Testing the concept of academic housework in a European setting: Part of academic career-making or gendered barrier to the top?

Abstract

In the labour market women’s jobs have frequently been conceptually and literally tied to housework and hence thought of as unskilled and therefore undervalued. Although academic institutions have undergone changes, the fact that women still carry the main responsibility for domestic and caring tasks continues to follow them into the academic work environment. In this explorative study we focus on the gendered aspects of undervalued work in academia by examining how academic housework manifests itself in different academic contexts and how early career academics in six European countries contend with it. We will link the undervalued academic work to housework in a double sense. Firstly, we will discuss how domestic housework affects the working conditions of academic women and men differently in their early career. Secondly, we will approach academic work through the lenses of academic housework, hence making use of the notion of ‘housework’ in a transferred and more figurative meaning. The discussion is aimed at developing a new conceptual framework in the analysis of gendered academic careers. In this way the topic of academic housework, which seems to be accompanied by social taint, may become more easily discussable within the academic work environment.

Mid-career academic women and the prestige economy

“…The prestige economy is a useful tool for understanding the implications of this phenomenon: prestige is often accrued at the expense of other colleagues who need to step in for those who are away at prestigious events or doing prestigious activities, in order to ensure the 'bread and butter' work of the department gets done. Recent research (Angervall 2017;Heijstra et al 2017) suggests that this type of workthe academic houseworktends to be done mainly by women. In a similar vein, the placing of value on certain activities over others operates through sets of relationships (Morley 2015).…”

New managerialism in the academy: Gender bias and precarity

“…In short, STEM departments are able to provide more advantageous positions and better working conditions for their early career academics, who are mostly men, than the more feminized SSH school. Even though women in STEM are outnumbered and in a subordinate position within their field, the gender‐biased status of their culturally masculine field allows them to enjoy many of its privileges, such as higher appraisal of their research output, greater access to research funding, lower student–teacher ratios and less academic housework (Heijstra, Einarsdóttir, Pétursdóttir, & Steinþórsdóttir, ; Heijstra, Steinþórsdóttir, & Einarsdóttir, ). We demonstrate this structural gender bias at each of the first three stages of an academic career: PhD, postdoc and other temporary positions, and assistant professorship.…”

Precarity is a Feminist Issue: Gender and Contingent Labor in the Academy

“…Indeed, one of Thamar Heijstra and her colleagues’ interview participants insisted that “the intangible traits of the profession were so valuable to him that he felt he was actually being overpaid, despite his modest salary of €1700 a month” (Heijstra et al. 2017, 208) . In reality, academics—particularly women—experience considerable stress on the job, due to income insecurity as well as higher workloads imposed by neoliberal measures, such as increased class sizes, ranking exercises, and pressure to secure external funding (Robinson ).…”

“…Some view poorly rewarded service and teaching work positively, as valuable work experience (Heijstra et al. 2017, 210). This enables institutions to convene panels on “work–life balance” exhorting individuals to change their own practices, while leaving overarching systems of incentives, evaluations, and pressures in place—to hire a domestic worker, for instance, rather than unionizing to negotiate for smaller class sizes or free childcare.…”

“…Heijstra and her colleagues report that some faculty fear that objecting to academic housework will be viewed as lacking devotion to the job (Heijstra et al. 2017). Another way to lack merit, then, is to possess insufficient love for academia.…”