Between Generation, Composition and Growth: Explanatory Approaches to Differences in the Proportion of Women Professors at Private and Public Universities of Applied Sciences

Abstract

At private universities of applied sciences (pHAW), the share of women professors has increased more strongly over the past two decades and is now higher than at public universities of applied sciences (sHAW). To explain this development, our study examines three mechanisms and suggests that each has contributed to the observed trend. First, at pHAW, fields with comparatively high shares of women have gained considerable weight (composition effect). Second, the higher share of women among newly appointed professors affects the overall share at pHAW much more strongly than at sHAW. This is due to the substantially greater relative growth of pHAW, meaning that many new appointments are made on top of a much smaller initial stock (generation effect). Third, some of the strongly growing pHAW also show sharply rising shares of women professors (growth effect). Data from the German Federal Statistical Office provide very clear evidence for the first two effects, while the evidence for the third is less conclusive.