Academic women’s voices on gendered divisions of work and care: ‘Working till I drop . . . then dropping’
Autor/in:
Sümer, Sevil; Eslen-Ziya, Hande
Quelle: European Journal of Women's Studies, (2022)
Inhalt: Our main goal in this article is to discuss the structural and persistent problems experienced by women academics, especially with respect to the gendered divisions of academic tasks and unequal divisions of care obligations in the domestic sphere. The analysis is based on reflexive thematic analysis of the open-ended questions of an online questionnaire on the academic work environment, work satisfaction, stress, academic duties and allocation of tasks, and thoughts on gender equality. Academics from different countries voice their lived experiences, frustrations as well as worries about their future. We aim to highlight how these issues are embedded in the structures of academic capitalism and argue against the tendency to individualise these issues in a bid to inspire an informed collective resistance.
Schlagwörter:academic capitalism; academic care; Arbeitsteilung; Arbeitszufriedenheit; Care; care responsibility; Diskurs; division of labor; domestic labour; Forschung; gender equality; gendered work organization; Lehre; qualitative Analyse; qualitative analysis; questionnaire; resistance; time allocations; work environment
CEWS Kategorie:Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
„Wenn’s nirgendwo so richtig stimmt“ – Einblicke in qualitative Forschung zu Hochschulkarrieren und Elternschaft unter Corona-Bedingungen
Autor/in:
Haag, Hanna
Quelle: FemPol (Femina Politica – Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft), 31 (2022) 2, S 132–136
Inhalt: Wissenschaftskarrieren sind allgemeinhin von einem hohen Selektionsdruck gekennzeichnet (Reuter et al. 2020). In dem vorliegenden Beitrag wird insbesondere die Frage nach der (Un)-Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf mit Blick auf die pandemische Lage fokussiert und aufgezeigt, wie diese selbige verstärkt.
Promovieren mit Kind : Welche Rolle spielen Promotionskontexte für eine erfolgreiche Vereinbarkeit von familialen und beruflichen Anforderungen in der Promotionsphase?
Quelle: Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung, 43 (2021) 3, S 8–29
Inhalt: Vor dem Hintergrund der Etablierung von Personalentwicklungsstrategien an Hochschulen ist die Vereinbarkeit von Privat- und Erwerbsleben in den vergangenen Jahren ein wichtiges Thema im Berufsfeld Wissenschaft geworden. Mit Daten der National Academics Panel Study werden erstmals die Bedingungen für Elternschaft während der Promotionsphase in verschiedenen Promotionskontexten in den Blick genommen. Im Zentrum der Analysen steht ein schrittweises Regressionsmodell zu den Determinanten der Zufriedenheit mit der Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Arbeit promovierender Eltern. Diese ist bei Müttern geringer als bei Vätern und variiert sowohl zwischen Promotionsfächern als auch -formen. Eine als gut eingeschätzte Promotions2betreuung in Form von Betreuungsstabilität und emotionaler Unterstützung erweist sich als besonders bedeutsam. Die Analysen zeigen somit Handlungsspielräume auf, in denen hochschulische Maßnahmen zur Förderung von Familienfreundlichkeit verortet werden können
“Academic guilt”: The impact of the pandemic-enforced lockdown on women’s academic work
Autor/in:
Cyrill Walters; Linda Ronnie; Jonathan Jansen; Samantha Kriger
Quelle: Women’s Studies International Forum, 88 (2021)
Inhalt: According to anecdotal accounts, the guilt engendered by the conflict between employment and family that is pervasive in the academy (or “academic guilt,” in this paper) has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic-enforced lockdown. To date, there has been no systematic research that provides a detailed account of, and explanations for, the “academic guilt” experienced by women academics, in particular, outside of the Global North. The research team conducted a large-scale systematic survey of all female academic staff in a nationwide study of South Africa’s 26 public universities during the period of the lockdown. A total of 2029 full responses were received from women at different stages in their academic careers. The survey included an open-ended section that allowed for detailed, unlimited responses by the participants; this section provided a substantial volume of qualitative data, which was coded and analyzed. Leveraging the richness of the open-ended survey data, this study presents findings showing significantly high feelings of “academic guilt” among women academics during the pandemic-enforced lockdown for a variety of reasons relating to the working conditions imposed by the lockdown mandates.
