Un/making academia: gendered precarities and personal lives in universities
Autor/in:
McKenzie, Lara
Quelle: Gender and Education, (2021) , S 1–18
Inhalt: Recent scholarship on universities explores how academics’ families and partners restrict their careers and how academic labour limits these relationships, both in highly gendered ways. Such research less often considers how people’s close relations might unevenly support them in continuously relocating; dedicating unpaid time to ‘career development’; or taking on or influencing them to remain in short-term, poorly paid precarious roles. This paper explores precariously employed post-PhDs in Australia, investigating their gendered careers and personal lives. Drawing on interviews at three public universities, it shows how women with children and partners in particular raise concerns over how their relationships and work interact. Here, certain kinds of workers – men and single women, unencumbered by family responsibilities and restrictions on travel, and with access to financial resources – appear better able to navigate moves to more secure work. This paper argues that support from close relations is productive and restrictive for precarious academics’ careers.
When faith intersects with gender: the challenges and successes in the experiences of Muslim women academics
Autor/in:
Ramadan, Ibtihal
Quelle: Gender and Education, (2021) , S 1–16
Inhalt: This paper explores the experiences of eight Muslim women academics (MWA) within a range of sciences and humanities disciplines. The data draws from my doctoral study which examined the experiences of men and women Muslim academics at UK universities. Findings from in-depth interviews with participants highlight the intersectionality of religio-gendered identities as central to their experiences. Being hijabed in academia triggered gendered-Islamophobic micro-aggressions, whose potential impact on the participants was buffered by their resilience, positive outlook, and belief. Further, they capitalized on their visible faith to demystify negative perceptions about Muslims and to advance their career-through utilizing the diversity logic within academia, while recognizing its tokenistic nature. Despite facing challenges, the participants share certain qualities that facilitate success, with agency being the uppermost quality.
Schlagwörter:academics; akademische Karriere; Großbritannien; Intersektionalität; Islam; microaggressions; Muslim; muslim woman; Rassismus; UK
CEWS Kategorie:Berufsbiographie und Karriere, Diversity, Europa und Internationales, Geschlechterverhältnis
International Mobility and Social Capital in the Academic Field
Autor/in:
Bauder, Harald
Quelle: Minerva, 58 (2020) 3, S 367–387
Inhalt: The relationship between the international mobility of academic researchers and social capital is complex. On the one hand, the literature suggests that social capital facilitates the international mobility of academics which, in turn, promotes the accumulation of international social capital, enhances research productivity, and advances careers. On the other hand, international mobility can isolate researchers from the national social capital in their origin countries. In this paper, I present the results of 42 interviews in Canada and Germany to examine how academics in both countries have experienced the connection between international mobility and social capital. In addition to revealing the complexity of this connection, the results show that social capital facilitates international mobility and that mobility sometimes creates social capital. However, mobility can also lead to the loss of national social capital that negatively affects early-career researchers in particular.
Schlagwörter:academic career; Canada; Deutschland; early career researcher; Feldtheorie; international academic mobility; Interview; Kanada; Mobilität; scientific career; social capital; soziales Kapital; wissenschaftlicher Nachwuchs
CEWS Kategorie:Berufsbiographie und Karriere, Europa und Internationales, Wissenschaft als Beruf
Inhalt: Women's underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) impedes progress in solving Africa's complex development problems. As in other regions, women's participation in STEM drops progressively moving up the education and career ladder, with women currently constituting 30% of Africa's STEM researchers. This study elucidates gender-based differences in PhD performance using new survey data from 227 alumni of STEM PhD programs in 17 African countries. We find that, compared to their male counterparts, sampled women had about one less paper accepted for publication during their doctoral studies and took about half a year longer to finish their PhD training. Negative binomial regression models provide insights on the observed differences in women's and men's PhD performance. Results indicate that the correlates of publication productivity and time to PhD completion are very similar for women and men, but some gender-based differences are observed. For publication output, we find that good supervision had a stronger impact for men than women; and getting married during the PhD reduced women's publication productivity but increased that of men. Becoming a parent during the PhD training was a key reason that women took longer to complete the PhD, according to our results. Findings suggest that having a female supervisor, attending an institution with gender policies in place, and pursuing the PhD in a department where sexual harassment by faculty was perceived as uncommon were enabling factors for women's timely completion of their doctoral studies. Two priority interventions emerge from this study: (1) family-friendly policies and facilities that are supportive of women's roles as wives and mothers and (2) fostering broader linkages and networks for women in STEM, including ensuring mentoring and supervisory support that is tailored to their specific needs and circumstances.
