But We Stopped All This: Stopping Practices of Women Full Professors in Neoliberal Times

Abstract

In this article, I present how some women full professors have implemented stopping practices, thus setting limits to their academic work in a neoliberal context. From semi-structured and in-depth interviews with three women professors at the National University of Colombia, this research presents their stopping practices: saying “No” when asked to take on more academic responsibilities and refusing to work outside working hours, as well as distancing themselves from electronic devices that could keep them connected to their academic work outside office hours. Stopping is a gradual process that led them to set limits on the time they devoted to work, which revealed that their subjection to neoliberal governmentality was not total. Nevertheless, stopping was also a luxury since these women professors could do so thanks to their job and economic stability, academic prestige, and the privilege of their seniority. As such, I explain how stopping is both a privilege and a form of resistance to neoliberal productivist demands that has various implications for policy, practice, and future research.