This article examines the explanations offered by men and women, at different

academic ranks, for the scarcity of women in full professorial positions in

Icelandic universities. Data derive from interviews and a survey involving the

total Icelandic academic population. We test three hypotheses: Firstly, academics

will not see family responsibilities as explanation, secondly, women will more

often refer to a male-dominated environment and men more often to the

‘pipeline’ metaphor. Thirdly, the views of full professor women will be comparable

to that of academic men. We find that the impact of the national context is

considerably less than that of the gendered academic organizational context. Men

and women explain gender inequality within academia differently. Moreover, full

professor women are less convinced by the male-dominated environment explanation

than lower-ranked women. The article calls for the visibility of gendered

patterns in order to make changes.