Women on the Academic Tenure Track: An Autoethnographic Inquiry

Forging a Research Pathway: Perspectives of Two Post-Tenure Female Faculty Members

“…In addition, despite idealistic expectations (Rice, Sorcinelli, & Austin, 2000), faculty report unbalanced lives and feelings of loneliness, isolation, and rivalry between colleagues (Greene et al, 2008). Novice faculty also report becoming dissatisfied, overworked, stressed, and physically ill (Hellsten, Martin, & McIntyre, 2010;Hellsten, McIntyre, Martin, & Kinzel, 2011;Hill, 2004), as they attempt to meet the often unwieldy, vague, and increasing tenure and promotion requirements (Schuster & Finklestein, 2006). The resulting gender disparities (e.g., salary, merit pay) only grow when universities place more emphasis on research relative to teaching and service (Mason & Goulden, 2002).…”

“…In our second article, we expanded our autoethnographic exploration to create a composite story of experiences and included the reflections of a new faculty member. Using a resiliency frameworkmaking positive adaptations in spite of serious threats or significant adversity to adaptation or development (Masten, 2001), we asked ourselves what factors in our lives have made it possible for us to navigate our tenure track journeys (Hellsten et al, 2011). One aspect of the tenure and promotion journey that can challenge faculty is developing and pursuing a program of research.…”

Shifting landscapes: from coalface to quick sand? Teaching Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences in Higher Education

“…Autoethnography, with its requirement for the researcher to write ‘herself into the account of the phenomenon’ (Hellsten et al . , 271), is emerging as a powerful methodology for investigating the neoliberal reconfiguration of the university (Purcell ; Rossi ; Peters and Turner ). Authorship of the narratives and the paper overlap, but are not identical.…”

Occupational Wellbeing Among Female Academics; the Influence of Family-Work Interface

“…However, the study was not carried out in the African context and it was not particularly focused on female, academics. Other studies that have given attention to female academics occupational wellbeing are either conducted in contexts foreign to Africa (see Kinnunen, Feld, Geurts & Pulkkinen, 2006;Schmidt & Umans, 2014) or are not with special attention on work-family interface (see Cusack & Numer, 2012;Daukantaitė, 2006;Hellsten, Martin, McIntyre & Kinzel, 2011;Mugweni, Mufanechiya & Dhlomo, 2011; among others).…”

“…These studies would have provided us with adequate information of work-family interface and occupational wellbeing of female academics if conducted in cultural areas where women roles are perceived to be dominant at home. Unfortunately also, while the doctoral study of Daukantaitė (2006), on middle-aged Swedish women's general Subjective Wellbeing focused on the importance of childhood factors, social circumstances, and personality, other studies on women wellbeing in university work tried to relate wellbeing to job-related stress, personality, and burnout among College of Education lecturers (Salami, 2009) social support (Salami, 2009;Cusack & Numer, 2012), hopes and hiccups concerning promotion (Mugweni, et al, 2011), academic track tenure, (Hellsten, et al, 2011), among others. None of these empirical studies show connections between workfamily interface and workplace wellbeing.…”