Gendered Families, Academic Work and the 'Motherhood Penalty'

AbstractSince the 1970s, women's representation among new doctorates and academics has increased dramatically in the English-speaking countries. However, notable differences continue in the work environment, rank, salary, and career development of academic men and women. This paper investigates why the academic gender gap persists, focusing only on the family lives of academics but acknowledging prevailing academic practices and recent university restructuring. Set within a feminist political economy and interpretive framework, the paper draws on two sets of qualitative interviews with academics from Canada in 1973 and New Zealand in 2008 to demonstrate gendered patterns over time in comparable places. Despite improvements in gender equity over the past forty years, I argue that the personal lives of academics continue to substantially differ. Many families still prioritise men's careers and employed mothers are typically 'penalised' in the labour market. These family and personal circumstances, when combined with institutional and academic priorities, help perpetuate the academic gender gap.IntroductionSince the 1970s, women's representation among new doctorates and academics has increased dramatically in New Zealand and other English-speaking countries (Auriol 2007, OECD 2008). Over the past forty years, feminists have successfully urged universities to become more cognisant of gender equity issues, expecting that the rise in qualified academic women would dramatically reduce male/female work discrepancies. However, I show in this paper that the academic gender gap persists in terms of disciplinary specialization, work location, job security, rank, salary, job satisfaction and career development, despite broad social and institutional changes.Although universities have hired more women academics, they have also restructured to focus more on internationalisation, external funding and research productivity (Baker, 2009; Fletcher et al., 2007). Institutional priorities now focus more on international reputation, external funding and the entrepreneurial skills that male academics more often bring to the job, while academic practices continue to reward peer-reviewed research over teaching and service (Baker, 2012). In this paper, however, I focus only on explanations relating to gendered personal lives, including support from parents and partners, academics' living arrangements, their domestic division of labour, and the 'motherhood penalty'.The article is set within feminist political economy and interpretive frameworks, drawing on previous theorising and research on the interdependence between gendered patterns of employment and family relations. The empirical portion is based on two sets of qualitative interviews with university-based academics in Canada in 1973 and New Zealand in 2008. Unlike studies that focus on institutional factors, this paper demonstrates that gendered families remain significant contributors to the academic gender gap. Combined with age-old academic values and new institutional priorities, gendered families continue to shape women's subjectivities and employment strategies, and diminish their rank and salaries.Theoretical frameworkFeminist political economy theories argue that women's daily responsibility for household work tends to reduce their employment hours and productivity, especially in competitive workplaces (Grummell et al., 2009). This paper particularly draws on the 'motherhood penalty' research showing that the careers of mothers tend to lag behind those of childfree women and fathers (Baker 2010d; Budig & England, 2001; Portanti & Whitworth, 2009). In addition, prevalent marriage patterns, where women partner with older and professionally established men, augment the expectations that employed women will shoulder the 'second shift' of household work (Hochschild, 1989; Johnson & Johnson, 2008).Interpretive perspectives, also used in this paper, acknowledge the different subjectivities of equally-qualified workers in the same occupation (Thomas & Davies, 2002). …

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