Book Review of Challenges of the Faculty Career for Women: Success and Sacrifice
| Autor: | Cheryl Baldwin Frech |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Chemical Education. 87:370-373 |
| ISSN: | 1938-1328 0021-9584 |
| DOI: | 10.1021/ed8001418 |
| Popis: | Challenges of the Faculty Career for Women: Success and Sacrifice by Maike Ingrid Philipsen Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2008. 368 pp. (includes histograms, appendices, index, 20 references) ISBN 978-0470257005 (cloth); $40.00 reviewed by Cheryl Baldwin Frech The title says it all: Challenges of the Faculty Career for Women: Success and Sacrifice. Anyone reading this review is surely either a female faculty member, is a colleague to women in the department, or has been a student of a female faculty member. This powerful book is a must-read for all. Maike Philipsen surveyed and interviewed nearly 50 women at five different types of higher education institutions (community college, metropolitan university, a historically black college or university, a state research university, and a private university) in an anonymous mid-Atlantic state. The women represent various disciplines, are of all ages, and have a range of personal life situations, including single, married, divorced, and gay; with and without children; and are from the United States or other countries. Philipsen first administered to the women a survey titled Balancing Personal and Professional Lives. She then coded the responses and analyzed the results by career stage. She followed up the survey with one-on-one interviews with the women in their college or university offices. The bulk of the resulting book consists of the comments and stories of the women, loosely grouped into “early career”, “mid-career”, and “late career” faculty members, with each group being the subject of a lengthy chapter. The comments of the early career women (Chapter 1) reflect their growing awareness of the complexities of university life (tenure, teaching, research, and service) and the impossible task of reconciling all that with a personal life. Some of the early career women are consumed with fatigue and guilt when they find themselves unavailable to spouses and children. Others struggle with unclear or nonexistent university policies about both maternity leave and tenure decisions. They speak about giving up hobbies and exercise, the “two-body problem” of finding a position for a spouse or partner, their longing to find a partner, or their desire to bear or adopt a child. Philipsen, who is from Germany, also shares the stories of “immigrant scholars”, the individuals who are increasingly populating our college and university classrooms from different countries and cultures than many of their students and colleagues. Mid-career women (Chapter 2) necessarily have developed some coping mechanisms. They describe their “enablers”, the people and the strategies that enable these women to have an academic career. Enablers are variously partners, children, a housecleaner, supportive colleagues, or ultraorganization and a low need for sleep. These women speak of delineating boundaries, split-shift parenting, and nonlinear career paths. The stories of late-career women in Chapter 3 reveal some level of acceptance of life's outcomes. For some women, work and life have become a continuum, while others have made peace with their unfulfilled dreams. The chapter ends with several interesting sections, including “Regrets and Sacrifices” and “Thinking about Retirement”. Following that is Chapter 4, “Comparisons”, in which Philipsen shares comments of the women about the relative treatment of men and women in academia across the generations. The women's remarks about men range from tales of overt sexual harassment to the more subtle differences in flexibility and opportunities available to men with small children at home in comparison to women in the same situation. Some women spoke positively about the men who had enabled their success, whether at home or as academic mentors. When making temporal comparisons about their experiences, the women are ambivalent. Mid- and late-career women note that many of them were the only women in their departments, yet acknowledge that today's standards for tenure and promotion are even more rigorous. Chapter 5 consists of two sections of recommendations: “What Women Want: Reform of Academe” and “While Women Wait: Advice for the Interim”. The reform suggestions range from the clarification and redesign of the tenure process and evaluation of workload issues, to child- and afterschool care on campus, and assistance with elder care. Philipsen presents the recommendations as general suggestions interspersed with specific comments from women in the study. For example, perhaps every school should have an “Office of Family Issues” to assist and support people in diverse life situations and stages. The advice ranges from the general (say “no” to some requests of your time, develop assertiveness, get organized) to more specific tips for graduate students and for those who are considering balancing careers and families. The book's appendices contain Philipsen's survey, a quantitative assessment of the data by researcher Tim Bostic, and frequencies and histograms. Perhaps it is rather late in this review for a disclaimer, but here it is. I am not an unbiased reviewer. I am a 50-year old woman in academia at a metropolitan university; I have two teenaged children and a faculty spouse in the same discipline at another school. I found this book both fascinating and painful to read. The anecdotes are tragic, depressing, poignant, and inspirational. The story of every woman you know in academia is touched upon in this book. Please read Challenges of the Faculty Career for Women: this book has the potential to change the way you think about yourself, the women you encounter in academia, and the academic system itself. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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