Abstract
This article examines the link between terms of employment (full time, part time and casual) at an Australian regional university and women’s career progression. The literature identifies lack of transparency in recruitment, promotion and retention; mobility and location; and management perceptions of women’s choice to work flexibly as factors impacting on career progression. However, the voices of women working in regional universities and particularly those of professional staff are often not present in current research. This study moves towards addressing this research deficit. Feminist institutionalism is used to analyse the relationship between national legislation, university policies and informal institutional practices in relation to women’s career progression In early 2020, twenty-one women provided written responses to questions on the link between terms of employment and career progression. The main findings tend to support other research about women working in universities; that is, carers need flexible work arrangements. But there are particular differences for women in regional universities who have to travel between dispersed campuses, which brings an added dimension of complexity to career progression. Their choices about terms of employment and fulfilling carer responsibilities resulted in insecure employment for some participants which had an impact on wellbeing and confidence. In addition, care/household responsibilities and the choice to work flexibly had a negative effect on career progression, and managers did not necessarily support flexible work options (despite national legislation that enables employees with child care responsibilities to negotiate flexible work arrangements with managers, and institutional gender equality policies).
Highlights
Aiming to address the gap in current literature about the experience of women working in Australian regional universities, especially professional staff, this article examines the terms of their employment and how this might connect with/impact on career pathways and advancement
Ten of the twenty-one participants were professional staff working at Higher Education Workers (HEW) 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9
This mirrors findings on the growth of contract and casual positions in academia, often resulting in slower career progression for women (Strachan et al, 2016) who are more likely to be employed as sessional workers, at lower pay levels and have interrupted career development
Summary
Aiming to address the gap in current literature about the experience of women working in Australian regional universities, especially professional staff, this article examines the terms of their employment (full time, part time and casual) and how this might connect with/impact on career pathways and advancement. The research question, is how might terms of employment affect the working lives, career aspirations, and career progression of women in regional universities. Twenty-one women participated in the study in February 2020, and were almost divided between academic and professional (administrative) staff. The regional university sector comprises seven universities based in regional Australia; that is, in regional cities rather than metropolitan areas. They have formed the Regional University Network (RUN). Even though regional universities are often central to rapidly growing areas outside metropolitan locations that have witnessed the largest net inflow of population in the past
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