Professor Carol J Petersen | Gender Equality in Higher Education: An Elusive Goal?

Professor Carole J. Petersen Professor of Law William S. Richardson School of Law

Date: April 18, 2016 (Mon) Time: 5:30 pm Venue: Room 436, 4/F Run Run Shaw Tower

Women now earn the majority of all degrees granted by universities. Yet in most jurisdictions women are underrepresented in the ranks of full professors, department chairs, deans, chancellors and presidents of universities. In addition to perpetuating vertically segregated institutions, a lack of women in leadership roles can also contribute to a culture that discounts gendered research projects and discourages vibrant programs in women’s studies. Are women “leaning out” from leadership roles or does our traditional university structure tend to perpetuate gender discrimination? What can academics and administrators do to promote equality in our institutions of higher learning?

About the speaker: Carole J. Petersen is a Professor of Law in the William S. Richardson School of Law and the Director of the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she teaches courses on international law, human rights, and gender and the law. From 1991 to 2006, Carole taught law at the University of Hong Kong, where she also served as the Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law (from 2001-2004) and was a member of the Women’s Studies Research Centre. She co-authored, with Jan Currie and Ka-Ho Mok, the book Academic Freedom in Hong Kong (2006) and has published numerous articles on the right to equality in Hong Kong. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a Postgraduate Diploma in the Law of the People’s Republic of China from the University of Hong Kong.

For enquiries, please contact: Ms. Zhang Xuehong (xuehong@hku.hk)

This event was initiated by the Faculty of Arts’ Gender Task Force. The Task Force was established by the Dean in December 2015 to review practices, procedures, policies and the overall climate within units with respect to gender in the Faculty and will present its recommendations in June 2016.