This book is a definitive examination of higher education: locating it in a wider neo-liberal context involving the state and the market, with a specific focus on recent higher policy and on the elite group of senior managers in universities. Written in a clear accessible style, it provides an in-depth analysis of university structures, cultures and practices at senior management level. Despite the managerialist rhetoric of accountability, we see structures where access to power is through the Presidents' blessing, very much as in a medieval court. We see a culture that is less than comfortable with the presence of women, and which, in its narratives, stereotypes and interactions exemplifies to a rather nineteenth-century view of women. Sites and sources of change are also identified. In a global context where diversity is crucial to innovation, it challenges us to critically reflect on management and on higher education.

Pat OConnor is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Limerick

Prologue: My own journey1. The big picture: Universities in a changing society2. Finding a compass and mapping the terrain3. Policy priorities: instrumentality, scientizisation, degendering4. Gentlemans club or medieval court?5. There is no problem; or if there is, the problem is women6. Think manager think male?7. An attractive job, but no place for a woman8. Summary and conclusionsReferencesAppendixIndex