Family configurations and arrangements in the transnational mobility of early-career academics: Does gender make twice the difference?

Abstract

Previous studies have pointed out the highly gendered character of academia in general and international mobility in particular: women academics are confronted with a ‘glass ceiling’, and they are less geographically mobile than men, mainly as a result of family obligations. This paper examines whether gender plays twice a role in how women and men consider family arrangements in regard to a long-term post-PhD period of transnational mobility. Using data from an online survey and face-to-face interviews at the Universities of Cambridge and Zurich, we focus first on family configurations when academics decide to become mobile, then on how the family arrangements evolve while abroad. We show that the transnational mobility of academics has become more complex and varied than the ‘classical model’ of mobile academic men and non-mobile or ‘tied mover’ women. While having a child continues to impact gender roles, institutional characteristics in the context of mobility also play a role that needs to be further analysed.

The many facets of academic mobility and its impact on scholars' career

“…In this paper, we have identified and explored many facets of academic mobility of males and females that relate to 1) mobility differences across nationalities, disciplines, and career stages, 2) the international mobility flow 3) the factors that associate with mobility, 4) relationship between mobility and scholars' publications and citations, 5) different position of mobile and non-mobile scholars in their collaboration network. Our findings regarding the first research question revealed that in the world of academia, international mobility of women is less than men, which is consistent with the past studies (Jöns, 2011;Leemann, 2010;Myers & Griffin, 2019;Toader & Dahinden, 2018). We observe that the mobility score of both genders has the lower level in the early and mid-career stage, which can be related to the time that families should focus more on preschool children than going abroad.…”

Free movement of people and capital and the standard of transnational academic mobility: Principles of governance in the European Research Area

“…Committing to this requirement involves sacrificing principles associated with the industrial convention that allow predictability, the possibility of planning and orientation towards the long term. This also weakens values related to the civic convention, such as human equality, since the impossibility of planning an academic career and the uncertainties involved in pursuing one disadvantage especially women and junior researchers from non-academic families (Leemann, 2010; Leemann and Boes, 2015; Toader and Dahinden, 2018). The governance principles of the ERA are thus more closely tailored to men of an academic family background and involve exclusionary power.…”

“…Demands derived from this observation, such as installing gender equality officers at universities and research organisations, have brought this criticism to public attention and address the level of orders of justification (Toader and Dahinden, 2018).…”

‘Somehow I’m an Expat and He’s a Migrant’: Intersectional Identities, Multiple Migrations and Family Decision-Making Amongst Middling Migrant Couples

“…While, with the first couple, mobility is shown to be highly gendered, I also argue that temporal perspectives illuminate how mobility can be more varied and complex than 'men as the primary or lead migrant' and 'women as the tied migrant'. There are moments of contestation and renegotiation even when situated within traditional/patriarchal structures of social life (Toader & Dahinden, 2018). Decision-making is complex and continually shifts along this spectrum as a result of intra-family circumstances and priorities as well as the conditions of migration policy in various destination countries.…”