Gendered strategies of mobility and academic career
Autor/in:
Nikunen, Minna; Lempiäinen, Kirsti
Quelle: Gender and Education, 32 (2020) 4, S 554–571
Inhalt: In universities, being mobile and international has become ever more important for academics’ career prospects. This article explores junior and other insecurely employed researchers’ experiences of geographical mobility in relation to their personal life, career, employability and value as scholars. The aim is to discover the gendered strategies researchers use to combine mobility with intimate relations and personal life. Furthermore, what gendered ideas of mobility, employability and career success do researchers themselves construct? These aspects of mobility, particularly focused on gender, are analysed in three cases: Finland, Italy and the United Kingdom. These states are all (currently) members of the European Union and have implemented its internationalisation policies. The data consists of qualitative interviews gathered in 2009 and 2010. We suggest that the value and capital of academic labour are evaluated differently in the three different locations. Additionally, gender, age, academic age and life situation motivate different mobility strategies.
New managerialism in the academy: Gender bias and precarity
Autor/in:
Steinþórsdóttir, Finnborg S.; Brorsen Smidt, Thomas; Pétursdóttir, Gyða M.; Einarsdóttir, Þorgerður; Le Feuvre, Nicky
Quelle: Gender Work Organ (Gender, Work & Organization), 26 (2019) 2, S 124–139
Inhalt: In the era of global competition, academic institutions are increasingly being managed as efficient organizations where early career academics are the most vulnerable group in the academic hierarchy. We use gender budgeting to deconstruct the financial and managerial processes and procedures in a selected academic institution in Iceland. Drawing on multiple data collection methods, we argue that new managerialism enhances the precarious position of early career academics, especially women and those in the more feminized fields. Furthermore, we show that the system's bias in favour of so‐called hard science generates gendered consequences for early career academics. We demonstrate this structural gender bias in each of the first three stages of an academic career: PhD, postdoc and other temporary positions, and assistant professorship. By highlighting the gendered consequences of new managerialism, we want to direct attention to the need to include a gender perspective in the budgeting and all the decision‐making processes in academic institutions.
‘You must aim high’ - ‘No, I never felt like a woman’: women and men making sense of non-standard trajectories into higher education
Autor/in:
González Ramos, Ana M.; Räthzel, Nora
Quelle: International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 10 (2018) 1, 17 S
Inhalt: It is no secret that the ‘glass ceiling’ preventing women advancing to leadership positions exists in academia as well. Spain is no exception. Gender relations are usually investigated independently of other power relations like class and ethnicity. In our sample (80 men and women in different academic institutions across Spain) we found that not only women but also men from working class backgrounds have difficulties making successful academic careers. Therefore, we use an intersectional approach to investigate the relationship between gender and class. Comparing two life-histories, we explore what strategies individuals employ to overcome the barriers with which they are confronted. We present the stories of a woman with a middle class but non-academic background and of a man with a working-class background. Their strategies can be understood as the result of specific individual trajectories under specific societal conditions, but they also illustrate the barriers and possibilities men and women with non-standard backgrounds encounter in academia. Analysing successful strategies as well as their limitations, we aim to provide perspectives that might contribute to changing the culture of hegemonic masculinities in academia.
CEWS Kategorie:Berufsbiographie und Karriere, Diversity, Europa und Internationales, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Geschlechterverhältnis, Wissenschaft als Beruf
Inhalt: It is well known that women are under-represented in senior science and research positions. This is true even in Denmark, which has long been considered one of the most advanced societies when it comes to gender equality. Although stories of sexism in science often focus on explicit bias, more-subtle factors are widely influential too.
