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Women thriving in academia
In a male-dominated higher education sector characterised by overt and subtle adversities for women, the path for women in academia is rarely a simple and easy one. This book sets out to empower women in academia to unite in sharing their stories, inspiring and encouraging one another.
Providing international perspectives from Asia, Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and packed with real examples, success stories and practical advice from academic women at all levels, this timely text equips readers to understand how we can move higher education institutions beyond the constraints that have held highly competent women back for far too long. Chronicling both the challenges and opportunities posed by the higher education sector, and cutting across the fields of leadership, management and gender studies, the contributors offer a finely curated collection which empowers women not only to better navigate the academic world, but thrive in it.
Providing international perspectives from Asia, Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and packed with real examples, success stories and practical advice from academic women at all levels, this timely text equips readers to understand how we can move higher education institutions beyond the constraints that have held highly competent women back for far too long. Chronicling both the challenges and opportunities posed by the higher education sector, and cutting across the fields of leadership, management and gender studies, the contributors offer a finely curated collection which empowers women not only to better navigate the academic world, but thrive in it.
228 pages, Paperback
Published April 26, 2021
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January 16, 2024
I really wanted to love this book. If I'm honest, 3 stars is flattering the book. But I believe in the project...
The challenge is we have liberal feminism saturating this book. In the context of catastrophic university workplace cultures, liberal feminism is as effective as soap and water at a murder scene. We actually need some strong and effective bleach to wash the toxicity from international higher education.
Therefore the gentle conversations about social media and mentoring and networking are as sharp as a spoon. I'm not sure this book is preparing the next generation of women to fight and to succeed.
The writing required some very staunch editing. Too many cliches and vague generalizations survived in this book. To provide one of hundreds of examples, "'Networking is not a dirty word,' say all women who get noticed."
Really? Who are these women. And is 'getting noticed' the point of academic life? In many of the chapters 'getting noticed' is the focus. I had to have Bex and a lie down when I read the following sentence: "women often focus on perfecting their work to the detriment of their career development."
With the greatest respect, the last thing international higher education requires is another generation of pretenders, who do not have the track record of research and teaching, but shout loudly and shrilly about how good they are. We are in this mess in higher education because spruik has replaced reading, interpretation, references and reflection.
I understand why this book exists. It is teaching women how to 'fit in' to higher education. Mentoring. Networking. I get it.
But this system doesn't want us. Women are teaching other women to fit in, to create a 'portfolio' and 'shape' a career. We need to be honest about the misogyny of higher education. Women are the 'emergency' workforce, fitting in with casualized, short-term contracts, teaching-only posts, and triage leadership roles. The serious researchers and the Vice Chancellors are men. The senior leadership is dominated by heterosexual men. Still.
I should note that one of my vlogs was the core of the conclusion of this book. I explored storytelling in our lives. I explore how there are four stories we tell ourselves: (1) Academic story (2) Professional story (3) Personal story and (4) Life story. I organized these four stories through the phase, "What is your t-shirt slogan?” This vlog was about honesty and complexity. And most importantly, the vlog was about being honest to ourselves - about ourselves.
This book - sadly - is not honest to women. Once more we have women telling the story of their success. Liberal feminism has always done this. Individual success can be generalized and is generalizable. But actual - the truth is that structural change is required. The conclusion of the book states, "this book was not borne out of strong ideological feminist ideas or with grandeur aims to change the system."
And that, dear friends, is the problem...
The challenge is we have liberal feminism saturating this book. In the context of catastrophic university workplace cultures, liberal feminism is as effective as soap and water at a murder scene. We actually need some strong and effective bleach to wash the toxicity from international higher education.
Therefore the gentle conversations about social media and mentoring and networking are as sharp as a spoon. I'm not sure this book is preparing the next generation of women to fight and to succeed.
The writing required some very staunch editing. Too many cliches and vague generalizations survived in this book. To provide one of hundreds of examples, "'Networking is not a dirty word,' say all women who get noticed."
Really? Who are these women. And is 'getting noticed' the point of academic life? In many of the chapters 'getting noticed' is the focus. I had to have Bex and a lie down when I read the following sentence: "women often focus on perfecting their work to the detriment of their career development."
With the greatest respect, the last thing international higher education requires is another generation of pretenders, who do not have the track record of research and teaching, but shout loudly and shrilly about how good they are. We are in this mess in higher education because spruik has replaced reading, interpretation, references and reflection.
I understand why this book exists. It is teaching women how to 'fit in' to higher education. Mentoring. Networking. I get it.
But this system doesn't want us. Women are teaching other women to fit in, to create a 'portfolio' and 'shape' a career. We need to be honest about the misogyny of higher education. Women are the 'emergency' workforce, fitting in with casualized, short-term contracts, teaching-only posts, and triage leadership roles. The serious researchers and the Vice Chancellors are men. The senior leadership is dominated by heterosexual men. Still.
I should note that one of my vlogs was the core of the conclusion of this book. I explored storytelling in our lives. I explore how there are four stories we tell ourselves: (1) Academic story (2) Professional story (3) Personal story and (4) Life story. I organized these four stories through the phase, "What is your t-shirt slogan?” This vlog was about honesty and complexity. And most importantly, the vlog was about being honest to ourselves - about ourselves.
This book - sadly - is not honest to women. Once more we have women telling the story of their success. Liberal feminism has always done this. Individual success can be generalized and is generalizable. But actual - the truth is that structural change is required. The conclusion of the book states, "this book was not borne out of strong ideological feminist ideas or with grandeur aims to change the system."
And that, dear friends, is the problem...
Displaying 1 of 1 review