Challenges of the Faculty Career for Women:
Success and Sacrifice
by Maike Ingrid Philipsen
Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2008. 368 pp. (includes histograms,
appendices, index, 20 references) ISBN 978-0470257005 (cloth);
$40.00
reviewed by Cheryl Baldwin Frech
The title says it all: Challenges of the Faculty Career for
Women: Success and Sacrifice. Anyone reading this review is
surely either a female faculty member, is a colleague to women in
the department, or has been a student of a female faculty
member. This powerful book is a must-read for all.
Maike Philipsen surveyed and interviewed nearly 50 women
at five different types of higher education institutions (community
college, metropolitan university, a historically black
college or university, a state research university, and a private
university) in an anonymous mid-Atlantic state. The women
represent various disciplines, are of all ages, and have a range of
personal life situations, including single, married, divorced, and
gay; with and without children; and are from the United States
or other countries. Philipsen first administered to the women a
survey titled Balancing Personal and Professional Lives. She then
coded the responses and analyzed the results by career stage. She
followed up the survey with one-on-one interviews with the
women in their college or university offices.
The bulk of the resulting book consists of the comments
and stories of the women, loosely grouped into “early career”,
“mid-career”, and “late career” faculty members, with each group
being the subject of a lengthy chapter. The comments of the early
career women (Chapter 1) reflect their growing awareness of the
complexities of university life (tenure, teaching, research, and
service) and the impossible task of reconciling all that with a
personal life. Some of the early career women are consumed with
fatigue and guilt when they find themselves unavailable to
spouses and children. Others struggle with unclear or nonexistent
university policies about both maternity leave and tenure
decisions. They speak about giving up hobbies and exercise,
the “two-body problem” of finding a position for a spouse or
partner, their longing to find a partner, or their desire to bear or
adopt a child. Philipsen, who is from Germany, also shares the
stories of “immigrant scholars”, the individuals who are increasingly
populating our college and university classrooms from
different countries and cultures than many of their students
and colleagues.
Mid-career women (Chapter 2) necessarily have developed
some coping mechanisms. They describe their “enablers”, the
people and the strategies that enable these women to have
an academic career. Enablers are variously partners, children,
a housecleaner, supportive colleagues, or ultraorganization
and a low need for sleep. These women speak of delineating
boundaries, split-shift parenting, and nonlinear career paths.
The stories of late-career women in Chapter 3 reveal some level
of acceptance of life's outcomes. For some women, work and life
have become a continuum, while others have made peace with
their unfulfilled dreams. The chapter ends with several interesting
sections, including “Regrets and Sacrifices” and “Thinking
about Retirement”.
Following that is Chapter 4, “Comparisons”, in which
Philipsen shares comments of the women about the relative
treatment of men and women in academia across the generations.
The women's remarks about men range from tales of overt sexual
harassment to the more subtle differences in flexibility and
opportunities available to men with small children at home
in comparison to women in the same situation. Some women
spoke positively about the men who had enabled their success,
whether at home or as academic mentors. When making
temporal comparisons about their experiences, the women are
ambivalent. Mid- and late-career women note that many of them
were the only women in their departments, yet acknowledge that
today's standards for tenure and promotion are even more
rigorous.
Chapter 5 consists of two sections of recommendations:
“What Women Want: Reform of Academe” and “While
Women Wait: Advice for the Interim”. The reform suggestions
range from the clarification and redesign of the tenure
process and evaluation of workload issues, to child- and afterschool
care on campus, and assistance with elder care. Philipsen
presents the recommendations as general suggestions interspersed
with specific comments from women in the study. For
example, perhaps every school should have an “Office of
Family Issues” to assist and support people in diverse life
situations and stages. The advice ranges from the general (say
“no” to some requests of your time, develop assertiveness, get
organized) to more specific tips for graduate students and for
those who are considering balancing careers and families. The
book's appendices contain Philipsen's survey, a quantitative
assessment of the data by researcher Tim Bostic, and frequencies
and histograms.
Perhaps it is rather late in this review for a disclaimer, but
here it is. I am not an unbiased reviewer. I am a 50-year old
woman in academia at a metropolitan university; I have two
teenaged children and a faculty spouse in the same discipline at
another school. I found this book both fascinating and painful to
read. The anecdotes are tragic, depressing, poignant, and inspirational.
The story of every woman you know in academia is
touched upon in this book. Please read Challenges of the Faculty
Career for Women: this book has the potential to change the way
you think about yourself, the women you encounter in academia,
and the academic system itself.