction of the team or organization (O’Reilly & Reed, 2010). Leaderism has detrimental implications for intellectual leadership. Leaderism is a rhetoric term implying the “great man” as the leader and “solders” as the led (Oleksiyenko, 2018). Underlining the guidance and direction given by leaders, it usually exerts influence in formal and senior positions (Macfarlane, 2013). It might be possible that some participants, as strategic gamers whose academic achievements were recognized early, had an advantaged position in the system, as the market valued their academic precocity. As a result, they tended to agree with the meritocracy in HE and leaderism and to reinforce (sometimes unconsciously) the outcome-based and merit-oriented system when they took on institutional roles. Neoliberal and managerial practices seemed legitimate to them. By contrast, the theme of “gendered organization” permeated the interviews of different types of professors. Persistent navigators, unconventional fighters, and opportunistic achievers underlined the intertwined gender bias within HEIs. Some female scholars, as persistent navigators, unconventional fighters, and opportunistic achievers, might not be recognized as leaders at the institutional level in the early stage of their career. Out of the need to survive, they had to take more academic housework, the “trivial and unwanted tasks” (by interviewees), like academic citizens (Macfarlane, 2013). Confirming the results in a large body of literature, a large proportion of women professors in this study shared their experiences of taking on a dual career by doing both emotional and professional work (especially when they were junior) (Heijstra et al., 2017; Yamamoto, 2017). The dual career is imposed on vulnerable academic members (e.g., women and junior scholars). In neoliberal status-seekers’ eyes, leaderism legitimates the gendered construction of academic work; individual academics are constructed as “carefree” regarding “academic housework” and leaders are perceived as “zero-load workers” without care responsibilities (Morley and Crossouard, 2016). Such a masculine culture further shapes women’s ideas about leadership identities and becomes “the organizational other.” As a result, women are expected to adopt masculine culture while exercising certain levels of femininity (such as looking pretty, being caring and gentle) (Fitzgerald, 2018).

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Hence, the women scholars in this study (especially persistent navigators, unconventional fighters) spent more years traversing the roles of knowledge producers, academic citizens, and boundary transgressors. They fulfilled internal service duties such as taking care of students and junior colleagues, teaching undergraduate and common courses, getting to know the situation within the institution, and sitting on all kinds of committees (some out of affirmative action requirements). The increasing amount of academic housework imposed by the universities deprived them of more research time. Some participants asserted they spent longer at the associate professor level as a result, confirming the findings of previous studies (Macfarlane & Burg, 2019; Misra et al., 2011). Because of their condensed time for research, their advancement from associate to full professor could be extended by from a few years to a decade. Without full professorship, they could not legitimately compete for senior management leadership positions such as a vice-chancellor, deputy vicechancellor, pro-vice-chancellor, and faculty dean (as discussed in Bagilhole & White, 2008; Burkinshaw, 2015). Therefore, women scholars enjoyed fewer years of academic freedom and autonomy, due to the burden of meeting university promotion requirements (as stated in Bornholt et al., 2005). For persistent navigators, taking leadership positions and advocating for public welfare was a chance to build up networks with colleagues within the faculty and the institution. Getting familiar with the situations at the institution and enlarging their network gave them credits in the future to help promote their scholarly works and advocate for academic activities. Some professors, as persistent navigators and unconventional fighters, had a deeper understanding of gender study and critical theories, and supported junior colleagues by mentoring and teaching. Another barrier for female professors and other disadvantaged academics is the insufficient transparency of promotion, pay, and retention (as mentioned in O’Connor, 2017). Scholars in this study who were persistent navigators and opportunistic achievers were more likely to change institutions due to discriminatory practices at the institution, such as a longer time between and fewer chances to receive a promotion, or constrained financial benefits. Geographical mobility became one of the strategies by which they navigated their path among institutions or regions (Gardner, 2012). With more awareness and knowledge about these issues, two professors, as unconventional fighters (Ella Tang and Jane Jackson), challenged these issues publicly with leaders in faculties and universities. Some contested the unequal allocation of pay and the extension of retirement in public seminars.

8.1.3 The Confucian Cultural Reality: Amplifying the Lack of Support The socio-cultural reality of gender may bring implicit and explicit bias at the disciplinary, institutional, and personal levels. Many of those professors who had family and children stressed that being an academic mother was a major career distraction.

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This held for those from both liberal Anglo-Saxon cultures and CHC, in this study. Family responsibilities and children have always been at the center of discussions on female academics’ development, as previous studies have suggested (e.g., Amsler & Motta, 2019; Mason et al., 2013; Wang & Gao, 2022). Gender, as the primary category of social organization, is used as “a fundamental way of making sense of people related to the problems of organizing social encounters with others” (Ridgeway, 2011, p. 34). The labor division between men and women has been shared knowledge or presumed shared knowledge that people learn to coordinate. With more measures to ensure equal opportunities, women have crossed the boundary between private and public. Therefore, they invariably negotiate between parental and employee identities and are paying the cost by taking on multiple burdens. Women have increasingly taken on roles and positions in public spheres, but changes in gender role segregation in both the private and public spheres remain much slower. For example, women are still the primary childcare providers in a family, regardless of whether they are employed, as suggested by an empirical study investigating family relationships and intimacy among young women and their mothers in Hong Kong and the UK (Jackson et al., 2013). The gender-segregated labor market continues to affect their lives as they practice both traditional and modern ideas of family life. At this point, socio-economic and political discourse seem more relevant than the changes of culture for explaining family life and the social roles and expectations place on women. Family and gender roles in East Asian societies (e.g., Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Mainland of China, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam) embody commonalities and differences within Confucian cultural tradition (e.g., Slote & De Vos, 1998; Wang & Gao, 2022). The key common points are familial values and filiality. In Hong Kong, traditional beliefs and values (such as strong familialism and filial piety) still have strong impacts on women (as discussed in Chap. 2). Regardless of the external forces and changing organization of social life, women’s lives continue to reflect a combination of modernity and tradition (Jackson et al., 2013). Echoing Chizuko Ueno’s (2020) Maxist feminist analysis on women and labor, women in Hong Kong face the double dilemma: the emphasis on profit and productivity brought by capitalism and neoliberalism, and the unequal distribution of labor and resources reinforced by the patriarchal value. Societal norms, cultural expectations, and historical power dynamics concurrently lead to the marginalization of women in the workforce. In the social milieu in Hong Kong, as in other welfare countries and regimes influenced by liberal Anglo-Saxon culture, caring is perceived as a private aspect of life (Lynch et al., 2016). Caring, love, and emotions are not counted as labor in the public sphere and are not valued from a career aspect. Gendered division of labor in private realm and the devaluation of “women’s work” further put them into marginal place in the public realm (Ueno, 2020). Hence, the “affective inequality” put forward by Lynch et al. (2016) in the liberal political discourse in Hong Kong, can account for women’s “double career” (also discussed in Sect. 8.3.2). Care is defined as a private matter that should be hidden to show professionalism. Human vulnerability and emotions are under-estimated. The fact that human flourishing requires good

