Female Faculty in Higher Education

Abstract

The number of women in higher education is growing. Yet, challenges exist for female faculty in the academy. The purpose of this study is to examine the strategies used by female faculty in parks, recreation, sport, tourism, and leisure programs as they negotiate their careers in higher education. Data were collected using an online survey that was distributed to university women who subscribed to recreation-related listservs. Responses to open-ended questions in the survey indicate that female faculty negotiate three types of politics associated with careers in higher education: charting a career path (i.e., the politics of higher education), addressing workplace dynamics (i.e., the politics of gender), and having it all (i.e., the politics of caring). Together, the means for negotiating these politics were associated with hope and with the importance of faculty members' acquisition of social capital.

Keywords:

• Academia
• discrimination
• grounded theory
• life balance
• networks