‘Playing mother’: channelled careers and the construction of gender in academia.

Abstract

Gender discrimination in the academy globally is widely recognised in terms of faculty ranking and career progression rates. UK national data notes the lower research recognition of women scholars as well as gendered pay gaps. This paper reports on a qualitative study of women academics across discipline groups at a British post-92, corporate university. Focus group discussion findings suggest that gendered career pathways are implicated in hindering the career progression of women academics. Participants perceive themselves to be regularly channelled into feminised teaching and administrative roles, considered to be less advantageous routes to progression than elite and masculinised research routes. This together with the affective intensity of academic tasks that perform as emotional labour in relation to pastoral care are critically examined as examples of both essential and essentialised roles, where key ‘mothering’ duties and ‘housekeeping’ academic roles are allocated primarily to women academics. However, although regarded as vital gendered roles and tasks are insufficient recognised and rewarded by the bureaucratic processes that exploit them for institutional ends.