Women in Academia. Networks and Mentoring to Empower their Growth

In the 21^st century, all institutions have been incorporating a gender perspective into their policies. Currently considered indispensable, the practices and structural transformations entailed by this perspective are even more important in the educational field, since the central mission of educational institutions is to educate citizens.

Adopting a gender perspective aids the fight against gender inequalities and violence, which is why educational institutions must start by creating safe and respectful environments for both women and people from the LGBTIQ+ community, who are often the ones who most frequently face violent and discriminatory situations.

In addition to ensuring a respectful educational and work environment, the gender perspective requires facilitating the context to achieve equity. In what follows, I will focus precisely on this last point. To do so, I will address the case I know best: that of women in academia.

Dr. Gloria Chicote, Dr. Gisela Cánepa, Dr. Margarita Valdovinos and Dr. Bárbara Göbel at the panel “The challenges of internationalization and the importance of cooperation networks”
Picture: Melissa Merino

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS
Currently, despite the existence of international conventions and the fact that both the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and local laws establish protocols to meet criteria of equity and non-discrimination, structural and cultural factors cause a significant gap to persist in the development of women’s academic careers: their careers do not reach the same heights as those of their male peers, they tend to occupy fewer management or representative positions, and the gap separating them from leadership positions tends to grow exponentially the higher the hierarchy of the institutions or positions in question.

Women make up most of the teaching staff worldwide, and in higher education, the number of women exceeds that of men (D’Addio, 2025). Despite this, less than thirty percent of academic leadership positions are held by women (UNESCO, 2025). According to Times Higher Education, in 2023 only forty-eight of the two hundred universities considered the most outstanding in the world were led by women, representing just twenty-four percent. This percentage is growing slowly, as shown by the presence of only 27.5 percent of women in these same leadership positions in 2025 (Rowsell, 2025).

In Mexico, the situation is not very different. Statistics from the National System of Researchers (SNII) of the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation (Secihti) illustrate how, despite the increase in the number of women in science, the gap widens as one moves to higher levels of academic recognition. In 2025, 40.4 percent of the SNII roster are women (seventeen thousand eight hundred researchers) (Secihti, 2025). Now, if we consider their numbers at the highest levels of the SNII, we observe that the percentage of women drops drastically. In 2021, for example, the percentage of women at Level III of the SNII was 24.4 percent (Arévalo, 2022), and by 2025 it had only risen to 27.6 percent.

At UNAM, the Coordination for Gender Equality has already been in place for five years. During this time, it has promoted gender equality through various actions. As a result of this effort, this year, out of the total academic community at UNAM (forty-two thousand six hundred fifteen people), 45.94 percent are women, bringing us closer and closer to numerical parity (Chávez, 2025). However, there is still a long way to go for women’s academic careers to progress at the same pace as men’s.

Alongside their work, women have historically been the primary caregivers within their family units (home, family, children, etc.). Additionally, they have been ideologically discriminated against in many different ways. These and other factors have led to the stigmatization of women’s roles in the workforce; academia has also ended up reproducing the gender inequalities that exist in social dynamics. This socio-cultural experience of women has always been considered a limitation. TOWARDS ANOTHER ACADEMIC LIFE
Working as a team, Dr. Barbara Göbel, director of the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin, Germany; Dr. Gisela Cánepa, director of the Institute of Ethnomusicology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP); and I, a researcher at the Institute of Philological Research of UNAM, wanted to reconsider these experiences to highlight their formative qualities and demonstrate that women can use the skills acquired through their experiences to design new ways of thinking about academic life.

It seemed to us that, while institutions can contribute by openly informing about the current state of women’s situation in academia (figures, statistics, etc.) and promoting their participation at all levels of university life, it was also important that we women who are part of the academic environment actively participate in dismantling the barriers that cause inequality gaps around women to worsen as we advance in our academic careers.

In 2024, we proposed the creation of a Network of Women from Latin America and Germany in the Humanities and Social Sciences. That same year, our project was honored with the Humboldt Alumni Award for Innovative Networking Initiatives from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Inspired by evidence showing that academic networks and mentoring programs are key strategies to reduce gender gaps, we committed to weaving a network of support, reflection, inspiration, and leadership that includes young researchers, administrative staff, and academics at different stages of their careers in the humanities and social sciences.
Based on our experiences as women and considering our disciplinary skills to reflect on culture and society, we aim to establish with this Network of Women a space to exchange perspectives regarding the role of women in academia. As Latin American women, we decided to foster dialogue with our German colleagues, among whom there has been mutual admiration encouraged by the meetings we have had as fellows of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany, particularly at the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin. Likewise, we felt it was essential to exchange experiences among Latin American colleagues, thus breaking with the tendency to look only towards the global North.

With this strategy, we want to build, through networks of mutual support and trust, a new model for the collective empowerment of women in the various areas and stages of academic life. As part of this collective project, we also aim to share access to information about scholarships, calls, internships, and funding to enhance the internationalization of the academic careers of our younger colleagues in our institutions.

On October 20 and 21, 2025, the activities promoted by the  at the Pontifical Catholica University of Peru (PUCP) will begin in Lima. In this first meeting, we reflect on the common patterns and persistent challenges in our academic careers with the aim of demonstrating, together, how subtle gestures can lead to the formulation of new institutional policies.    

In the spring of 2026, we will hold the first virtual meeting to talk about the challenges and potential of internationalization, and in the fall, we will host our second in-person meeting in Mexico, where the foundations of our mentoring program will be established. In 2027, the second virtual meeting will take place to analyze power relations and inequalities in the social sciences and humanities. That same year, we will hold the third in-person meeting in Berlin, which will focus on the international careers of women between Latin America and Germany. We will conclude in 2028 with a virtual meeting to discuss the key aspects of planning women’s careers at different stages of their academic life.

THAT REPLACING COMPETITION AMONG WOMEN WITH NETWORKS OF SUPPORT AND COLLABORATION IS THE BEST WAY TO ACCOMPANY EACH OTHER AND COLLECTIVELY BOOST THE CAREERS OF MORE WOMEN IN ACADEMIA

These actions will be accompanied by the launch of our mentoring program and a website, as well as digital and printed publications, audiovisual materials to support women throughout the key moments of their academic lives, and a contact list of former Humboldt fellows who will promote the guidance of future candidates for the postdoctoral research scholarships in Germany offered by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

We are convinced that replacing competition among women with networks of support and collaboration is the best way to accompany each other and collectively boost the careers of more women in academia. We firmly believe that women who feel supported become agents of change in their communities of origin, so our small contribution will know how to find its way to create more spaces aimed at promoting equal opportunities for women in the academic world.

If you are interested in joining our activities, contact us at the email address: marvaldovinos@gmail.com.

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