Academic womanhood across career stages: a work-in-life perspective on what was, is, and could be

ABSTRACT

Using the framing of narrative identity, we illustrate the asymmetry that is characteristic of faculty work lives, especially when caregiving responsibilities clash with the seemingly indestructible ideal-worker norm. Based upon life stories of a multi-generational team of women faculty, we describe the interplay of individual and institutional dynamics that affect women’s work/family choices, success, and fulfillment in academe. We juxtapose our experiences at various career stages with the institutional supports, policies, and programs we would have needed to successfully integrate lives and careers. Across career phases, we employ three naming and framing shifts essential to advancing scholarship and moving policy around work and family to one where both men and women thrive. First, we choose the language of work-in-life integration over balance. Second, we use life-course as a framing for narrative identities, not pipeline. Finally, our accounts go beyond a family-friendly workplace to a life-friendly perspective, which allows us to draw attention to the understudied needs of faculty without children and/or immediate family caregiving responsibilities, and include faculty at later career stages. We conclude this tour-de-force through our work/lives by comparing multi-generational experiences, commenting on progress as well as remaining challenges to elucidate implications for policy, institutional culture, and a better academy.

RESUMEN

Usando el marco de la identidad narrativa, podemos ver la característica asimétrica de la vida laboral del profesorado, especialmente cuando las responsabilidades de cuidado a los seres queridos chocan con la norma ideal del trabajador indestructible.

Describimos la interacción de las dinámicas individuales e institucionales que afectan el trabajo de la mujer, sus opciones familiares y el cumplimento en el mundo académico, basándonos en las historias reales de un equipo multi-generacional de profesoras.

Yuxtaponemos las experiencias en distintos niveles de nuestras carreras con el respaldo institucionales, las políticas y los programas que necesitaríamos para integrar exitosamente las vidas personales con las carreras.

Nosotros usamos a lo largo de distintas fases de la carrera tres cambios esenciales de nombre y enmarcamiento para avanzar la erudición y movernos alrededor del trabajo y la familia hacia una dinámica que permita el desarrollo mas amplia de los hombres y las mujeres.

Primero, elegimos un lenguaje de integración carerra/vida por sobre equilibrio. Segundo, usamos el curso fluido de la vida (life course) para enmarcar la identidad narrativa , no la perspectiva de un curso estructurado de la vida (pipeline).

Finalmente, nuestra narración va más allá de un ambiente laboral que sea amigable hacia la familia por una perspectiva amigable hacia la vida; que nos permita, por ejemplo, llamar la atención a las necesidades poco estudiadas de los profesores en una etapa más avanzada de sus carreras.

Concluimos esta proeza a través de nuestro trabajo/vida al comparar experiencias multigeneracionales, comentando en el progreso pero también en los desafíos pendientes y las implicaciones para ambos: para las políticas, la cultura institucional y el mejoramiento de la academia

KEYWORDS:

• Identity
• narratives
• higher education
• faculty
• work-in-life integration
• life-course perspective
• career-life policies

PALABRAS CLAVES:

• identidad
• narativas
• educacion superior
• integración carerra-en-vida
• el curso fluido de la vida
• carerra-vida politicas

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Work and Family Researchers Network and its support of work-family scholarship and advocacy globally. A special thank you to Phyllis Moen for her leadership of WFRN and her editorship of this special issue of Community, Work and Family.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Dr. Maike Philipsen is a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Foundations of Education. Her publications focus on equal opportunities at both the K-12 and college/university levels, employing primarily a sociological perspective and qualitative methodologies. She has authored four books, the most recent ones analyzing the challenges of the faculty career for women (Jossey-Bass 2008), faculty work-in-life integration (Jossey-Bass, 2010), and social foundation issues in education (Continuum, 2011). She has presented on social foundation topics for more than two decades, most recently on faculty work-in-life integration.

Dr. Case’s newest research examines religious texts’ and traditions’ impact on managerial integrity, moral responsibility, and anti-corruption behavior; the brain and gendered discourse in the professional workplace; and the postdoctoral transition zone in the bench sciences and women’s emerging identity. Her women in organizations work focuses on work-in-life integration and organizational policy needs.

Angela Oetama-Paul studies gender and diversity in organizations and organizational communication. Her current research explores ways in which employee diversity influences voice behavior and communication patterns within organizations.

Keimei Sugiyama researches relational processes that help recover multicultural and gender identities after disruptive events such as experiences of othering, invalidation, and discrimination. She has published work on inclusive leadership development and Asian American workforce mobility challenges.