Internationale Mobilität und soziale Selektivität : Ausmaß, Mechanismen und Entwicklung herkunftsspezifischer Unterschiede zwischen 1990 und 2005
Titelübersetzung:International mobility and social inequality : extent, mechanisms and development of social differences between 1990 and 2005
Autor/in:
Lörz, Markus; Krawietz, Marian
Quelle: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Jg. 63 (2011) H. 2, S. 185-205
Inhalt: "Mit der Bildungsexpansion haben sich die sozialen Ungleichheiten im deutschen Bildungssystem deutlich verringert. Da sich im Zuge dieser Veränderungen ein Teil der sozialen Selektivitäten auf den Hochschulbereich verschoben hat und zudem deutliche Unterschiede in der Art der Bildungsbeteiligung bestehen, stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit sich neue Muster sozialer Ungleichheit ausgebildet haben. Der vorliegende Beitrag konzentriert sich hierbei auf die herkunftsspezifischen Unterschiede in der Entscheidung an eine ausländische Hochschule zu wechseln und die Prozesse und Mechanismen die diesen Unterschieden zugrunde liegen. Auf Basis der HIS-Studienberechtigtenbefragungen wird das Ausmaß und die Entwicklung herkunftsspezifischer Unterschiede bestimmt und anhand nicht-linearer Dekompositionsmodelle gezeigt, auf welche Ursachen und Prozesse diese Unterschiede zurückzuführen sind. Im Ergebnis finden wir sowohl in der Absicht als auch in der Entscheidung, ein Auslandsstudium aufzunehmen, bemerkenswerte herkunftsspezifische Unterschiede. Die geringere Auslandsmobilität der Studierenden aus bildungsfernen Familien lässt sich hierbei auf die schlechteren Schulleistungen und geringeren Fremdsprachenkenntnisse, die höheren örtlichen Bindungen und auf Unterschiede in den institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen zurückführen. Im Zeitverlauf nehmen diese Unterschiede zwischen 1990 und 2005 eher zu als ab." (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: "In the course of educational expansion social inequalities in access to upper secondary education declined, while the differences in transition to tertiary education increased. In the light of these changes the assumption arises, that the patterns of social selectivity in access to higher education have changed. While in the past status maintenance was mainly due to differences in access to higher education, today it is to a greater extent a question of kind and place of study. Because of the growing importance of international experience for labour market success, students of privileged classes might increasingly opt to study abroad in order to preserve their privileged position." (author's abstract)
Mobile Wissenschaftlerinnen : transnationale Verortungen und biographische Perspektiven
Titelübersetzung:Mobile scientists : transnational positionings and biographical perspectives
Autor/in:
Bauschke-Urban, Carola
Quelle: Gender : Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, Jg. 3 (2011) H. 1, S. 81-98
Inhalt: "Durch die Internationalisierung der Hochschulen gewinnen transnationale Lebensformen und Karrierewege in der Wissenschaft an Bedeutung. Auf der Basis einer theoretischen Reflexion transnationaler Räume, postkolonialer Ansätze zur Konstruktion von Ethnizität/ Kultur und mit Bezug auf die Diskussion von Intersektionalität in der Biographieforschung werden biographische Interviews mit mobilen Wissenschaftlerinnen aus unterschiedlichen Weltregionen wie Indien, Ex-Jugoslawien und Deutschland (aus einer Einwanderfamilie aus der Türkei) diskutiert. Transnational mobile Karrierewege von Wissenschaftlerinnen können mit drei biographischen Kerndimensionen individueller Erfahrung beschrieben werden: 1. der Aufbruch in die Mobilität, 2. das Ankommen in neuen wissenschaftlichen Communities sowie 3. die transnationale Vernetzung als riskante Form der Lebensführung. Mobilität als hoch flexibilisierte Lebensform von Wissenschaftlerinnen findet eine biographische Artikulation in Entwürfen eines transnationalen Selbstverständnisses, in denen die Kategorie Geschlecht an Eindeutigkeit verloren hat." (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: "The internationalization of the higher education sector goes hand in hand with an increase in transnational career pathways for scientists. The article focuses on biographical interviews with mobile women scientists from different world regions such as India, Ex-Yugoslavia and Germany (with a Turkish migration background). The empirical analysis is based on a theoretical reflection of transnational spaces, postcolonial discussion of the construction of ethnicity/ culture and on intersectional perspectives in biographical research. It is discussed that transnational mobile career pathways can be analyzed within three biographical key concepts. They include 1.) departure as a start of mobility, 2.) arrival in new scientific communities and 3.) transnational networks and connections as the central motif of their lifestyles and career pathways. The highly flexible transnational lifestyles of mobile scientists include high risks and they find articulation in biographical concepts of transnational and gender neutral self perceptions of the mobile women scientists." (author's abstract)