Australian academics: Career patterns, work roles, and family life-cycle commitments of men and women

Abstract

Men and women who held a full-time appointment at lecturer level and above in Australian universities in 1988 were compared in terms of the career paths they had followed, geographic mobility, domestic responsibilities, work roles, and levels of performance as an academic. Women had more often spent a period outside the workforce or in part-time employment due to childcare responsibilities. They more frequently had followed their partners to another city or country, they more often had been a tutor (a non-tenurable position) before becoming a lecturer. The survey indicated that substantially more women than men pursuing a full-time career as an academic were combining substantial household labour and childcare with employment. However, even when number of children and ages of children were considered, there were no differences between men and women in self-rated performance in such academic roles as research, teaching, and administration. The results are discussed with reference to the question of why in numerical terms there have been so few women academics in Australian universities.