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care—physically and mentally—is largely ignored (Lynch, 2010). This can partly explain why academic women, mothers and caregivers both at home and in the workplace, struggle between two greedy institutions—the extended family and the university (Currie et al., 2008). In the long-hour work culture environment, the “work-life balance” pursuit is doubted: men experience it, but still make their career progress; organizations’ efforts to make family and work more compatible do not realize their good intentions and often hurt women who try to use these flexible policies. The work-devotion and family-devotion schemas have become “hegemonic narratives” that impede gender equality promotion. Based on Padavic et al.’s (2019) US-based study, the long-hour work culture has aggravated gender inequality. Both men and women are influenced but women pay the much higher price. The 24/7 workplace culture requires employees to stand by at all times. Primary anxiety rises, as “the threat of losing one’s sense of human wholeness promoted by the daily forced choice between love and work” (Padavic et al., 2019, p. 85). Referring to Ren, Yi, Li, Xiao in Confucian culture (discussed in Sect. 2.3.2), women are expected to think and behave in accordance with their roles as wife, mother, daughter, and daughter-in-law. It is not sustainable for them to remain in the highly stressed external workplace, which ignores love and care and avoids family devotion. Hence, the patriarchal culture, particularly strong in East Asian societies, amplifies the conflicts of work and life and deepens the tensions between “two greedy institution (the family and the university).” The thin representation of women in senior academic ranks and the masculinity of the workplace culture persist, and can be related to the highly competitive higher education environment in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, a welfare regime in the CHC context, amplifies the lack of support for women. As public childcare is largely lacking in the society, the cost of child-raising falls on the individual family. Women professors with a family and children, regardless of their backgrounds, tended to embrace the gender role as primary caregivers. Those who were affected by Confucian culture were more likely to internalize the labor division in the family, even though they did not talk much about filiality. Like the women principals in primary schools in Hong Kong investigated by Chan et al. (2016), many participants in my study agreed that the care and education of children was their responsibility. On the one hand, they felt guilty about not being able to spend more time with their young children. On the other, they underscored individual effort and embraced the system of meritocracy. Mitigating burnout from both ends (academic work and family responsibility) usually required external support. Interviews data in this study suggested the importance of “informal, familial, individual support” in the family, as Chan et al. point out (2016, p. 209). Female scholars’ partners and other family members played important roles in these female scholars’ successful career development, as indicated by a few strategic gamers and unconventional fighters. In addition, the service provided by live-in domestic workers in Hong Kong, also mentioned in both interviews and previous studies, eased their burden (e.g., Chan, 2006; He & Wu, 2019).

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As discussed in Sect. 2.3.2, Confucian culture promotes harmony in the collectivist group (e.g., the family and community) and praises an individual’s modest attitude, especially for women. In this study, a few professors in different categories (e.g., Teresa So, and Irene Mok) revealed they did not have confidence in themselves. With the additional impact of East Asian working culture, low self-esteem might lead to women scholars’ working unreasonably long hours that invade their personal life (e.g., Catherine Lau). Also, the lack of senior women professors and mentors in the faculty or institution leads to an unfavorable or abnormal impression of leadership among junior women scholars. As studied in previous literature, the confidence gap between men and women matters significantly in career development, with women usually having relatively lower confidence than their male counterparts (Guillén et al., 2016). For instance, strategic gamers’ early recognition and success in their academic career bridged the confidence gap, so they accelerated their advancement intellectually and institutionally. However, persistent navigators, unconventional fighters, and opportunistic achievers need to spend more time establishing their confidence as academic citizens, boundary transgressors, and public intellectuals. To summarize, the organization of the academic community and HEIs, and the gender role under patriarchal cultures (especially CHC for those from a Chinese background), coupled with market-oriented practices, have significantly affected women professors’ academic activities in the discipline and the university, as well as their personal lives (which also impacted their academic careers).

8.2 Women Scholars and Cumulative (Dis)Advantage In this book, the lens of cumulative (dis)advantage theory is used to elucidated the progress of women professors’ intellectual leadership. As previously mentioned in this chapter, strategic gamers seemed to experience fewer years to achieve full professorship than other types of professors. In the earlier discussions of CAD by Merton and other social scientists, it holds that early identification of talent has both immediate and long-term impacts on individual scholars’ performance and career. Scientists’ “track record” of role performance influences their future access to resources and recognition. Advantages can be accumulated additively and multiplicatively. When meritocracy is the only factor impacting role performance, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged scientists grows especially rapidly. Those who have early recognition get access to extra resources and become more competent and efficient in using these resources. This is referred to as accumulating advantages multiplicatively. Otherwise, “functionally irrelevant criteria” such as race, ethnicity, sex, religion, age, or other social origins, cause the different allocation of resources when meritocracy of research performance is not the single element. In such cases, they tend to grow advantages additively (Zuckerman, 1997). As mentioned before, factors such as characteristics of academic disciplines may affect the proportion of meritocracy when assessing scholars’ performance.

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The findings of this study can bridge a few gaps in CAD. In Chap. 3 (Sect. 3.1.2), some voids in CAD were identified, including: (1) the possibility for elite scientists to achieve successive significant academic accomplishment at the later career stages; (2) the mechanism of accumulation of disadvantages; and, (3) opportunities for success by those who were once disadvantaged and the potential for failure of those once advantaged. This study makes inputs in these aspects from the experience of women scholars’ accumulating intellectual leadership in Hong Kong. Do elite scholars continue to grow their advantages in their later career stages? The development pattern of strategic gamers resembled many aspects of accumulation of advantages in elite scientists (Cole & Cole, 1974) and ultra-elite scientists in the multiplied manner in Zuckerman’s study (1977). The early identification and recognition of these women professors enabled them to cultivate paramount research tastes and skills in prestigious universities. Their early experience helped them secure research grants, publish in established peer-review journals, and be supported, as they took on institutional leadership positions in a rather short time in their early career. At the senior stage of their careers, these scholars, mirroring what Merton mentioned (Merton, 1979, p. 531), were confronted with time constrains by more investments in “alternative roles as advisors, sages, and statespersons both within the domain of science and in the larger society” that the community or the institution expected them to make. As discussed in Sect. 8.3.1, those who succeeded early were more likely to be given favors by the neoliberal system. Nonetheless, due to their strong research impacts in the field, many participants retained their research-oriented role. Being full professors, they endeavored to apply their expertise in the international context fully, enlarge the impact of their research in the academic community, and eventually make a further contribution to policies and the wider society. How about those who were not recognized early? Due to the hierarchy of knowledge and patriarchal and neoliberal environment in HEIs, women professors in this study who might not have been identified as early achievers tried to navigate their paths through the interaction of researchers and other roles. The other three types of women leaders further generated their advantages at the middle and senior stages of their careers. Persistent navigators tried to traverse the bumpy road and gained significant academic achievements at the later stages. Per Cole and Cole (1974), some unconventional fighters and opportunistic achievers chose to be elite administrators instead of elite scientists. Administrative elites usually occupy influential positions in science and their “acumen in administering science has frequently led capable but not extraordinary researchers to the highest levels of science policy-making.” In addition, they also act as “gate-keepers” for many government-controlled resources and determine the standards for assessing research outputs and awarding research grants. Per the hypothesis by Allison and Stewart (1974), quoted in Merton’s (1988) article: the more productive scientists, recognized as such by the reward system of science, tend to persist in their research roles’ while those with declining research productivity tend to shift to other indispensable roles in science, not excluding the conventionally maligned role of research administrator (p. 612).

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Besides strategic gamers, the other three types of women scholars used their extraordinary fortitude to neutralize their early disadvantages. Instead of being satisfied with research administrators, some at the same time pursued research excellence when they had access to enough resources for their research. Although their development appeared more additive, they eventually made their way. How do disadvantages accumulate? Do those disadvantaged at the early stage continue their path with more disadvantages, or do they make their way? Are cumulative disadvantages more common in certain fields? While many of these questions have been addressed in the finding chapters, disadvantages accumulated from aspects of disciplinary, institutional, and gender and cultural levels under the influence of neoliberalism and managerialism. Disciplinary discourses have a significant influence on the accumulation of advantages and disadvantages for women scholars. Comparatively, cumulative disadvantages are more common in the soft and pure subjects within the humanities and social sciences fields and newly developed disciplines. Women scholars working on highly codified subjects are more apt to be recognized for their performance. In contrast, those working on descriptive and qualitative subjects tend to be judged by their social origins. These social factors that are seemingly irrelevant to their research performance link closely to recognition and rewards for women professors, within HEIs (e.g., biased in women leadership) and among academic communities (e.g., biased in peer reviews and grants awards). The definition of “excellence” in Merton’s work On Social structure and science (1996, p. 531) has been defined differently—excellence as a personal quality, and excellence as the outcome of one’s work. In this study, women scholars, as strategic gamers, were recognized as “excellent” as a personal quality at young ages (e.g., early awards and scholarship; apprenticeship with outstanding supervisors); later, it accumulated because of their performance based on the recognition of personal quality. Persistent navigators and unconventional fighters, who were not recognized at an early stage, had to build up their track record slowly from the different academic roles of professors. Their disadvantages in their personal quality to become top scholars were not identified, so they needed to depend on the works they did—i.e., excellence of performance. Hence, Cole and Cole (1974) once argued that no significant evidence was found about discriminations against women scientists except for their low self-esteem and low productivity. This investigation can use empirical results to dispute this point—low self-esteem and low productivity can be the consequences of many covert discriminations against women. Furthermore, this study is situated in a social context that is highly different and dynamic, compared to Merton’s (the 1940s to the 1960s), Zuckerman’s and Cole’s eras (the 1970s and 1990s). With globalization, corporatization, and marketization in higher education, the combination of modernity and patriarchal culture, scholars’ roles have drifted, and women professors’ cognition and value have departed from them demonstrably. Following the findings in this study, advantageous and disadvantageous incidences and elements can be fluid at certain points of academic women’s careers. For instance, persistent navigators had the most apparent evidence—interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary research expertise. Their advantages and disadvantages are mutually correlated: once their original research fields made it hard to

