Feeling Guilty by Being In-Between Family and Work: The Lived Experience of Female Academics

In higher education, scientists live and breathe their work every single day, providing the conditions for potential conflict between professional and family life. This phenomenological inquiry explores the question: "How do female university academics experience being between the family and wo...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Kudarauskienė, Agnė (Author) ; Žydziunaite, Vilma (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Rhodes University [2019]
In: The Indo-Pacific journal of phenomenology
Year: 2019, Volume: 18, Issue: 2, Pages: 41-50
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Academic woman / Work / Everyday life / Family / Emotional burden
RelBib Classification:ZB Sociology
ZD Psychology
ZF Education
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:In higher education, scientists live and breathe their work every single day, providing the conditions for potential conflict between professional and family life. This phenomenological inquiry explores the question: "How do female university academics experience being between the family and work responsibilities in their daily activities?" Twelve male and female academics from different scientific/ research fields participated in the study. Phenomenological analysis of the interviews with female academics revealed the challenges they face in reconciling family and work commitments. The emerging themes include experience of feeling guilty by prioritizing their research, aligning family holidays with academic conferences, automating activity, compelling the body and mind to work in a different mode, and doing housework alongside academic activity - all of which reveal the bodily presence of female academics between two important areas of life without having a clear focus on either one of them. This study showed that, while increasing equality in the work sphere has unified the opportunities of men and women, female academics still experience conflict between family and work, as well as a feeling of guilt, when they talk about significant moments in their own experience of the university environment.
ISSN:1445-7377
Contains:Enthalten in: The Indo-Pacific journal of phenomenology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/20797222.2018.1500670