The contemporary capitalist practice, a neoliberal version, promotes the model of a public university as a profitable enterprise providing high-quality educational services. This means a situation in which public higher education is subject to market pressures, including the narrative of irreversible privatisation and marketisation. It is also the occurrence of academic capitalism, associated with three specific processes: commercialisation, capitalisation and financialisation. Such neoliberal ideas mean enormous changes in the orientation of teaching and the organisation of higher education institutions for universities. At the same time, these changes are related to the roles and functions of women in academia, considering also the discrimination and violence against them. On this basis, the article aims to reflect on the differences and similarities between the Italian and Polish academic systems by attempting to reconstruct the socio-economic and political framework, also in the EU, considering the gender gap.