Understanding social constructions of becoming an academic through women’s collective career narratives

ABSTRACT

The transition of early career researchers into academic posts is understood to be a crucial career step and marks a point at which representation of women declines significantly. The research adopts a participatory qualitative research methodology through career narrative interviews and group discussions with women engineers recently appointed into academic posts. It was found that academic careers are ‘hoped for’, but not described as a straightforward option in terms of either securing tenure or future career development. The collective career paths outlined were rarely linear and featured key moments of crisis and self-doubt, culminating in ‘tentative’ career identity formation in the face of gendered career structures. There is evidence of a pre-emptive and continuing uncertainty about the feasibility of an academic career that begins years before embarking on a PhD. The distinctive contribution of the study is the consideration of gendered early processes of forming an academic identity and ongoing collective experiences of becoming an academic.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• academia
• career transitions
• early career
• academic identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission [321491].

Notes on contributors

Sarah Barnard

Sarah Barnard is lecturer in sociology of contemporary work in the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University. Sarah’s fields of research include organisations, gender, higher education and sociology of science, engineering and technology.

Anthea Rose

Anthea Rose is Research Fellow at Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI), University of Lincoln. Dr Rose’s expertise is in the sociology of education.

Andrew Dainty

Andrew Dainty is Dean of the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering at Loughborough University and Professor of Construction Sociology. Professor Dainty’s research expertise is in the sociologies of construction practice.

Tarek Hassan

Tarek Hassan is Professor of Construction Informatics and Associate Dean for Enterprise. A background in ICTs in construction, Professor Hassan’s research interests include gender in STEM in HEIs.