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obtain prompt recognition, they diversified their research focus; when they had wider expertise, they occupied niche academic territories and became “big names.” This echoes Merton’s analysis of ages and sciences—younger scientists (such as strategic gamers) or scientists in newer fields (persistent navigators, unconventional fighter) are more likely to make breakthroughs in a field.

8.3 Closing Remarks 8.3.1 Implications In addressing how women scholars conceptualized and formed their intellectual leadership, this study identified four types of women professors. It is expected to have implications at the theoretical and practical levels. At the theoretical level, first, it contributes to the interpretation of intellectual leadership in higher education from women scholars’ perspectives, with empirical evidence; Second, it clarifies the combined effects on female professors’ academic careers under cultural legacies of patriarchy (in both liberal Anglo-Saxon culture and CHC), neoliberalism in higher education, and social life. Third, it enriches the mechanism of CAD by connecting it with socio-cultural realities of gender roles, disciplinary characteristics, and the higher education policies in Hong Kong. At the practical level, this study suggests recognizing the structural obstacles faced by women scholars in the academic community, in the workplace, and in the family, and widening the recognition of intellectual leadership from HEIs’ and policymakers’ perspectives. Furthermore, it also emphasizes promoting a more collegial academic environment for women and other vulnerable members in academia in Hong Kong higher education. Reflecting on Hong Kong Higher Education Policies In Hong Kong, RAE, as the major research assessment framework for individual academics, has played a critical role in affecting how professors cope with daily academic practices since the 1990s. The framework of RAE in Hong Kong has been updated in 2020. To address emerging concerns, RAE 2020 has made considerable changes based on RAE 2014. It integrates “impact” and “environment” as 30% in addition to “research outputs”1 to provide incentives for researchers with “broader social relevance with economic and social benefits” as well as to “take into account universities’ strategy, resources and infrastructure that support research” (University Grants Committee, 2019, p. 111). It asserts to “maintain an inclusive view on the 1

Research impact is referred to “the demonstrable contributions, beneficial effects, valuable changes or advantages that research qualitatively brings to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life; and that are beyond the academia”; while “research environment” means “the strategy resources and infrastructure that support research giving rise to collaborations, esteem and contributions to the disciplines or research base” (University Grants Committee, 2019, p. 11).

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scope of research,” and to take “the discovery of knowledge, the integration of knowledge, the application of knowledge and the sharing of knowledge through teaching which are regarded as different forms of scholarship” (University Grants Committee, 2017, p. 3). It seems beneficial to promote those scholarship with strong social utility. Nonetheless, the RAE-defined “impactful research” still limit the demonstratable impacts in a narrowed sense (Li & Li, 2022). According to empirical studies on how academics responded to RAE 2020 in Hong Kong, it may be designed as a neutral or even benevolent action, but turns out to be neoliberal and managerial practices in its actual implementations and academics may cope with the policies with covert resistance (Li, 2022; Li & Li, 2023). “International standards” are described as one of the main principles for assessing research output. Meeting international standards means conducting research relevant to contents and theories in the Western societies and involving more overseas members. Currently, 70% of panel members sitting in RAE in Hong Kong are nonlocal scholars from a range of different countries (including the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Israel Japan, Singapore, Taiwan so on). Research sovereignty is thus under question—“whether academics and experts from other countries should be given the authority to audit and judge another country’s research” (Law, 2019, p. 188). At the same time, the overemphasis of researchers’ international relevance may undermine local scholarship (Mok, 2006, 2014) and scholarship focusing on contents in Chinese societies, as pointed out by several interviewed scholars in this study and recent empirical studies (Li & Li, 2022). Assessment practices should be carefully managed to balance local, national, and global scholarship. Within the academic community and scholarly associations, women editors, women reviewers, and women members in RAE panels are critical to mitigating gender bias in such processes as research grants awarding and journal peer reviews. This requires joint efforts by both leaders in higher education and academic publishers to enhance gender equality, which is very challenging. RAE 2020 has not specified that panels should include a certain percentage of female experts, nor does it have a clear policy about granting special consideration for eligible staff for maternity. For women who are pregnant or have at least one birth during the assessment period, there is no automatic exemption or reduction of output; instead, universities review requests on a case-by-case basis (University Grants Committee, 2019). Although RAE has profoundly impacted academic women’s careers, university and departmental leadership must be revisited to promote female scholars’ development. Based on the empirical investigation of three research-intensive universities in Hong Kong, Aiston and Fo (2020) suggested that a supportive system had not yet been established for women, despite emerging awareness of and sensitivity about gender issues. Significant gaps have been identified between sentiment and policies concerning gender inequality in the higher education context, and between those policies and their actual implementation. More efforts are needed to convince faculty deans and department heads to pay adequate attention to gender issues and adopt practices that lead to real change. More discussions are needed regarding family-friendly policies and performance evaluation to improve flexibility and inclusiveness at the university and departmental level.

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Against the backdrop of global competition and institutional anxiety, scholars who are committed to intellectual contribution and willing to spend time on worthy and important research topics are vulnerable to the “shame logics” that devalue individual subjectivities and agency (Shahjahan, 2019). This investigation suggests that “slow scholarship” is needed, as Mountz et al. (2015) advocated. In particular, for scholars in the humanities and social sciences and those in new research fields, more time and space should be allowed, and alternative means should be recognized (Mountz et al., 2015). Changing policies attuned with the development of academics’ career features is beneficial for scholars, especially those in the soft and pure fields of the humanities and social sciences (Horta et al., 2019). Rethinking Women Leadership As this study suggests, informal leadership (e.g., intellectual leadership), and institutional leadership (e.g., institutional and executive leadership) differ in many senses but closely interrelate. Indeed, the increasing numbers of female professors and senior women leaders in HEIs are goals for a more gender-equal system. Nonetheless, women at senior positions are not synonymous with those who support and benefit intellectual leadership development of women and other disadvantaged groups in HE. Feminist leaders (both women and men) who are willing to prioritize the institutional gender agenda are the key to improving gender equality in the academic culture. Gender awareness in senior management levels of HEIs ought to be enhanced. Feminist workplace values that promote collaboration and collegiality and allow a sustainable work-family balance need to be strengthened. Leadership program can be an option to enhance institutional education on gender competence leadership. Disciplines have impacts on academic leadership (Blackmore, 2007). In the globalized and marketized HE system, women professors in STEM and urban and applied research fields are more likely to be appointed higher education leaders (discussed in Bagilhole & White, 2008). Hence, there should be more support for women in faculties such as the arts and humanities and social sciences in the HE system in Hong Kong. Senior women leaders in higher education can become agents of change, prioritizing the gender agenda in institutions (as suggested by White, 2017). To facilitate these changes, instead of traditional leadership programs, individualized approaches to mentoring women academics should be an alternative for women professors’ programs, like those in Germany (Löther, 2019) and the women-only leadership program in Sweden (Peterson & Jordansson, 2017). This study pinpoints one significant issue for most women in academe: motherhood. Usually, it is viewed as the unique biological characteristics of individual women, it is essential at the institutional level to politicize motherhood. On the one hand, in CHC societies, it is still perceived as the main task of women to take care of children, the elderly, and the husband (who has less engagement in the family than their Western counterparts). As more women enter professional domains and gain economic income in the workforce, gender divided labor has yet to change accordingly. On the other hand, in neoliberal universities, discarding care and emotion work as valuable contributions and long-hour culture further deteriorates women’s survival space. For those expatriate scholars without Chinese backgrounds and those

