Work–Family Balance and Tenure Reasonableness: Gender Differences in Faculty Assessment

Abstract

Perceptions of work–family balance and of the reasonableness of tenure expectations are key faculty retention factors. Using a national job satisfaction survey with 2438 tenure-track assistant professors, we explore whether faculty assessment of departmental and institutional support for family–work balance and their satisfaction with family-friendly policies influence their perceptions of the reasonableness of tenure expectations. We pay attention to the importance of gender in our models. Results reveal that women are less likely than men to report tenure expectations as scholars are reasonable and that departments and institutions are supportive of family–work balance. Departmental support for family–work balance, caring for an ill family member, satisfaction with family-friendly policies, and workload have the strongest association with reasonableness. Satisfaction with family-friendly policies has a significant relationship with reasonableness of tenure expectations only for faculty with family care responsibilities. Implications for family-friendly policies and practices in academia are discussed.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback and comments. We also thank Brianna Kordsmeier for her assistance.

Notes

1 In this study we use the words “family care responsibilities” to refer to faculty having caring responsibilities for family members that include young children, ill or disabled family members, and dependent elderly family members.

2 For the purposes of this study we use the Smith and Waltman (2006) definition of family-friendly policies which consist of institutional policies designed to support employees’ balance of work and family responsibilities.

3 In this study we use the Smith and Waltman (2006) definition of family-work balance which refers to institutional “practices that began to emerge in the late 1980’s, enabling employees to balance and integrate the demands of the workplace with the demands of personal or family life (p. 1).”

4 Since our sample consists of tenure-track faculty for whom some of the most important duties include scholarship and teaching we chose reasonableness of tenure expectations regarding performance as a scholar and teacher as the dependent variable.

5 Some of the data protection protocols, required by COACHE, that we followed consist of ensuring no one except the researchers who signed the COACHE data set Application and Restricted Use Agreement have access to the data, the data was stored in a removable secure flash drive locked with password protection, and the computer used for data analysis is kept in a locked room with restricted access. The present study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

6 Descriptive statistics for all variables are included in Appendix A.

7 Researchers seek to obtain Cronbach’s alpha levels of 0.70 or higher; however, alpha levels above 0.60 may be minimally acceptable (Bohrnstedt and Knoke 1994).

8 We also refer to satisfaction with the number of courses taught, and satisfaction with time spent on research variables as “workload.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rodica Lisnic

Rodica Lisnic is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Her research is broadly concerned with issues related to gender and race inequalities, and family policy in the context of work institutions.

Anna Zajicek

Anna Zajicek is a Professor of Sociology and Department Chair in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. Her scholarship has been devoted to the intersectionality of social inequalities, institutional transformation, problem definition, and target populations.

Brinck Kerr

Brinck Kerr is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Public Policy PhD Program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. His research focuses on representative bureaucracy, education policy, and employment policy. His work appears in many social science, public administration, and public policy journals.