Does excellence have a gender?

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to show that upward mobility of female academics in regular selection procedures is evolving extremely slowly, especially in The Netherlands. This paper aims at a more profound understanding of professorial recruitment and selection procedures in relation to gender differences at Dutch universities. Design/methodology/approach – This paper explores the recruitment of university professors as a gendered process and is mainly based on the analysis of selection committee reports between 1999‐2003 from six large Dutch universities ( n =682). Findings – The research findings give a clear indication of gender differences in selection and recruitment procedures. Although not in all disciplines, the paper observes a disparity in the percentages of male and female applicants who were successful in the selection procedure. There is no confirmation of the predicted relationship with the nature of the procedure (open/closed), but there is a correlation with the number of women on the committee. Research limitations/implications – As it was not possible to make any pronouncements about the quality of the applicants, a strict measurement of gender bias is not possible. Practical implications – The results show that academic disciplines are gendered in a different way, requiring different measures at the institutional and individual levels. Originality/value – This is the first paper on recruitment and selection procedures that takes into account disciplinary differences and factors such as the number of applicants for each professorship and the recruitment potential by gender.