A large survey of U.S. faculty across 29 fields finds that experienced devaluation, not work-life balance, is the strongest gendered predictor of women leaving academia.
  • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
    1·
    1 day ago

    Academia doesnt necessarily have the best track record for paying professors adequately in the first place, nor for work-life balance.

    Nearly every professor I ever had at any college, regardless of size, was an adjunct professor who had to teach at multiple schools. At most 25% were full time at one institution. The lack of opportunities in academia to be a full time professor in one place has absolutely got to be draining on everyone, regardless of gender. And the whole system works that way in order to pay educators as little as possible

    On top of that, for someone to maintain their position as a full-time professor at one institution, they usually have to keep publishing constantly. That just adds more pressure on work-life balance, again regardless of gender. Although moreso for any woman that is carrying the brunt of caretaking work in their household or trying to have kids

    While im sure there is devaluation going on, as this study points out, I dont think you can really look at extrinsic pay or intrinsic work-life balance factors in a vacuum. People are always doing some degree of calculus like “is what I get paid worth it for the work-life balance” or various other aspects of having a certain job. I think the gendered factors of women typically having more extracurricular responsibility outside the job, plus being paid less relative to their peers to some extent, leads them to quit more often. Not just one or the other in isolation, and it seems like they would still be more likely to quit even if paid on par due to having less work-life balance

  • logana
    2·
    2 days ago

    More women graduate college than men, and we’re still focusing on not enough women staying in academia?

    What is wrong with the world.