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)
Details
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
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
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)
Details
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'.
Schlagwörter:Alltag; Care; COVID-19; feminist approach; Hochschule; Lebensführung; Sorgearbeit; Wissenschaftlerin
CEWS Kategorie:Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
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)
Details
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
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Zwischen "Exzellenz" und Existenz : Wissenschaftskarriere, Arbeits- und Geschlechterarrangements in Deutschland und Österreich
Autor/in:
Binner, Kristina; Weber, Lena
Quelle: GENDER (GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft), 11 (2019) 1-2019, S 31–46
Details
Inhalt: In der Gesellschaft wie auch in der Wissenschaft haben einige Veränderungen in Richtung Geschlechtergleichstellung stattgefunden. In den letzten Jahren werden wissenschaftliche Karrieren in Deutschland und Österreich jedoch nach ‚Exzellenzkriterien‘ und dem Leitbild der ‚unternehmerischen Hochschule‘ reorganisiert und Karrierepfade prekarisiert. Dieser Beitrag untersucht länderübergreifend, ob sich dadurch Geschlechterarrangements erneut ungleich gestalten. Dazu wird mit der Perspektive der alltäglichen und biografischen Arbeitsarrangements der Zusammenhang zwischen wissenschaftlichen Karrieren und Geschlecht analysiert. Im Fokus stehen die subjektiven Wahrnehmungen von Alltagsorganisation und biografischen Entscheidungen von NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen, die in zwei qualitativen Interviewstudien befragt wurden. Es wird auf der Subjektebene gezeigt, wie in Zeiten ‚exzellenter‘ Spitzenforschung Geschlechterungleichheiten in Alltag und Biografie erzeugt werden.
Schlagwörter:Alltag; Deutschland; Exzellenz; Geschlechterarrangement; Geschlechtergleichstellung; Interview; Österreich; qualitative Analyse; Spitzenforschung; unternehmerische Hochschule; wissenschaftlicher Nachwuchs; Wissenschaftskarriere
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Should I stay or should I go? : The effects of precariousness on the gendered career aspirations of postdocs in Switzerland
Autor/in:
Bataille, Pierre; Le Feuvre, Nicky; Kradolfer Morales, Sabine
Quelle: European Educational Research Journal, 16 (2017) 2-3, S 313–331
Details
Inhalt: The assumption that men are more likely to undertake and succeed in an academic career, because the requirements of professional success in this occupation are compatible with normative gender assumptions, particularly that of fulfilling a ‘male breadwinner’ or main household earner role, implying reduced domestic and care commitments, is discussed. It is suggested that Switzerland offers a particularly interesting case for this study, because of the combination of the specific structure of academic careers, the characteristics of the non-academic labour market and the dominant gender regime. It is shown that, in this particular context, the aspirations of postdocs to remain in academic employment or to look for non-academic jobs are directly related to their position within the domestic division of labour and to their personal and family circumstances. However, this does not necessarily lead to a clear-cut divide between work-committed men, who ‘succeed’ (and hence stay), and care-committed women who ‘fail’ to climb up the academic career ladder (and hence leave). The results suggest that the situation is more complex and requires a subtle distinction between different ideal-types of post-doctoral experiences that do not always cut neatly across gender lines.
Schlagwörter:Ausstieg; Care; Gender; gender regime; leaky pipeline; Nachwuchsforschende; Post-doc; prekäre Beschäftigung; Schweiz; Vereinbarkeit; Wissenschaftskarriere
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Work–life interferences in the early stages of academic careers : The case of precarious researchers in Italy
Autor/in:
Bozzon, Rossella; Murgia, Annalisa; Poggio, Barbara; Rapetti, Elisa
Quelle: European Educational Research Journal, 16 (2017) 2-3, S 332–351
Details
Inhalt: This paper addresses the topic of work–life interferences in academic contexts. More specifically, it focuses on early career researchers in the Italian university system. The total availability required from those who work in the research sector is leading to significant transformations of the temporalities of work, especially among the new generation of researchers, whose condition is characterized by a higher degree of instability and uncertainty. Which are the experiences of the early career researchers in an academic context constituted by a growing competition for permanent positions and, as a consequence, by a greatly increased pressure? Which are the main gender differences? In what elements do Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics disciplines differ from Social Sciences and Humanities? The collected narratives reveal how the ongoing process of precarization is affecting both the everyday working activities and the private and family lives of early career researchers, with important consequences also on their future prospects.
