Climbing the academic ladder: Chinese women academics seeking recognition on the way to becoming professors

IntroductionRelatively little research has explored non-Western women workers and their career transitions within their unique cultural contexts. Thus, more context-sensitive approaches to women’s career trajectories are needed.MethodsBased on Bian and Wang’s Career Decision Tree Model (2019) as a conceptual framework, the reasons for South Korean women workers’ career transitions and influencing factors were explored using a qualitative approach with in-depth interviews with 35 South Korean women workers at various career stages.Results and DiscussionTheir main motive of career transitions was difficulty maintaining their physical and mental health, which stemmed from their demanding work life. A typical issue, the burden of child rearing and family responsibilities, was also reported, but it was not the primary reason for their career transitions. Instead, the women workers often mentioned these responsibilities along with other reasons. Other reasons were unresolved career interests and expectations associated with their lack of career goals and preparation prior to joining the labor market. These factors led to significant changes in women’s values and priorities along their career path, which finally triggered a decision to make a career transition. South Korean socio-cultural characteristics embedded in the South Korean women’s personal and organizational lives provide insights on how to interpret the findings. Although on the surface some of our findings appeared to confirm previous studies on women’s career transitions in Western-based literature, noteworthy differences were discovered when delving deeper into women’s career transitions in the South Korean context.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding South Korean women workers’ career transition experiences: using the career decision tree model

Kim,

Baek

2024

“…This indicates that women are still marginalized, as is the case worldwide. In literature, there is a dearth of research on academic women’s experience in non-elite CHEIs from the Butlerian lens ( Zhao and Jones, 2018 ; Bao and Tian, 2022 ), despite the fact that non-elite universities are the mainstays of CHEIs quantitively. 1 Most studies on academic women in China have focused on the general obstacles and challenges they face, but their multiple identities (teacher/researcher/mother), in both the professional and the private realms have rarely been explored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article thus fills this research gap by unpacking the subtle complexity of Chinese women academics’ negotiation of multiple identities. We focus on academic women in non-elite Chinese universities as their identities are often under-researched in literature and are, as found in our empirical data, strongly shaped by the institutional discourses and gender norms compared to that of women academics from elite Chinese universities (also see, Bao and Tian, 2022 ). Specifically, the study takes a Butlerian theoretical approach to interpret their experiences in non-elite universities because the Butlerian perspective is critical in deconstructing the existing gender relations in organizations shaped by wider discourses ( Jenkins and Finneman, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic women’s negotiation of gender identities in non-elite Chinese universities

Yuan

Tian

2023

Self Cite

IntroductionThis study employs Butler’s concept of identity to unpack how non-elite Chinese university academic women negotiate gender identities under the influence of the wider social discourses around gender in their institutional context.MethodsThe study includes two empirical investigations of (i) semi-structured interviews and (ii) photovoice interviews with six women academics from six different non-elite Chinese universities.Results and DiscussionWe found that most interviewees tended to value their teacher identity and meanwhile downplay their researcher identity in the professional field; while in the private field, they paid more attention to their mother identity at the cost of downplaying their career development. The study also reveals that, in the process of gender negotiation, the interviewees commonly adopted two strategies: (i) creating space and time for identity performance, and (ii) persuading with selves to accept multiple identities. This article contributes to the understanding of Chinese academic women in non-elite public universities from a Butlerian perspective.

“…The Chinese higher education context is marked by gender norms, which have challenged women's career advancement in academia (Zhao and Jones, 2017 ). Chinese women are likely to show less ambition because of the different expectations of men and women in society (Larsson and Alvinius, 2020 ; Bao and Tian, 2022 ). Quantitative research shows that, compared to Chinese men academics, women's research productivity is lower for two main reasons: Chinese women academics are less likely to have sufficient academic networking to gain research resources and collaboration (Zhu and He, 2016 ; Bao and Tian, 2022 ); and Chinese women academics devote less time to research work mainly because of the imbalance of domestic housework allocation (Zhu and He, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting the past and the future: Academic geographical (im)mobility of Chinese women academics throughout doctoral education

Bao

2022

Self Cite

IntroductionAcademic geographical mobility is considered to be critical to academic excellence, but it is a gendered terrain. This study seeks to examine the career progression of Chinese women academics, as shaped by gender norms, regarding academic geographical (im)mobility throughout their doctoral education, in retrospect.MethodsTo address this issue, driven by the Butlerian theoretical concept of “a stylized repetition of acts,” the present study analyzed the qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with seven Chinese women academics to investigate their academic geographical mobility decisions throughout their doctoral education based on contested discourses of traditional Chinese culture and the advantages of academic geographical mobility for their career advancement.Results and discussionThis study determined that, shaped by gender norms, stylized geographical academic (im)mobility for these Chinese female doctoral students operate in the condition of gender- norms maintenance to make them recognizable and understandable in social and institutional culture. However, it may have a negative impact on their future academic career progression.