Surveys of the demographics of academic staff at four Australian universities in 1978/9, 1984 and 1990 show a steadily increasing female participation. But throughout the period, women tended to occupy lower ranks, and to have lower qualifications, than men. This paper examines the extent to which the lower rank of women than men can be explained by their lower qualifications, specifically age, publication, highest degree and length of service. The results provide strong evidence to conclude that at each of the four institutions there are significant and considerable sex differences in rank, not explained by these qualifications, and that these sex discrepancies in rank did not appreciably diminish between 1978/9 and 1990, despite the increased participation of women in the academic workforce over that period.
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