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CHC-affected ones, being an academic mother easily generates guilt and feeling of inappropriateness because of its breaking the norm of being “professional” and “efficient.” Those who want a successful academic career tend to minimize or hide the responsibilities of childcare and child-raising (Bardoel et al., 2011). As Amsler and Motta (2019) put forward, motherhood, as the significant reproductive work for the society, should be recognized as a form of contribution and be acknowledged systematically. Currently, it remains unanswered how RAE can account for the labor of pregnancy. Perhaps it does not mean merely the time deducted giving birth and taking care of their infants, but concerns a deeper involvement in the structural problems of women scholars—humiliation, guilt, and self-disciplining. Potential policy changes to support faculty mothers and relieve family responsibility burdens are needed. Actions to actively promote mother-academics in other developed countries can be referred to, including subsidized childcare, shared maternity and paternity leave, automatic extensions of research funding, supporting policies applicable to graduate students and post-docs, and allowing a period of part-time work for tenure-seeking scholars (Mason et al., 2013).

8.3.2 Future Research In the future, more studies can be done to further enrich the concept of intellectual leadership and female scholars. Comparative studies with empirical evidence from higher education systems from the background of various countries and regions can be facilitated to depict a more comprehensive landscape of women’s higher education leadership, especially in East Asian countries affected by CHC and neoliberalism. To further explore the power of CAD, the voices of junior and mid-career women need to be heard. At different academic status levels (post-doctoral fellows, assistant professors, associate professors, adjunct professors), the connotations of “intellectual leadership” can be interpreted differently following institutional and regional contexts. Female faculty members’ journeys to become intellectual leaders are worth more attention. Institutional strategies, such as mentoring, leadership programs, training, and coaching for females, are targeted in improving female leadership in higher education. Questions to be asked include, how can departmental and faculty leadership play a better role in enhancing gender equality and enabling women’s intellectual development? What kinds of programs and assessments are useful, and why? As with all types of attempts, more scientific and effective evaluations of these programs have yet to be sufficiently investigated. In addition, many existing studies and this research focus on women professors in public-funded universities. Women professors’ intellectual leadership in private institutions and specific types of institutions (such as single-sex institutions, religion universities, and military universities) may differ significantly from what this study discusses. Furthermore, how to change the academic culture at the macro-level is an

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unanswered question that will require efforts for generations. In places like Hong Kong, the competition for resources locally and rivals in global rankings put HEIs and individual academics under great pressure. How to protect the space and resources for intellectual leadership and mitigate the gender biases calls for more research.

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Appendix A

Methodology and Method

This appendix demonstrates the design of the research and the methods used to complete the study. The first part explicates the reason for adopting interpretivism and constructivism as the research approach. The second part elaborates the practical steps taken for data collection, including interviews and document review as well as the process of single-case and cross-case analysis. In the last few sections, case study is evaluated and ethical considerations delineated.

Research Approach Various language and logics identify different types of educational research in either their philosophical roots in twentieth-century domains (e.g., logical empiricism, interpretive theories, and critical theory) or in their analysis of the phenomenon of pedagogy (e.g., casual, meaningful, and normative dimensions) (Soltis, 1984). Among them, four sets of assumptions are provided as the underlying factors of human’s search for the truth in social sciences, including ontological assumptions, epistemological assumptions, human nature, and the link between human nature and the environment (Burrell & Morgan, 1979, cited in Cohen et al., 2013). The differentiation of these assumptions guides me to position my research among various research paradigms in the naturalist (or interpretivist) domain. The first set of ontological assumptions ask the nature of the world or the knowledge we study: whether social reality is an independent existence detached from human’s cognition (positivism) or the products of human’s cognition (naturalism/ interpretivism) (Cohen et al., 2013, p. 7). The second set of epistemological assumptions concerns the nature of social reality and the ways to acquire knowledge. Epistemology is defined as “the possible ways of gaining knowledge of social reality” (Crotty, 1998, p. 8). If knowledge is seen as hard and objective, the researcher can be categorized as positivist; if knowledge is perceived as soft and subjective, the researcher takes the anti-positivist approach. The third set of assumptions concerns

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3

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human nature and relationships between humans and their natural (social) environment. In social sciences, a human being is both the subject and the object of research. One stance is that other circumstances determine the social objective and events and that humans are subjected to external mechanisms. The other holds that human beings have the will and ability to shape social reality. Accordingly, the fourth set of methodological assumptions addresses different researchers’ approaches—i.e., whether they identify and search for universal rules that interpret and regulate the observed world, or seek understandings about the subjective experience to deal with different issues, using diverse approaches. This study is anchored in interpretivism based mainly on individual perspectives. Interpretivism emphasizes that the meanings of human behaviors are constructed by those who engage with the world. Their historical and social perspective mainly shapes human understanding and behaviors. At the same time, women scholars are initiators of their own to form the social environment. Women, as the historically underprivileged group in academics, can reverse their cumulative disadvantages and establish their academic identities. Women scholars’ perceptions and development of intellectual leadership are seen as the process and outcomes of individuals’ active construction through their interactions with social realities (e.g., higher education policies in Hong Kong, institutional climate, disciplinary communities, and cultural influences). Thus, I hold a constructivist stance, viewing individual scholars’ intellectual leadership can be understood through the perspectives of women professors and their interactions with social realities around them. I, as the researcher, have involved in the process of constructing knowledge (which is soft, personal, and unique). Social realities that influence women scholars’ development are relatively objective, while the ways that individual women professor see and develop their academic roles highly rely on the interactions between individual agency and objective realities.

Research Design This part presents the design and implementation of a multiple case study, including the research questions, study propositions, and units of analysis. A research design should be a logic strategy with clear goals (research questions), a process that aligns with its aims, and outcomes that are expected to match its goals (to answer research questions) (Yin, 2014). The main research questions, as presented in Sect. 1.2, are: This part focuses on present considerations of the research process and practices during the fieldwork (Table A.1).

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Table A.1 Research design matrix Research questions

1. How do women scholars in different research fields view intellectual leadership? 2. How do they engage in different academic roles at different career stages? 3. What kinds of experiences do they have in their academic careers in Hong Kong, with consideration of culture and gender?

Research method

Multi-case study design

Data sources

Academic profiles and online data

CVs and scholar hub

In-depth interviews

Gaining access to professor participants Preparing for interviews Conducting interviews

Policy documents and reports

Regional and institutional documents

Single-case analysis

Two rounds of coding

Cross-case analysis

Theoretical propositions with the three-pronged framework, visual mapping of codes, links with literature

Data analysis approaches

Data Collection This part presents the data collection procedures. Individual in-depth interview was the primary method, with document analysis of higher education policy strategies employed to triangulate and establish the case study database and a transparent chain of evidence. There were four stages of data collection. The first stage was a pilot study conducted in July and August of 2018. I recruited three professors from the field of education to interview to improve the pre-interview analysis method and finetune some questions. After three pilot interviews, I finalized the pre-interview analysis and questions in the interview protocol. At the suggestion of the first participant, I expanded my information sources to prepare for interviews (as discussed in Ruan, 2022). I explored both formal and informal sources, such as the acknowledgment text before books or doctoral dissertations, online lectures, and open interviews on YouTube. Data from these three pilot interviews were taken into the main data pool. The second stage was to recruit participants widely from both humanities and social sciences disciplines and sciences disciplines (introduced in gaining access to professor participants) and prepared interviews for professors who agreed to participate. The third stage was to conduct face-to-face individual interviews, as delineated in In-depth Interviews. In the fourth stage, member checking was conducted by sending transcripts to participants.