Schlagwörter:academia; Geschlechterunterschied; Hochschule; Italien; Nachwuchsforschende; prekäre Beschäftigung; Prekarisierung; Wissenschaftskarriere; work-life balance
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Academic Excellence and Gender Bias in the Practices and Perceptions of Scientists in Leadership and Decision-making Positions
Autor/in:
Linková, Marcela
Quelle: GV/GR (Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research), 18 (2017) 1, S 42–66
Details
Inhalt: How to assess quality has become one of the central concerns for contemporary research, not least because of the proliferation of research assessment systems around the globe. Concomitant with this has been the growing attention to factors that compromise the credibility of assessment, especially gender, ethnic, racial and geopolitical bias. In this paper I analyse how lab leaders and research managers in the natural sciences specifically construct excellence and relatedly the demands of the research profession, and how gender bias plays out in these imaginaries. The material for the study comes primarily from two highly successful public research institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences and specifically from individual and group interviews with lab leaders and research managers on topics of research governance, assessment, and quality. The focus is on the natural sciences because the discipline has driven the introduction of research assessment in the country as well as research and innovation reforms more broadly since the new millennium. Building on the distinction between the logic of choice and the logic of care developed by Annemarie Mol (2008), I explore the limits of individual choice for conceiving excellence and the gendered outcomes it produces.
Schlagwörter:care ceiling; excellence; Exzellenz; Frauen in der Wissenschaft; gender bias; gendered organization; glass ceiling; leadership; Maskulinität; maternal wall; Matilda-Effekt; Mutterschaft; research profession; Stereotyp
CEWS Kategorie:Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
How do you take time? : Work–life balance policies versus neoliberal, social and cultural incentive mechanisms in Icelandic higher education
Autor/in:
Smidt, Thomas Brorsen; Pétursdóttir, Gyða Margrét; Einarsdóttir, Þorgerður
Quelle: European Educational Research Journal, 16 (2017) 2-3, S 123–140
Details
Inhalt: It is suggested that the realization of work–life balance policies at the University of Iceland is compromised by an emphasis on neoliberal notions of growth and performance measurements in the form of new public management strategies. This is sustained by overt and covert incentive mechanisms, which in turn create a range of different gendered implications for academic staff. The results from semi-structured interviews suggest that while this tension field affects all academic staff, it is generally less favourable to women than to men. If women were granted time for the sake of family obligations, they risked a setback in their academic career due to decreased research activity. Women tended to view academic flexibility as an opportunity to engage in domestic responsibilities more so than men; and male interviewees tended to view the prioritization of family as a choice, while women tended to view it as a condition.
Schlagwörter:Gender; Geschlechterunterschied; Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen; incentive mechanisms; Island; neoliberal university; neoliberalism; new public management; Vereinbarkeit; wissenschaftliches Personal; work-life balance
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Parenthood and productivity of highly skilled labor : Evidence from the groves of academe
Autor/in:
Krapf, Matthias; Ursprung, Heinrich W.; Zimmermann, Christian
Quelle: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 140 (2017) , S 147–175
Details
Inhalt: We examine the effect of parenthood on the research productivity of academic economists. Combining the survey responses of nearly 10,000 economists with their publication records as documented in their RePEc accounts, we do not find that motherhood is associated with low research productivity. Nor do we find a statistically significant unconditional effect of a first child on research productivity. Conditional difference-in-differences estimates, however, suggest that the effect of parenthood on research productivity is negative for unmarried women and positive for untenured men. Moreover, becoming a mother before 30 years of age appears to have a detrimental effect on research productivity.
Schlagwörter:Elternschaft; Familie; Forschungsproduktivität; Geschlechterungleichheit; Mutterschaft; Produktivität; Publikationsverhalten; Vaterschaft; Wirtschaftswissenschaft; Wissenschaft
CEWS Kategorie:Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Understanding gender inequality and the role of the work/family interface in contemporary academia : An introduction
Autor/in:
Dubois-Shaik, Farah; Fusulier, Bernard
Quelle: European Educational Research Journal, 16 (2017) 2-3, S 99–105
Details
Inhalt: This double special issue gathers a series of nuanced critically conceptual and case-study research showing that in the contemporary European context, despite regional differences in gender regimes, political and economic demands and organizational cultures, work/life balance policies and their translation into practice remains a highly ambiguous issue. Although work/life balance policies have undoubtedly entered the university institutional spaces, they are deterred by opposing institutional policy logics and particularly ‘greedy’ logics of the organizing of work that still aligns to outdated work-exclusive masculine organizational culture (outdated because men too are suffering the effects, and because the academic environment is feminized). Moreover, there are lingering gender stereotypes around the value and attribution of home and work duties, which are having a significant impact upon women’s professional and private spheres and experiences in academic work. The gathered research shows how university institutions are still quite far from having addressed the core issues that undermine women’s career advancement and their possibilities to access to academic membership and leadership, still obliging them (and their male counterparts) to align with a work and membership (selection and progression) logic and organization that does not take into consideration parenthood, family and personal spheres of life.
Schlagwörter:Care; Europa; Führungsposition; Gender; Geschlechterstereotyp; Geschlechterungleichheit; Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen; higher education; Hochschule; inequality; Organisationskultur; Vereinbarkeit; work-life balance
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Hochschulen, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz