The Triple Whammy: Gendered Careers of Geographically Marginalised Academic STEM Women

Authors

  • Clem Herman The Open University
  • Rachel Hilliam The Open University

Keywords:

Gendered careers, academia, STEM, liminality, visibility, remote working

Abstract

In this paper we explore how gender, non-standard job roles as well as location create a triple whammy affecting the visibility and therefore the career paths of women STEM academics. Drawing on data from interviews and surveys at a distributed university with locations across the UK, we examine the experiences of a group of ‘Regional Academics’ who are located at a distance from the main university campus, either in regional centres or as homeworkers, and show how gender intersects with distance and status to exacerbate inequalities. In their narrative accounts, they describe themselves as the ‘glue that hold the bits of the university together’, mediating between part-time tutors, students and other academics and researchers. We explore how career progression has been limited for these liminal academics, but how small steps to increase visibility and provide recognition for achievement can result in strategies that overcome these inherent obstacles.

Author Biography

  • Clem Herman, The Open University
    Clem Herman is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing and Communications at the Open University in the UK. She has worked as an educator, practitioner and researcher to support women in ICT and other science, engineering and technology sectors. Clem’s research has been about the employability and careers of women SET professionals and in particular the impact of maternity and career breaks and she is currently working on an ESRC funded project Gender Skilled Migration and IT: A comparative study of UK and India
G S T logo

Downloads

Published

23-04-2018

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2018)

Section

Special Issue: Gender and Masculinities in Careers and Leadership in Higher Education

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

How to Cite

The Triple Whammy: Gendered Careers of Geographically Marginalised Academic STEM Women. (2018). International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 10(1), 171-189. https://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/540