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
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.
‘Publish or perish’ : Family life and academic research productivity
Autor/in:
Callaghan, Chris W.
Quelle: SA j. hum. resour. manag. (SA Journal of Human Resource Management), 15 (2017) 2, 307 S
Inhalt: Research purpose: The influence of work-to-family and family-to-work spillovers is well documented in the human resources literature. However, little is known of the relationships between the pressures faced by academics to publish and the potential family life consequences of being a highly productive academic.
Research design, approach and method: This research sought to investigate these relationships within the context of a large South African university by testing associations between family life variables such as marriage and dependent children against measures of the following specific types of research publication: (1) South African Department of Higher Education and Training–accredited journal publications; (2) Thompson Reuters Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and ProQuest’s International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)– indexed journal article publications; (3) conference proceedings publications; (4) conference paper presentations; (5) book chapter publications; (6) book publications; and (7) gross research productivity, reflecting a volume or quantity measure of research publication.
Main findings: ISI and/or IBSS journal article publication is found to be negatively associated with dependent children, but only for male academics, and to be negatively associated with female gender over and above the effect of family life variables in testing.
Practical/managerial implications: Human resources managers in universities need to be cognisant of the specific pressures faced by staff that are required to produce ever more research publications, in order to help them achieve work–life balance.
Contribution: In a global context of increasing pressures for research publication, and for higher and higher numbers of publications, it is necessary to identify the potential costs involved for high-volume–producing academics, particularly in terms of family versus work.
Keywords: research productivity; family-work life balance
Schlagwörter:Familie; Forschungsproduktivität; Publikation; South Africa; Südafrika; Vereinbarkeit; work-life balance
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Quelle: European Educational Research Journal, 16 (2017) 2-3, S 332–351
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.
Women in science : The persistence of traditional gender roles. A case study on work–life interface
Autor/in:
Cervia, Silvia; Biancheri, Rita
Quelle: European Educational Research Journal, 16 (2017) 2-3, S 215–229
Inhalt: The underrepresentation of women in academe has been the focus of both academic literature and European policy-makers. However, albeit the number of female scientists has increased, true gender equality has yet to be achieved. When examining the reasons for this, we have to consider the interconnection between the expectations surrounding gender and what it means to work in the scientific profession, operating at individual, interactional, and institutional levels. This paper presents the results (and methods) of a survey exploring work–life interfaces from a gender-sensitive perspective.
Our survey focused on the researchers and professors working in the medicine and engineering departments of the University of Pisa, where the gradient of female exclusion is most pronounced. The results allow for an interpretation of the ‘leaky pipeline’ (macro level), through a gender-sensitive analysis of gender-based social obligations and those associated with the scientific profession (micro perspective), by integrating said reading through a description of the dynamics of continuous negotiation in private and public life (university) (meso level). Essentially, science is a greedy institution, as is family life, which is a problem for a woman’s career, unless she is willing to make considerable concessions at home.
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
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
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
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.
Soziale Netzwerke und Elternschaft in Europa : Analysen auf Basis des Generations and Gender Survey
Titelübersetzung:Social networks and parenthood in Europe : analyses based on the Generations and Gender Survey
Autor/in:
Brose, Nicole
Quelle: Würzburg: Ergon Verl. (Familie und Gesellschaft, Bd. 30), 2013. 270 S.
Inhalt: "In fast allen europäischen Gesellschaften sind die Geburtenzahlen auf ein Niveau gesunken, das unterhalb der Bestandserhaltung der Bevölkerung liegt. Im Mittelpunkt der Studie steht die Frage, welchen Beitrag soziale Netzwerke zur Erklärung demographischer Entwicklungen und Verhaltensweisen leisten. Auf der Grundlage der ersten Welle des Generations and Gender Survey wird für sieben europäische Länder untersucht, inwieweit Entscheidungen zur Elternschaft durch die Einbindung in konfessionell geprägte Sozialbeziehungen und die Verfügbarkeit informeller Hilfen bei Kinderbetreuung beeinflusst sind. Die Ergebnisse der Analysen liefern keine eindeutigen Hinweise darauf, dass die Realisierung von Kinderwünschen durch netzwerkbasierte Betreuungsleistungen erleichtert wird. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Befunde, dass religiös-kulturelle Faktoren auf der Netzwerkebene bei der Familienplanung eine maßgebliche Rolle spielen." (Verlagsangabe)
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Demographie und Bevölkerungsfragen, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf
Dokumenttyp:Monographie
Job Satisfaction of Academics: Does Gender Matter?
