Family or Future in the Academy?

Abstract

This article critically reviews recent literature on the relationship between family formation and academic-career progression, emphasizing obstacles women face seeking a tenured position and beyond. Evidence indicates that the pipeline model is dominated by "ideal worker" norms. These norms impose rigid, tightly coupled, sequential, time-bound requirements on aspiring academics, making the raising of young children and advancing an academic career incompatible. Studies indicate that women with PhDs and young children are disproportionately more likely to leak out of the tenuretrack pipeline. Lack of family friendliness is one of the chief reasons why women opt out of tenure-track careers. One way to increase the proportion of tenured women is to adapt the pipeline model by bolstering institutional work-family policies and providing child care centers. Departmental leaders can ensure that making use of work-family policies does not negatively affect tenure decisions. Collecting longitudinal data to evaluate how well policies are working is critical.

A posthumanist critique of flexible online learning and its “anytime anyplace” claims

“…Echoing Moss, these researchers note that such divisions confirm the “gendered aspects of caring that must be acknowledged in order to develop appropriate strategies to allow all students to fulfil their potential in [Higher Education]” (p. 630). Both the work of Ahmad (, p. 205) and England (, p. 151) corroborate this point by similarly observing that care work such as child‐rearing remains feminized (and therefore undervalued) labour performed mostly by women. In her work on persistence and the adult learner, Castles (, p. 169) reported related findings, noting that analysis of existing work at the time reflected a “need for women to be helped at a more practical level in their roles than men, who were more accustomed to being supported by their partners as part of their pre‐student lives.” Selwyn’s more recent interviews (, p. 377) revealed that “in some instances women’s unpaid household work was raised as a significant issue” for women learners, and that “their study arrangements were often less decisive and guaranteed, with studying being located in spaces which fitted around existing domestic arrangements” (p. 378).…”

Informality, emotion and gendered career paths: The hidden toll of maternity leave on female academics and researchers

“…These factors further contribute to the leaky pipeline phenomenon among early career and postdoctoral researchers and illustrate how practices surrounding maternity leave and grant management work to continuously reproduce gender inequalities in academia. Researchers on fixed‐term contracts are particularly vulnerable with regard to maternity leave and face a number of pressures and possible penalties in terms of finance, career continuity and progression (Ahmad, ). As the respondents in our study articulated, such uncertainty also has psychological impacts upon women in terms of their emotional wellbeing and vulnerability to stress.…”

“…Academic success is predicated on research productivity and a linear career structure which requires the commitment of an ‘ideal worker’, that is, a worker unfettered by family or other commitments. Simultaneously, ‘institutional accommodations’ to reconcile work and family commitments are a feature of human resource management in academic environments but the continuing gendered nature of academia, and society, mitigates the effects of family friendly provisions as these ‘remain largely the domain of women and marginalized by institutions’ (Ahmad, , p. 233). Respondents in this study identify institutional culture and structure as central to negotiating their roles as academics and parents, revealing the everyday practices through which the gendering of university structures and cultures is achieved.…”

Gendered Analysis in Academic Career Advancement: Fifteen Years’ Trend at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

“…Career progression in academia is often represented by a pipeline model which refers to the notion that an academic career can be idealized as a linear progression from undergraduate education to a professorship [11]. The pipeline model posits a relatively rigid, straight forward progression through a fixed set of transition points in educational and occupational careers [12,13]. The pipeline model is criticized for being dominated by ideal norms where the worker is expected to adhere to strict high standards measures like quality and quantity of publications in a specified time frame of moving up the academic ladder while at the same time balancing work and life.…”