Feminist reflections on life in (im)balance, career praxis, and the PRME

Abstract

The opportunity to reflect on the achievements and the aspirations of the PRME from diverse feminist orientations came through a project exploring career experiences and aspirations of senior academic women known for their engagement with the social and environmental degradations expressed in the call for submissions to this Special Edition of IJME. In our conversations, the notion of vitality emerged as a fruitful concept referring to participant observation of life in (im)balance. Influences on their fluctuating vitality were expressed in quite radical feminist terms. Paradoxically their responses were mostly framed in neo-liberal feminist ways. Our reflection on this paradox is intended to consider what feminist orientations might bring to the transformation of the social and environmental challenges placed before PRME committed scholars in a rapidly changing geo-political climate. The thread from the project we develop in this paper invites inquiry into the PRME's capacity to radically impact trajectories of university governance, to attend to the employment conditions of their female scholars, and through support of the career aspirations of these scholars, provide leadership that enhances not only the vitality of women scholars in universities, but to manifest human organisations serving the vitality of all people and our life-sustaining planet.