Autor/in:
Machado-Taylor, Maria de Lourdes; White, Kate; Gouveia, Odilia
Quelle: High Educ Policy (Higher Education Policy), 27 (2013) 3, S 363–384
Inhalt: Academic work in higher education has been influenced by global trends such as accountability, massification and deteriorating financial support. Within this broader context, the performance of academic staff as teachers and researchers has an impact on student learning and implications for the quality of higher education institutions (HEIs). Therefore, satisfaction of academic staff is critical to the effective functioning of HEIs. This article reports on a study of academic career satisfaction in Portugal and gender differences with respect to academic job satisfaction. It found that male respondents in HEIs were in higher positions than women, but less so in private institutions. It also analysed some aspects of the professional context in which women and men work in order to explain similarities and/or differences in job satisfaction. The main difference was that women were less satisfied with personal and professional development, especially the balance between work and family.
Womens choices in Europe : influence of gender on education, occupational career and family development
Titelübersetzung:Die Entscheidung von Frauen in Europa : Einfluss des Geschlechts auf Bildung, Berufskarriere und Familienentwicklung
Herausgeber/in:
Quaiser-Pohl, Claudia; Endepohls-Ulpe, Martina
Quelle: Münster: Waxmann, 2012. 223 S.
Inhalt: "The options women have to shape their lives have dramatically increased in the last decades, and this is true for all European countries. Changes in their societies with respect to women's rights have been fundamental, amongst other things as a result of the women's movement, which caused one of the greatest social revolutions of the 20th centusy. But considering the different starting points of the women's movement and all the other historical, cultural and political differences in the European nations it is no surprise that the situation of women is different, too, and that the process of reaching equal status with men has come to different stages in different areas of life. And, of course, there are still some fields of remarkable gender inequalities which can be noticed all over Europe. This book wants to give some insight into the differences as well as the similarities of women's lives, their educational and occupational attainment and their choices with respect to occupational career and family life in several European countries. The authors come from different countries and represent different disciplines. Therefore the chapters cover a large variety of scientific approaches and draw a fine-grained picture of the situation of women's lives in Europe. " (publisher's description). Contents: Claudia Quaiser-Pohl & Martina Endepohls-Ulpe : Education, occupational career and family work - similarities and differences in women's choices in Europe (Editorial) (7-14); I Gender and education: Martina Endepohls-Ulpe: Are females or males disadvantaged in contemporary educational systems? (15-28); Christine Fontanini & Céine Avenel: Ongoing training systems in France with regard to gender: "teacher effects" at universities (29-40); Ewa Malinowska: The impact of gender knowledge on one's behaviour at a micro-social level - based on statements from learning adults (41-52); II Women's participation in STEM fields: Claudia Quaiser-Pohl: Women's choices in STEM - statistical data and theoretical approaches explaining the gender gap (53-62); Jacqueline de Weerd & Els Rommes: To beta or not to beta? The role of teachers in the gendered choice of science and technology by secondary school students (63-78); Martina Endepohls-Ulpe, Judith Ebach, Josef Seiter & Nora Kaul: Barriers and motivational factors for taking up a career in a technological field in Germany and Austria (79-94); Sonja Virtanen: Searching for ways to encourage and enable equal access for girls to study technology (95-106); III Women's occupational careers: Elisabeth Sander: Biographies of female scientists in Austria - results of an interview study (107-122); Christine Fontanini: Is there a relation between horse riding and the desire to become a veterinarian? (123-134); Gwen Elprana, Sibylle Stiehl, Magdalena Gatzka & Jörg Felfe: Gender differences in Motivation to Lead in Germany (135-150); Elmira Bancheva & Maria Ivanova: Leadership styles of women in Bulgaria (151-166); IV Women's roles in family life and family development: Anna-Catharina Grohmann, Claudia Quaiser-Pohl & Marcus Hasselhorn: Socio-cultural changes, values, and parental well-being - a comparison of Spanish and German mothers (167-182); Silke Diestelkamp & Claudia Quaiser-Pohl: Identity development after the birth of the first child - an empirical study of first-time mothers in the Republic of Ireland (183-198); Krystyna Dzwonkowska-Godula & Joanna Brzezinska: Gender relations in family - equal parenting (199-210); Insa Fooken: Tate divorces' in the lives of German women from three different birth cohorts - a lasting impact of World War II? (211-223).