ICWES15 - Part-time Academia: Work-family Balance Utopia or Female Ghetto? Presented by Dr Kate...
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Transcript of ICWES15 - Part-time Academia: Work-family Balance Utopia or Female Ghetto? Presented by Dr Kate...
Part-time academia:work-family balance utopia
or female ghetto?
Associate Professor Karen Hapgood
Deputy Head of Department (full-time)
Chemical Engineering
Monash University
Dr Kate O’Brien
Lecturer (part-time)
Chemical & Environmental Engineering
University of Queensland
Work-family balance utopia vs female ghetto
• Increasing the options for balancing work and family for both mothers AND fathers is vital for increasing numbers of women in engineering at science, especially at senior roles:– Full-time work– Part-time work– Career breaks
• Work-family balance utopia: Where a person can spend enough time with their children while doing meaningful work where their expertise is valued and rewarded
• Female ghetto: Where women work in a position which enables them to spend time with their families, but their expertise is NOT adequately valued and rewarded
Actually it’s a bit tricky
Part-time lecturer; that sounds like work-family balance Utopia!
Why’s that?
• competing time-scales •competitive full-time paradigm• few role models• difficult to maintain & build track record;• judged by metrics which may not account for part-time status or teaching load
Objectives of this talk• Define research dynamics • Define criteria for successful part-
time work: compare with Research and Teaching duties
• How to survive and thrive as a part-time academic.
• How to create change: Opportunities to make part-time work work in academia.
A model for research dynamics• Research output R increases over time at rate r up to
some maximum output Rmax;
• Competing timescales• Part-time work is not the norm: working in a full-time
context
maxRR1rR
dtdR
0 2 4 6 8 100
10
20
Res
earc
h ou
put,
R
Time, years
0 5 10 15 200
204060
dR/d
t
Research output, R
(Scheffer 2009: Critical transitions in society and nature)
Rmax=20, r=0.6 y-1
Full time research
Full time T & RRmax=10, r=0.3 y-1
Part-time T & RRmax=5, r=0.15 y-1
Minimum critical mass• Research output declines if it falls below some critical
value Rc;
0 5 10 15 20-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
Rat
e of
cha
nge
in re
sear
ch o
utpu
t, dR
/dt
Current research output, R
max
C
max RRR
RR1rR
dtdR
Competitive exclusion: death by metrics
• Quantitative metrics commonly used to assess research performance
• Reinforce the “success to the successful” system archetype which characterises research in academia.
• Provide dis-incentives for employing women working part-time or academics returning from an extended career break
APPLICATION OF METRICS WITHOUT ACCOUNTING FOR PART-TIME STATUS, TEACHING LOAD AND POSITION ON START-UP CURVE WILL DISCOURAGE FEMALE SUCCESS IN PART-TIME ACADEMIA.
Optimization of individual performance does not necessarily optimize team performance
Criteria for successful part-time work • Can obtain required skills and qualifications by the age
of about 30;• Success depends on current not historical performance;• Success depends on outcomes, not competition;• Performance does not require a minimum critical
participation rate; i.e. 20 % of the job could be completed in approximately 20 % of the time;
• Tasks can undertaken in discrete pieces, with some flexibility in timing;
• Clearly defined, specific, achievable objectives.
Conclusions• Research expertise & track record requires substantial
time, minimum involvement and is an exponential process
• Research career & motherhood operate on competing timescales
• Injudicious application of metrics penalise mothers working part-time and/or with career interruptions
• Teaching is very amenable to part-time work• Incentives to allocate women substantial teaching loads
Many drivers and incentives for part-time academics to focus on teaching, which reduces promotion opportunities and creates a “female ghetto”
Work-family balance utopia or female ghetto?
• A teaching-only role suits part-time work, but it may be difficult to gain permanent work or promotion
• A research-only role in a good team will enable you to develop a strong research track record, and move into a T&R role later
• T&R roles will be difficult, particularly if you have not developed a strong track record prior to motherhood
• Give a sister a hand
Recommendations: young women who want a career and to
work part-time while caring for your family
• Greater expertise pre-motherhood will make it easier to manage a career with interruptions and part-time work
• Concentrate on gaining expertise in your field in your twenties.
Recommendations: research group managers
How to seize an opportunity• Many very smart, capable women wish to
re-enter research on a part-time basis as their families grow
• Relatively untapped pool containing some very talented individuals.
• Secondary income earners may have flexibility to adapt to workloads which vary with the cycle of grant success.
Recommendations: university managers
• Target time for research: Allow part-time staff to load their teaching into a single semester
• Fair teaching loads: Ensure that part-time teaching and administration loads are fairly allocated compared to full-time loads;
• Teaching relief during start-up phase: allow time to develop a strategic plan and get the research started is critical for any starting academic
• Effective mentoring: Ensure that part-time staff have good guidance, and assist them develop effective collaborations with other senior researchers.
Recommendations: university administrators
ENABLING SUCCESSFUL PARTICIPATION IN ACADEMIA PART-TIME IS ESSENTIAL FOR INCREASING FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN SENIOR ROLES
• Judicious use of metrics: aggressive application of metrics which do not account for part-time status, teaching duties or position on the research start-up curve will discourage female participation in academic roles.
• “Return to Research” funding for:– Seed funding– Workforce re-entry– Underwrite a post-doctoral salary
• Short-list female applications: A policy requiring at least one male and one female applicant be short-listed for all jobs.
• Identify and remove bureaucratic barriers
Final Recommendations for part-timers
• Be cunning: you will need very effective collaborations
• Management and mentoring matters: s/he needs to recognize your value to the organization differs from standard measures, and that you will need to be very strategic
• Be brave: you will be working in a full-time paradigm, and may not meet typical measures of success
• Be patient: children grow up all too soon
2002 was a very average (median) year because I was 30 years old…
In Australia, 30 years old is the median age for:
• Phd completion (DEEWR)
• Mothers giving birth (ABS)
20 40 600
50
100
Age, yearsC
umul
ativ
e %
of
PhD
com
plet
ions
by
age
Part-time work• Majority of mothers with children
under 5 want to work < 35 hr/week (Baxter et al. 2007)
• 12-16 % of engineers and scientists work part-time (APESMA 2007)
• Part-time work needs to work • Little published on part-time work in
science, engineering or academia