Women in Academia: Career Orientation, Satisfactions, and Stress

Abstract

Using data from a national survey, this article focuses on career-related attitudes and behaviors of social work academics, paying particular attention to the status of female academics. Although the women and men in the sample were similar in many ways, the women experienced certain sources of stress and dissatisfaction that were not identified by the men, and thus their academic careers seem to have differed significantly from those of the men. The women aspired to be like their male counterparts. To do so, however, would require that they slant their careers more toward research than toward teaching.

Over the Edge? Women and Tenure in Today's Academic Environment

“…In addition, men have lighter academic workloads than do women; fewer women and minorities have published books or chapters in books; and tenure policies are more favorable to men than to women (Grunig, 1987;Hunter & Shannon, 1987;Jordan, Cobb, & McCully, 1989;Pottick, Adams, & Faulkner, 1986;Rosenfeld & Jones, 1987;Schiele, 1992). The findings indicate that both men and women experience stress related to balancing careers and families but that a smaller percentage of female academics marry; that family responsibilities still fall mostly on the women; and that women have fewer opportunities for sharing resources and information, networking, coalition building, and mentoring.…”