Alt-Ac Work and Gender

Alt-Ac Work and Gender:

It’s not Plan B

#mla14 #s757 @wynkenhimself, @m_steph_m, @amandafrench

http://bit.ly/altacgender

72%

13%

15%

employed in #altac

searching for #altac

neither

@wynkenhimself #mla14 #s757

employed in or searching for #altac work

(53 responses)

female

79%

male

21%

gender

0

62%

1

21%

2 or 3

15%

4 or more

2%

children


not employed in nor searching for

#altac work (8 responses)

female

87%

male

13%

gender

0

38%

2 or 3

62%

children


“Did gender impact your decision to do

or to seek #altac work?”

yes

19%

it's

complicated

34%

no

47%


female #altac, ABD, no kids

“One of my reasons for pursuing #altac work

rather than the tenure track was wanting the

flexibility to have a child on my schedule, rather

than being subjected to the vagaries of the job

market and tenure process. I now have generous

maternity leave coverage and the flexibility to

have a child at any time; if I were to wait until I

was tenured, I'd be looking at getting pregnant 7-8

years from now, at close to 40.”@wynkenhimself #mla14 #s757

male #altac, one child

“My partner was pregnant (and completing her

own graduate studies) when I was finishing my

PhD. We made the decision that I needed to work

in order to support our growing family — taking the

time to secure a tenure-track faculty job just

wasn't in the cards when I had the option of

securing an #altac job and being able to focus on

the (financial, emotional) well being of my family.”


female #altac, 2 kids

“My spouse didn't want to relocate when I was

looking for TT work (he had a high-paying job and I

didn't have any job offers) and then once we had

kids, a commuter marriage wasn't a good option.”


female searching for #altac

“I have three young children and a husband who

would prefer I fulfill more traditional female

responsibilities in regards to household labor.”


female #altac, Master’s degree, one kid

“I wouldn't say that my gender limited the work I

could do but because I was a single mom at the

time, I had to take the most secure position that

was offered to me, even if it wasn't my dream job

in academia or something that would necessarily

keep my hand in that work, because I had to look

out for me and my kid.”


female #altac

“I think gender was a factor in my dissatisfaction

with my previous job/employer. Lots of service

demands were placed on women faculty, who

were then less rewarded for being less

"productive." I wanted a role in which the things

that had been dismissed as service could instead

be recognized as leadership.”


female #altac (STEM)

“Part of my work is in gender and racial equity in

academia and I felt that I could have more of an

immediate impact in an altac job, rather than to

slog away until I get tenure when I would then

have the freedom and power to advocate for

those issues. …


female #altac (STEM) cont’d.

“… Another consideration was that as a woman of

color (intersectionality alert!) given the

demographics of my field I figured that if I stayed

in academia I would be the first one in whatever

department I joined, and that just sounded

exhausting on top of all of the other pressures of

being a junior faculty member.”


female #altac

“In high school and as an undergraduate, I

envisioned a career that would now be called alt-

ac, but was persuaded by school counselors,

academic advisors, and peers, that this would

somehow be settling for second best, and as a

woman, I'd be letting down the side if I didn't

follow the traditional PhD-to-Professor route. …


female #altac

“… Luckily for me, I broke free of this pressure

towards the end of writing my dissertation. My PhD

defense ended up being the same week I was

offered the alt-ac job I'd wanted since high school.”


“Are there gender-related issues that

impact your ability to do your work?”

yes

34%

it's

complicated

27%

no

39%


male #altac

“My profession is considered women's work.

Consequently it is paid far lower than other work in

City Government at similar educational levels.”


female #altac with PhD

“My research and alt-ac work is treated as

subsidiary to my male colleagues (e.g. my projects

are "community" projects whereas theirs are

"serious" research). The women in our offices are

asked to do the structural labor to make projects

and partnerships run but are expected to cede

the floor to male colleagues in presentations and

publications.”@wynkenhimself #mla14 #s757

female #altac

“It's sometimes hard to know for sure, but I feel like

I get judged differently for having strong opinions

and a strong personality than male colleagues

are.”


female #altac with PhD

“As a librarian, I'm a woman in a majority-female,

service-oriented profession. It can be hard to get

regular faculty to take librarians seriously as

collaborators and colleagues (although,

thankfully, this isn't the case in my current

position).”


female #altac

“I have to leave a little before 5 in order to get my

kid before her daycare closes. Even though I

come in early and don't take a lunch break,

because I leave before my boss does I feel like this

accumulates ill-will towards me, or creates the

impression that I'm not working hard even though I

work my full 8 hours, and then usually do a little

more once I get home.”


other thoughts on gender and #altac


female PhD with kids searching for #altac

“Currently, it seems that as a consequence of

reproductive labor still falling upon women,

particularly the physical components of

pregnancy, childbirth, etc., that women often

face challenges in regards to completing their PhD

in a reasonable time and then finding work that

permits flexibility.”


male #altac, one child

“Before I took this role, my spouse and I were both

tenured professors at another university. Taking the

#altac job has actually exacerbated some

gender-related problems, since my time is now

much more conventionally structured than it once

was, and so it can *seem* easier to push domestic

stuff onto her, which isn't good.”


female, full-time faculty

“To a certain extent, alt-ac is beginning to look

more "family friendly" than a traditional academic

position, which is problematic in terms of the

make-up of the professoriate and who/where

women work within the system. And, can alt-ac

ever ascend into leadership positions that can

help reshape the academy?”


female #altac

“it may be more common for women to look

ahead and anticipate that academic work with a

partner (whether he or she is in academia or not)

can create significant personal and professional

strain; they may also more commonly be in the

position of being a "trailing spouse" in one way or

another. For both of these reasons, they (we) may

therefore "opt out" more readily than men.”


male #altac, ABD

“In the University setting, as a man, obviously,

gender has not been as big an issue as the

class/caste divide of being an ABD. I'm a second

class citizen and was always treated like one, by

male and female faculty alike.”


female searching for #altac

“Another reason that I am looking for alt-ac work is

that there are more possibilities for me than in my

field. There were 2 TT positions in my field last year

and both were over 1500 km from where I live. My

husband has a non-academic job at which he

earns the same or more than what these positions

would pay. It just wouldn't make sense for me to

take either position and move my family for a

chance to earn tenure. No thank you.”@wynkenhimself #mla14 #s757

male PhD looking for #altac work

“As a white male, I'm operating from a distinct

position of privilege. Even so, it's a rough market

out there. I have been the primary care provider

for my children most of their lives (they're currently

four and nearly seven). I'm currently working part-

time as a substitute teacher while continuing to

juggle kids and my job search.”


female graduate student with kids

“Shaming women for acknowledging our

responsibilities beyond academia has to stop, as

does the assumption that family responsibilities are

only the realm of women.”


#altac job holders

library administration, curriculum support, graduate school

administrator, subject librarian, research center

administration, deputy secretary of the Faculty, DH center research

faculty, DH project manager, distance-learning support, DH

curator, director of a center for teaching and learning, online course

design, grants administration, graduate student professional

development, digital strategy at cultural heritage

institution, emerging technologies librarian, digital asset

management, editor for an online publication/social networking

platform at a scholarly society, software project manager, executive

director of a non-profit, IT administrator, web design


Stay turned for a full report on the survey

at http://sarahwerner.net


Career

Alt-Ac Work and Gender