This paper explores the intersections of gender equality politics with liberal and neoliberal reform projects in universities. Ongoing struggles over governance of higher education provide the context to assess the challenges and opportunities gender equality advocates find in both academic capitalism and globalizing liberal modernity. Focusing on how diversity management and gender mainstreaming enter higher education systems, we use the claims raised about accountability and excellence in universities to highlight how seeking gender equality reforms neither simply co-opts feminist concerns to neoliberal projects, as Cassandra warns, nor supports an idealized form of global humanism, as Pollyanna hopes.