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In-Depth Interviews Gaining Access to Professor Participants It is hard to gain access to professors, especially for me, a junior investigator. My fieldwork experience highlighted the importance of paying attention to the academic life and contextualized situation of each potential participant. Thus, I approached potential participants via email and face-to-face opportunities, like seminars and conferences, and tried to enhance transparency to increase the successful recruitment rate. To increase my credibility to conduct the project and show my sincerity of inviting professors, I presented the co-authored article to review the literature on and discuss the critical concept of intellectual leadership (see Appendix B). When I entered the field, I used the concept paper as introduction material. Some interview methods ask interviewees to read some materials and complete tasks. The task-based interview method is often used in research in psychology and interviews with children. This method usually aims at either providing the interviewer more information or offering them opportunities to observe interviewees’ thinking or problem–solution processes (Houssart & Evens, 2011). In this study, the concept paper was used to let interviewees know more about the research and gain their understanding of the topic. Email invitations and face-to-face invitation were two main methods of gaining access to participants. The “cold calling” invitation method led to a low response rate (Goldstein, 2002), but turned out to be a useful method in this study when I contacted enough professors. Around 200 invitation emails were sent, drawing more than 20 responses, of which 15 women full professors agreed to participate in the interviews. Also, face-to-face invitations were made at 15 open workshops, seminars, and academic conferences, resulting in seven interviewees. Once an invitation had been accepted, I sent participants the previously mentioned published concept paper, the informed consent form, and the interview protocol (see Appendix C) tian and confirmed the time and date of each interview. After that, I began to review the details of the interviewees’ academic profiles and personalized a pertinent interview protocol based on the theoretical framework. As conventional alternative methods to contact potential informants (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015), convenient sampling and snowball sampling were less relevant in my case. Conducting an elite interview may lead to more participants because the trust is built among the researcher and the current interviewee (as discussed in Goldstein, 2002). However, snowball sampling involves biases of hierarchy and power gaps and is only applicable when subject-participants are hard to identify (Acker & True, 2010). Also, some professors may consider the topic sensitive or controversial and worry about the misuse of interview data and undesirable consequences, as some professors who declined my interview invitation said. Therefore, I did not use snowball sampling as a main method. In qualitative study, it is very challenging, if not impossible, to decide the exact numbers of participants in advance (Gentles et al., 2015; Miles et al., 2014). One key principle is “sufficiency,” that is, having enough participants to reflect a range of

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informants with the desired features (Seidman, 2006). At the early research design stage, I had planned to have around six to 10 participants in each type of discipline (hard-pure, hard-applied, soft-pure, soft-applied). In actual practice, the standards of “maximizing the differences of participants” and “theoretical saturation” were used. In the beginning, I invited potential participants from education fields in all institutions because I felt more confident conducting interviews in a familiar field. These professors had diverse backgrounds (e.g., from Hong Kong, Mainland of China, and other areas). In the later stage of data collection, I also sent invitations to professors in sciences and technologies in different institutions, to look for new insights. In my project, data collection and data analysis were conducted simultaneously. I transcribed and analyzed each interview as soon as it was conducted and compared it to the next interview I did. In this iterative way of data collection and analysis, I could decide whether the samples had reached the saturated point—i.e., when new modes of conceptualization and development of intellectual leadership stopped emerging. For instance, a few themes repeatedly emerged about “being a woman and being an academic”: being a woman did not influence the participant’s academic career, nor did being a woman make significant differences. When reviewing their accounts, I also found some sub-themes, such as emphasizing professional identity and viewing motherhood as a burden for their academic career. Eventually, I invited 22 women full professors to interviews. Seventeen hailed from comprehensive universities (the faculties of education, social sciences, arts and humanities, sciences, and medical school) and the other five from applied sciences universities. Seventeen participants worked in research fields in the humanities and social sciences and the rest in science and technology and medicine. Their origins varied, with participants coming from Hong Kong SAR, Mainland of China, and other countries and regions (e.g., Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, US; see Table A.2). Preparing for Interviews There is little dispute about the importance of careful preparation for elite interviews with celebrities, company CEOs, senior political officials, and the like (e.g., Harvey, 2010; Mikecz, 2012). In this study, I integrated formal and informal information, gathered both online and from academic contents, to prepare for interviews. The preparation was taken down as part of the fieldnotes and highlighted clues for interview questions. First, online materials about individual professors were collected. Scholars’ faculty pages, scholar hubs of universities, curricula vitae (CV), and personal webpages from academic social networks (e.g., Google Scholars, ResearchGate, Academia.com) were searched. The interviewees’ educational backgrounds, research areas, employed institutions, and relevant career trajectories were jotted down. Data in CVs became a common source for career analysis, science policy, and research evaluation (e.g., Bawazeer & Gunter, 2016; Cañibano & Bozeman, 2009; Gaughan & Bozeman, 2002). CVs provide “useful, concrete information on the timing, sequence, and duration of jobs, work products (e.g., articles, patents, and papers), collaborative patterns, and scholarly lineage” (Dietz et al., 2000, p. 421). Macfarlane

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Table A.2 Basic information of participants Total number: 22 University type Comprehensive Universities

Applied sciences universities

17

5

Faculty Education Social sciences

Arts and humanities

Medicine

Sciences

7

3

3

2

7

Humanities and social sciences/science and technology/medicine Humanities and social sciences

Science and technology/medicine

17

5

Background Hong Kong SAR

Mainland of China

International

9

5

8

Years in academe (since the first publication) 10–19

20–29

31–39

2

13

7

Years working in Hong Kong < 10

10–19

20–29

> 30

6

5

6

5

Marital status and child (ren) Married w/Child (ren)

Married w/o a child

Not married w/ child (ren)

Not married w/ Unknown and other o a child (married but not sure about children)

10

2

1

3

6

(2018) combined data on CVs and autobiography to analyze the changing nature of professorship and scholarship. By reviewing the interviewees’ CVs, I had the opportunity to gather information about their career without wasting time asking about them in the interview. The challenge of using CV data was that I could not always find parallel information between different participants. Some professors uploaded their CVs online, but some did not; some CVs (mostly in the humanities and social sciences) were as long as 50 pages, recording every academic activity, publication, and award, while others (mostly in science fields) were only a few pages long, with the names of selected publications. By getting acquainted with CVs, I was often able to gain contrasting information between the rhetoric written in professors’ CVs and their real experiences. Thus, it is helpful to link participants’ experiences to their literal words (as emphasized in Silverman, 2017) by looking at publicly available information.