Publishing and Parenting in Academic Science: A Study of Different National Contexts
Autor/in:
Di Di; Thomson, Robert A.; Howard Ecklund, Elaine
Quelle: Socius (Sociological Research for a Dynamic World), 7 (2021)
Inhalt: In the first cross-national, mixed-methods study on gender, family, and science, the authors examined the relationship between research productivity and family life for male and female physicists and biologists in four countries: India, Taiwan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Drawing on surveys of 5,756 respondents and follow-up interviews with 369 participants, the authors found that the relationship between family responsibilities and publishing operates differently for men and women. Additionally, this relationship is conditioned by the national context in which the scientists work. The interviews indicate that family responsibilities constrain women’s publication productivity according to context. Cross-contextual differences are partially explained by the macro-level gender norms transmitted to academic scientists and how women navigate their scientific research productivity and family responsibilities. The findings have implications for the broader literature on the dialectical relationship between macro-level gender norms and responses by scientists in India, Taiwan, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Toward a Family-Friendly Academy : HRD’s Role in Creating Healthy Work–Life Cultural Change Interventions
Autor/in:
Eversole, Barbara A. W.; Crowder, Cindy L.
Quelle: Advances in Developing Human Resources, 22 (2020) 1, S 11–22
Inhalt: The Problem: The ideal worker in the Academy devotes most of their lives to scholarly pursuits, which leaves little time for family. This problem leads to work–life conflict, which is particularly concerning for faculty members who are seeking promotion and tenure. Work–life conflict is most challenging in the case of academic mothers, who face professional career challenges in addition to work–life conflict. Rigid organizational policies and non-supportive cultures perpetuate the problem, particularly when the faculty member is an academic mother seeking promotion and tenure.
The Solution: Human resource development (HRD) interventions implemented at the individual, departmental, and institutional levels (e.g., training development, performance management, and career development initiatives) have been shown to reduce work–life conflict, improve overall well-being, and create a more family friendly environment. Organization development (OD) cultural change interventions aimed at changing the Academy to become more family focused and supportive of career flexibility are recommended.
The Stakeholders: Academic faculty, higher education administrators, HRD scholars, and practitioners.
Schlagwörter:academic parents; cultural change; family-friendly academy; work–life flexibility
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf
The Never‐ending Shift : A feminist reflection on living and organizing academic lives during the coronavirus pandemic
Autor/in:
Boncori, Ilaria
Quelle: Gender Work Organ (Gender, Work & Organization), (2020)
Inhalt: This article offers a feminist reflection written as a nocturnal stream of consciousness exposing the embodied, emotional and professional experience of living and working during a pandemic outbreak. Framed within a feminist approach, this personal narrative provides an example of the effects of such unexpected and unprecedented circumstances on personal and professional academic lives. Developed during the first stage of the (inter)national coronavirus pandemic, my reflections address issues of privilege; emotional labour; the virtual invasion of the home space within the current increasingly ambiguous space of ‘the workplace'; workload; and wellbeing. Further, I consider how the newly enforced flexible work measures based on online tools have turned current work–life dynamics into a ‘Never‐ending Shift'.
The Differential Impact of COVID-19 on the Work Conditions of Women and Men Academics during the Lockdown
Autor/in:
Yildirim, T. Murat; Eslen-Ziya, Hande
Quelle: Gender Work Organ (Gender, Work & Organization), (2020)
Inhalt: That the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the work conditions of large segments of the society is in no doubt. A growing body of journalistic accounts raised the possibility that the lockdown caused by the pandemic affects women and men in different ways, due mostly to the traditionally gendered division of labor in the society. We attempt to test this oft-cited argument by conducting an original survey with nearly 200 academics. Specifically, we explore the extent to which the effect of the lockdown on child-care, housework and home-office environment varies across women and men. Our results show that a number of factors are associated with the effect of the lockdown on the work conditions of academics at home, including gender, having children, perceived threat from COVID-19, and satisfaction with work environment. We also show that having children disproportionately affects women in terms of the amount of housework during the lockdown.
Schlagwörter:academics; Arbeitsbedingungen; Arbeitsteilung; Befragung; child care; COVID-19; division of labor; gender inequality; Geschlechterungleichheit; Geschlechtervergleich; Hausarbeit; Kinderbetreuung; survey; Wissenschaftler; working condition
CEWS Kategorie:Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists
Autor/in:
Myers, Kyle R.; Tham, Wei Yang; Yin, Yian; Cohodes, Nina; Thursby, Jerry G.; Thursby, Marie C.; Schiffer, Peter; Walsh, Joseph T.; Lakhani, Karim R.; Wang, Dashun
Quelle: Nature human behaviour, 4 (2020) 9, S 880–883
Inhalt: COVID-19 has not affected all scientists equally. A survey of principal investigators indicates that female scientists, those in the ‘bench sciences’ and, especially, scientists with young children experienced a substantial decline in time devoted to research. This could have important short- and longer-term effects on their careers, which institution leaders and funders need to address carefully.
Schlagwörter:COVID-19; parenthood; scientist
CEWS Kategorie:Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf