Balancing without a net in academia: integrating family and work lives

Abstract

Bio graphi cal NotePlease di rect all cor re spondence to Mary Gatta, Cen ter for Women and Work, Rutgers Uni ver sity, 162 Ry ders Lane, New Bruns wick, NJ

Tenure troubles and equity matters in Canadian academe

“…The above review suggests the need to pay attention to the discourses within which academic 'merit' is constructed and potentially reconstructed (for example, Bansel et al 2008;Krefting 2003;Morley 2005;Søndergaard 748 S. Acker et al 2005) as well as the subtle ways in which career disadvantages based on gender and other differences may be enshrined in academic organizations (Gatta and Roos 2004). By discourses we mean sets of ideas expressed mainly through language, often circulating through some type of community and becoming, for a time, part of taken-for-granted 'knowledge'.…”

A Phenomenological Investigation of Counseling Doctoral Students Becoming Mothers

“…Women who have obtained tenure-track positions have indicated the perception that the responsibility to balance family and academic demands must be done without university support (Gatta & Roos, 2004;Misra, Lundquist, & Templer, 2012). Women attempting to create a work-life balance reported increased feelings of guilt and an overall self-dissatisfaction with decreased time spent with children and in academic pursuits (Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2004).…”

The New STEM Faculty Profile: Balancing Family and Dual Careers

“…The result was an institutional structure in academia designed for a worker who has no childcare responsibilities. Today both young men and women currently in graduate school and post-doctoral positions expect to have a relationship with an employed partner and not an unpaid support partner (Gatta & Roos, 2004;Gerson, 2010;Mason & Goulden, 2004a, 2004bSchiebinger, Henderson, & Gilmartin, 2008;Williams, 2001). Not only graduate students and post-docs, however, have this expectation: current faculty, men as well as women, need to navigate their own career as well as their partner's.…”