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In addition to CVs, I gathered more materials from doctoral dissertations, online interview notes, YouTube videos, and other forms of documentation. Sometimes the search for “marginal” information on the academic lives of these professors proved fruitful. In the books or dissertations section of acknowledgments, scholars were likely to describe critical moments in their research, personal, and professional growth, and identify influential persons who had supported and inspired their careers. Conducting Interviews Semi-structured interviews were a critical source of data in this study. Interviews do not only record what happens to interviewees from a positivist research viewpoint, but also elicit what interviewees actively do to achieve what they have achieved from a constructivist research viewpoint (Silver, 2005, p. 191). Also, informants familiar with the context are able to share what they have experienced and observed, which may not be observable by the author directly and can be viewed as secondhand observation (Stake, 1995). To understand the situation better, I interviewed two men full professors and two women associate professors who provided some essential insights from the perspectives of either different genders or different academic ranks. The use of the concept paper as introduction material had both strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, it provided a solid foundation to start the conversation and facilitated effective dialogues. On the other, some participants either did not understand it (as it was beyond the style of research they were familiar with) or did not agree with it. The article takes a critical stand on managerialism and performativity in higher education and expresses frustration toward the current academic system. The first two questions in the interview protocol were based on the concept article: what participants thought about the concept paper, and what kinds of qualities they thought an intellectual leader should have. If a participant did not read the article beforehand, I briefly rehearsed what the article was about and then asked for relevant comments or opinions. Their responses could be divided into a few categories, in that they generally either: (a) mostly agreed with the stand of the published paper and highlighted the negative impacts of neoliberal and managerial practices in higher education; (b) partly agreed with the paper but were not opposed to the outcomebased and output-oriented environment; or, (c) had some opposite opinions about it and viewed the current system rational for natural science disciplines. They also used their personal experience to justify their views. For those who had taken formal leadership roles (e.g., associate dean, dean, head of school, director of a research center), I also asked how they considered the relation between the two types of leadership. Table A.3 shows the distribution of participants’ different responses to the published concept paper. Having the flexibility to use preferable interview language was one of the principles I adopted in conducting interviews (Table A.4). In the field, professors could choose their preferred interview language (English, Mandarin, or Cantonese); the most suitable language should be that in which the interviewee feels most comfortable talking about their experience and increases the competence of their “storytelling” (Mikecz, 2012, p. 489). Thirteen of the 22 women full professors were interviewed in English, four in Cantonese, and five in Chinese Mandarin. One local

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Table A.3 Participants’ views on the concept paper Read the paper in advance

Briefly glanced in the interview

Did not read it

Mostly agreed with the stand of the paper

7

2

3

Partly agreed with the paper; had some different comments

2

1

4

Had some opposite opinions N/A

1

1

No comments

N/A

1

Table A.4 Interview language used

N/A

Language

Numbers of women professors

English

13

Chinese mandarin

5

Cantonese

4

Total

22

professor preferred Cantonese and shared fascinating stories with vivid descriptions and colloquial expressions. Another scholar, specializing in language education, used Cantonese in the interview; at the same time, she realized translation issues immediately, stressing the need for me to pay attention to translations, especially of colloquial words and phrases. In contrast, one participant in the field of language education insisted on using English to ensure that there were no losses of meaning due to mistranslation. To ensure accuracy, I invited two peer researchers, one from Mainland of China and one from Hong Kong, to read two of my interview transcripts in both Chinese and English. I made some linguistic and grammatical revisions based on their suggestions. The translation process inevitably caused the loss of some subtlety and nuance. However, having two versions of transcripts for the same interview also enabled me to extract more useful details. Harvey (2011) suggested that conducting interviews without recording them can put elites at ease and enable them to talk more openly, especially on some sensitive issues. In contrast, Mikecz (2012) found utilizing recordings helped the interviewer remember emotions, pauses, laughter, awkward moments, and the physical environment. In this project, I preferred to audio-record the interview. Not having to worry about taking notes, I could concentrate on listening and questioning, only jotting down relevant keywords. I asked for permission to audio-record as I met the interviewees, with only one interviewee denying permission. Interviews often lasted from 40 to 50 min, although one with a professor who was an expert in the topic lasted one and a half hours.

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191

Document Collection and Review As data sources at the regional and institutional level, documentary information and archival records can provide stable and objective evidence to support and corroborate other sources of evidence (Yin, 2014, p. 106). Apart from interview data, documents on Hong Kong higher education policies at the institutional level and academic profiles at the individual level were used as supplementary data. Using publicly accessible files and statistics, such as university reports, regulations on criteria of academic and teaching excellence, personnel records such as academic profiles, I could augment the transparency of the government and HEIs. The same was true of such information sources as UGC reports and regulations, regulations on research assessment exercises (RAEs), teaching and learning quality process reviews (TLQPRs), management reviews (MRs), and knowledge exchanges. As discussed in the previous part preparation of in-depth interviews, the pre-interview analysis included individual academic profiles in both formal and informal forms. These data helped me understand women professors’ academic career trajectories and facilitated my conducting better interviews.

Data Analysis In this qualitative case study, data collection and data analysis processes were conducted simultaneously. Qualitative analysis software NVivo (version 11) was used to analyze data from in-depth interviews, field notes, and participants’ academic profiles, as applicable. Two stages of data analysis—within-case analysis and cross-case analysis—are explained in this section. Cases were marked by the numbers 1–22, with a pseudonym assigned to each based on their national background. For instance, participants from Mainland of China were represented by names in Chinese Pinyin and those from other Asian societies (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore) by an English first name and local surname; Anglo-Saxon names were used for international scholars. Interview data were marked with the number of the case, e.g., Interview 11.

Single-Case Analysis After each interview was conducted, an interview field note was written, and the verbatim interview script transcribed and translated. The pre-interview analysis, interview transcript, and fieldnote were taken as pieces of evidence for each case. When conducting single-case analysis, I drew a conceptually clustered matrix to see the deductive and inductive elements, based on different interview questions

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(Miles et al., 2014). In the interview protocol (see Appendix C), questions concentrated on three parts: the first part (understanding the concept of intellectual leadership) included views about the concept paper (Q1) and the perceived qualities of intellectual leaders (Q2); the second part comprised the most crucial experiences/ persons/events for their achieving their main academic achievement (Q3 and Q4); change of priorities in their academic career and individual research (Q5); and major challenges and counteractions (Q6), institutional support and environment influence (Q7); the third part concerned gender, professorship, relevant policies, advice and their experience in the particular institutional and regional environment (Q8, Q9, Q10). As Miles et al. (2014) suggested, two cycles of coding were conducted with the transcripts. The first cycle dealt with categorizing relevant information (e.g., phrases and sentences). It echoed the general analytic principle of moving from total inductive coding to both inductive and deductive coding, discovery and verification, and then primarily deductive coding (Merriam, 1998). The first step was to read, generally code, and write analytical notes (e.g., linking to literature, asking questions, highlighting the impressive information by intuition). A few types of codes emerged from the first round of exploration: protocol coding and causation coding with theoretical propositions of intellectual leadership. Table A.5 shows the main codes and abbreviations. In the interview, not every participant mentioned the advantages and disadvantages in their different stages of career. Hence, these stages of the cumulative process were indicated beside the codes as (E), (M), and (S), representing early-career, mid-career, Table A.5 Coding categories CATEGORY: conceptualization and perception of intellectual leadership (CP) CP OPINION (OP) Views on the concept paper and general academic system/policies/ environment; positive or negative attitude; critical or neutral comments

CP: Op CP: Op (positive/ negative)

DEFINITION (DEF) Definition of intellectual leadership (e.g., perceived qualities of intellectual leaders)

CP: Def

CATEGORY: cumulative advantages (CA)

CA

CA: discipline

CA: Dis

CA: institution

CA: Ins

CA: gender/culture

CA: Gen/Cul

CATEGORY: cumulative disadvantages (CD)

CD

CD: discipline

CD: Dis

CA: institution

CD: Ins

CA: gender/culture

CD: Gen/Cul

Counteraction

CD: Counter

Early career (E); Mid-career (M); Senior career (S)

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and senior career, respectively. The frequency and richness of the information, also called the weight of the codes, were considered in data analysis. In the first cycle of coding, my main tasks were to get data ready for analysis. I coded the transcripts and wrote down descriptive and analytical annotations beside relevant quotations. Then I associated these with pre-interview analyses and interview notes that included some observable data, as well as theoretical points reviewed in the literature review process. Following these steps, I tabulated those coded segments and filed information into matrices, summarized phrases, and generated keywords (as suggested in Miles et al., 2014). In the second cycle of coding, I condensed the data into a smaller number of units and “laid the groundwork for cross-case analysis by surfacing common themes and directional processes” (Miles et al., 2014, p. 90). In the second round, the coding scheme became more accurate, including developmental considerations in different phases of the academic career. Moving from codes to patterns, I wrote summaries for each professor by clustering different types of codes into the same patterns. A few principles were applied to group codes into patterns, categories, themes, and theoretical constructs (Miles et al., 2014, p. 91)—the cumulative progress of intellectual leadership, Macfarlane’s intellectual leaders’ different roles, and the impacts of CHC culture in HEIs and the academic community. Queries about the relation between different factors were run in NVivo to see the frequency and density of words. With pre-interview analysis, interview transcripts, two rounds of coding, and the summary of the interviews, the data of each interviewee were well organized and ready to be used in the next stage, cross-case analysis.

