Gender Specifics in the Human Capital of Russian University Professors

The negative trends and pace of change within the Russian education system are creating an ever-growing need for quality human capital among university professors. However, different categories of professors respond to these challenges differently. It is important to recognise that Russian universities only started to face the need to assess the human capital and effectiveness of professors' labour in recent times. This may be why universities mostly use such methods to set material incentives for professors, underutilising the analytical potential of these instruments. This paper presents the results of an analysis of points received by professors from one Russian university as part of an on-the-job incentives scheme. This scheme provides a framework whereby professors receive points for different types of activities they engage in. The results are as follows. Firstly, female professors are higher performers, receiving greater scores for their activities than their male counterparts. Secondly, there are far fewer non-performing professors with zero points among women. Thirdly, women's work is more diversified - they engage in a greater spectrum of activities than men. Fourthly, the professional activities of female professors are seldom correlated to age, whereas men tend to become higher performers as they get older. There could be a number of reasons for these differences - from objective psychological traits of men and women to existing societal gender stereotypes. On the whole, our research showed that gender could be seen as one determinant of the effectiveness with which professors use their human capital. A university's resourcing policy can factor in gender specifics. This is particularly significant given external and internal transformations taking place in the Russian education system today. We suppose that gender differences should be one element used in forecasting the development of professors' human capital. Moreover, accounting for gender in assessments of human capital will, on the one hand, help bridge the gender gap within the university environment, while at the same time giving impetus to consolidate and improve a university's competitiveness.