In this article we consider organisation, gender and higher education, and what we term the routinisation of inequality, drawing on an empirical research investigation in Sweden and England. We understand the idea of as historically contingent human creations that reflect an imagined past as well as the interests, values, hopes and intentions of present members as they converge and diverge on specific issues at different times and in different places. We argue that the reproduction of inequality is an assumptive process, largely unchanging and not seen as exceptional or out of the ordinary in universities and that this is connected in the present period with increasing neo-liberalism in conjunction with the new managerialism. The main conclusion is that whilst inequality is experienced negatively by those it affects adversely and who would wish otherwise, it has become ingrained in everyday life as a part of our present taken for granted assumptive world. Consideration is given to future prospects.