Cross-Case Analysis After the first and second cycles of coding and grouping coding, I compared data across cases. With the preliminary conceptually clustered matrix to display interview data, categories of coding, and the case for individual cases, I had a visual map to see how participants focused on different aspects of intellectual leadership development. In the cross-case analysis stage, my construction of categories was exercised through organizing and analyzing bits of related data to answer the research questions (Merriam, 1998). In this study, the different patterns of conceptualization of intellectual leadership and the development of intellectual leadership were the main discoveries. One of the most used strategies to apply in data analysis of case study is to refer to theoretical propositions (Yin, 2014, p. 136). However, it is impossible to predict a set of no-risk theoretical propositions in advance (Miles et al., 2014). I referred to the pre-existing theoretical propositions constantly during the data collection and analysis stages but remained sensitive to any divergence from the original propositions. The theoretical framework—which integrated the cumulative process of both advantages and disadvantages, different dimensions of intellectual leadership, and cultural influence on gender—guided the data collection and yielded “analytic priorities”

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(Miles et al., 2014, p. 136). Women professors’ conceptualization and development of intellectual leadership had to be “denotatively or connotatively identical, and at least two features had to be the same” (Miles et al., 2014, p. 191). The cross-case analysis used a case-oriented approach instead of a variable-oriented approach because “case-oriented analysis is good at finding specific, concrete, historically grounded patterns common to small sets of cases, but its findings often remain particularistic and ill-suited to generalizability” (Ragin, 1987, cited in Miles et al., 2014, p. 102). To sort the data in various cases, I grouped cases by referring to the theoretical framework and relevant literature. First, as the primary theoretical lens was CAD, the evolvement of professors’ intellectual capacity and the countervailing process of obstacles were reviewed. Per Zuckerman’s (1977) study of Nobel Prize laureates, some elite scholars (and ultra-elite ones) rapidly accumulate their capital in the early stage of their postgraduate training and early career. Other scholars, especially those in the humanities and social sciences, spend longer making substantial achievements and becoming accomplished in the field. I chose to use three career stages (early, middle, and senior), as presented previously, and analyzed the advantages and disadvantage therein. Under multiple mechanisms, including academic communities, competitive quasi-markets, and managerial governance under university leadership and state regulation, individual academics in different departments have diverse responses. In a study by Leišyt˙e (2016), academics who had high levels of authority over the content and methods of their work and who were prestigious within their disciplinary field act as “strategic gamers” in semi-autonomous academic units within university. The term refers to those individual academics who are “compliant with the new roles, which only builds credibility for new audiences (management included) and maintains the old roles, which strengthens academic credibility (mainly research)” (Leišyt˙e, 2016, p. 63). This name is suitable to describe the first type of women scholars in this study because they worked at various levels to ensure their protected spaces and comprehensive strategic work with funding agencies and government, while continuing to do research in their discipline. Second, Macfarlane’s conceptualization of intellectual leadership helped me realize that merits can be grown in specific aspects of various academic roles, such as research performance—both individual and collaborative—teaching (lectures and mentoring postgraduate students), administrative roles in the department, university or the academic community, and public intellectualism. Internal and external concerns for scholars could be identified in terms of scholarship and leadership within and beyond the institution. Based on feminist scholarship analyzed in Gumport’s study (2000), I also sought to make sense of the link between women professors’ political concerns (usually about the welfare of the broader society) and academic pursuits (within the discipline). In line with previous studies (e.g., Fritsch, 2016), female scholars’ actions to overcome difficulties emphasized different aspects: individual efforts and outputs (intrinsic), contribution to the institution to gain sustainable development, and adaptive and flexible opportunities (extrinsic). Hence, I combined the feature of their research areas, their perceptions of market, knowledge, and political pursuits, and the pace at which they gained breakthroughs in their career.

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Overall, these different patterns of developing intellectual leadership included: (1) strategic gamers; (2) persistent navigators; (3) unconventional fighters; and, (4) opportunistic achievers. The four patterns are not static; they overlap and change over time, across and within types. Table 3.2 in Chap. 3 shows four types of women scholars and provide an overview on the key attributes used in data analysis.

Limitations A few methodological limitations and considerations were mentioned in Sect. 1.4 (e.g., access and sampling, anonymity, and confidentiality), and some are highlighted here. First, using full professorship as the indicator of intellectual leadership may constrain the sample. At the same time, full professorship has limited credit to evaluate women scholars’ role as academic citizens and public intellectual—these are not fully counted for assessment. Women in senior professor positions are not equal to women professors who have believed and practiced intellectual leadership. There are potential risks of silencing junior academic women, who are in the opposite roles of “leaderist.” This may also constitute the tension about “widening the definition of intellectual leadership.” Secondly, the number of participants was relatively small. It would have enhanced credibility had I recruited more women full professors in more academic disciplines (e.g., law, engineering). In addition, this study did not incorporate male professors’ interview data systematically in the main data analysis. Constrained by time and resources, I did not compare the perspectives between male and female professors in this study. It could be possible to showcase more comprehensive understandings and deeper discussions from the perspectives of both men and women scholars. Thirdly, this study was not able to review the advantages gained from their family life and other circumstances (as Zuckerman, 1977 and Hayhoe, 2006). Information such as the social-economic status of the participants’ original family and their parents’ profession were not easily accessed. I considered the increasing difficulty of recruiting professors if I had planned to ask them personal information in detail. Hence, the interview protocol did not include direct questions about their family situation and marital status. Fourth, in this study, heterosexual women’s motherhood and family responsibilities were addressed, but those in the sexual minority groups or those who did not establish a family were not discussed. The challenges faced by these female academics can be further studied.

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Evaluation of Case Study Rigor in case study is crucial when it takes interpretivism standpoints and adopts qualitative methods. Validity and reliability constitute the key factors in ensuring rigor in case study. Transparency and replication are the priority of researchers when they communicate qualitative research (Gibbert & Ruigrok, 2010; Chenail, 2009). In this qualitative study in the interpretive research paradigm, the internal validity and construct validity were prioritized over external validity in terms of case study implementation, as suggested by Yin (2014) and Silverman (2005). Triangulation refers to “the rationale for using multiple sources of evidence” (Yin, 1994, p. 91). It is a strength to provide various and integrated angles to approach a case or cases. In this study, regional higher education institutional documents, institutional policies, and individual levels of data were collected. Reflective memos were written at all stages of data collection. Construct validity indicates the establishment of correct operational measures to study the research questions. The demands to construct validity are determined by the distinctive characteristics of case study: (1) relying on multiple sources of data in a triangulated fashion; and, (2) being informed by the prior development of the theory (theories) to determine data collection (Cohen et al., 2013, p. 13). Except for the integrated theoretical framework which explains the theories that informed this study, I also used several methods to ensure construct validity. This study combined data from academic profiles and other publicly available materials, in-depth interviews, and my field notes as “multiple sources of evidence” (Yin, 2014, p. 33). My efforts to demonstrate methodology and method in this part also help “establish chain of evidence”—the path from the research questions to the conclusion, from the planned research design to data collection and analysis (Gibbert & Ruigrok, 2010, p. 9). Internal validity requires explanatory or causal studies to show a causal relationship, which explains one condition’s happening due to the occurrence of other conditions. It also refers to Guba’s credibility (Shenton, 2004). To ensure internal validity and authenticity, the author actively evaluated the truth value of the data, paying close attention to seek the “That’s right” moment that reaffirmed interviewees’ statements (Miles et al., 2014, p. 313), to describe cases with rich context, and to be mindful of triangulation among the interview data, pre-interview analysis, and the interviewees’ actions. During the data analysis stage, peer researchers were invited to review the procedures and my analytical notes on the interviews. Eighteen interview transcripts were sent back to interviewees for review; four interviewees said, after their interview, that they did not need to read the transcript. Eight of the eighteen transcripts were returned to me after being approved with some feedback (mostly minor corrections of wordings, though one had deleted many personal details). External validity means the degree to which the findings of one study can be generalized to others, using the logic of replication in case studies (Yin, 1994; Cohen et al., 2013). For case studies, generalizability can be determined by rich and robust

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descriptions of cases and contexts, so the audience can judge the relevance and correspondence of the evidence and conclusions (Patton & Appelbaum, 2003). Statistical generalization cannot be achieved in the interpretivist paradigm, and analytical generalization should be reviewed carefully. Two approaches proposed to establish external validity were used. Reliability refers to examining the detailed operational process of a study, including data collection and analysis, to ensure the research findings will be identical if no error occurs during the operation (Yin, 1994; Gibbert & Ruigrok, 2010). The usage of case study protocol and establishment of a case study database can reduce errors and misjudgments.

Ethical Considerations Throughout the research process, I strictly complied with the university’s ethical research guidelines and considered feminist ethical research practices (Ackerly & True, 2010). Confidentiality is the most salient issues when interviewing elite members (Kirsch, 1999). As Yin (2014) pointed out, being able to reveal the real identities of both cases and individuals is most desirable, because future cases can be referred to current ones using accessible materials and evaluations. However, in this study, most participants preferred not to be identified. For coherent analysis, I decided to assign case numbers and pseudonyms to all participants. Private information revealed during interviews was treated with great caution. Also, the age and marital status of participants were not sought in the interviews because such personal information might be considered rather private. Some women professors who were single, divorced, or childless were willing to mention their situation when answering relevant questions, while others preferred to avoid this topic. To estimate their experience and seniority in academe, I calculated how many years had passed since the participants had graduated from their doctoral program or their earliest academic publication in Google Scholar and grouped them accordingly (see Table A.1: Basic Information of Participants). Admittedly, ensuring anonymity and confidentiality limited the presentation of some data. Since the identity of participants could not be disclosed, it became more challenging to balance accuracy and confidentiality when mentioning information like particular persons (mentors and supervisors), or academic achievements (e.g., the detailed specialties, the name of the famous book or the most cited article) in the narration of cases. Therefore, blurring the portrait and protecting participants’ rights seemed inevitable.

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Summary This appendix consists of five sub-sections. The first part clarified that the interpretivism research paradigm is suitable for investigating women professors’ intellectual leadership. The second part introduced multiple-case study as the research design and expounded on the researchers’ positionality and reflexivity. The third part explained the processes for data collection, sampling, gaining access, conducting in-depth interview processes with women full professors, and document collection. After that, the fourth part illustrated the methods used for qualitative data analysis, both inductive and deductive, and the coding system. Evaluation of data and ethical considerations were also examined. As a result of data analysis, four categories of women professors’ intellectual leadership development patterns were underlined. References Ackerly, B., & True, J. (2010). Doing feminist research in political and social science. Red Globe Press Bawazeer, W., & Gunter, H. M. (2016). Using the curriculum vitae in leadership research. Management in Education, 30(2), 74–78 Cañibano, C., & Bozeman, B. (2009). Curriculum vitae method in science policy and research evaluation: the state-of-the-art. Research Evaluation, 18(2), 86–94 Chenail, R. J. (2009). Communicating your qualitative research better. Family Business Review, 22(2), 105–108 Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2013). Research methods in education (7th ed.). Routledge Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research process. Sage Dietz, J. S., Chompalov, I., Bozeman, B., Lane, E. O. N., & Park, J. (2000). Using the curriculum vita to study the career paths of scientists and engineers: An exploratory assessment. Scientometrics, 49(3), 419–442. 10.1023/ a:1010537606969 Fritsch, N.-S. (2016). Patterns of career development and their role in the advancement of female faculty at Austrian universities: New roads to success? Higher Education, 72(5), 619–635 Gaughan, M., & Bozeman, B. (2002). Using curriculum vitae to compare some impacts of NSF research grants with research center funding. Research Evaluation, 11(1), 17–26 Gentles, S. J., Charles, C., Ploeg, J., & McKibbon, K. A. (2015). Sampling in qualitative research: Insights from an overview of the methods literature. The Qualitative Report, 20(11), 1772 Gibbert, M., & Ruigrok, W. (2010). The “what” and “how” of case study rigor: Three strategies based on published work. Organizational Research Methods, 13(4), 710–737 Goldstein, K. (2002). Getting in the door: Sampling and completing elite interviews. Political Science and Politics, 35(4), 669–672

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Gumport, P. J. (2002). Academic pathfinders: Knowledge creation and feminist scholarship. Greenwood Publishing Group Harvey, W. S. (2011). Strategies for conducting elite interviews. Qualitative Research, 11(4), 431–441 Hayhoe, R. (2006). Portraits of influential Chinese educators (Vol. 17). Springer Houssart, J, & Evens, H. (2011). Conducting task-based interviews with pairs of children: Consensus, conflict, knowledge construction and turn taking. International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 34(1), 63–79 Kirsch, G. (1999). Ethical dilemmas in feminist research: The politics of location, interpretation, and publication. State University of New York Press Leišyt˙e, L. (2016). Bridging the duality between universities and the academic profession: A tale of protected spaces, strategic gaming, and institutional entrepreneurs. In L. Leišyt˙e, & U. Wilkesmann (Eds.), Organizing academic work in higher education (pp. 75–87). Routledge Macfarlane, B., & Burg, D. (2018). Women professors as intellectual leaders. Retrieved from https://brucemacfarlane.weebly.com/uploads/8/5/4/1/85415070/ women_professors_as_intellectual_leaders.pdf Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. Revised and expanded from “case study research in education”. Jossey-Bass Publishers Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. Wiley Mikecz, R. (2012). Interviewing elites: Addressing methodological issues. Qualitative Inquiry, 18(6), 482–493 Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. Sage Patton, E., & Appelbaum, S. H. (2003). The case for case studies in management research. Management Research News, 26(5), 60–71 Ruan, N. (2022). Interviewing elite women professors: Methodological reflections with feminist research ethics. Qualitative Research, 22(1), 110–125 Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. Teachers college press Shenton, A. K. (2004). Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. Education for Information, 22(2), 63–75 Silverman, D. (2005). Doing qualitative research: A practical handbook. SAGE publications limited Soltis, J. F. (1984). On the nature of educational research. Educational Researcher, 13(10), 5–10 Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Sage publications Zuckerman, H. (1977). Scientific elite: Nobel laureates in the United States: Transaction Publishers. Ackerly, B., & True, J. (2010). Doing feminist research in political and social science. Red Globe Press

Appendix B

The Concept Paper

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3

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Appendix C

Interview Protocol

1. How do you think about the concept paper (i.e., agreement, disagreement, concerns) and why? 2. What did you think as the most important qualities of an intellectual leader? 3. Given your major academic contributions, could you share your experience about how you have achieved them? 4. What do you think has/have helped you most to achieve such contributions? Who has/have made the most positive impact on your academic career? 5. How have your priorities of academic pursuit changed across the early, middle and senior stages of your academic career? 6. What kinds of challenges have you encountered in different stages of your academic career? How have you overcome them? 7. To what extent did your institution support you? 8. How do you view women professorship in your discipline? Do you think gender is an issue in your academic career? 9. What do you think can be improved to facilitate women professors’ intellectual leadership development? 10. Do you have any advice for young women scholars?

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 N. Ruan, Women Scholars in Hong Kong, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8377-3

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