Strategies of Academic Parents to Manage Work-Life Conflict in Research Abroad
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter identifies the challenges that faculty with children experience as they engage in international research. We explore how these faculty members manage the competing demands of international research work and parenthood.
Methodology
Data includes qualitative interviews with 42 faculty members who are parents, in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields from 23 Research 1 universities.
Findings
The globalizing nature of research poses insufficiently recognized tensions between international travel and caregiving. Faculty reported three main strategies that enable them to manage work-family conflicts when work takes them abroad. These include: (1) opting out of international research; (2) modifying international travel; and (3) merging international research with caregiving.
Research implications
Work-family conflicts identified at the national level are amplified for international research.
Research limitations
Interview data are self-reports of what faculty members recalled and elected to share; actual behaviors may differ somewhat.
Practical implications
This chapter provides insights that academic institutions might use to support faculty engaged in international research.
Social implications
A failure to understand and support the unique needs of parents in international research settings may compromise active parenthood for faculty, while reinscribing and reinforcing existing gendered disparities in academia. The internationalization of STEM fields, when coupled with a lack of institutional support for parents, presents a mechanism that contributes to the ongoing underrepresentation of women in science and engineering.
Originality
Although similar questions have been considered in national contexts, little research has explored work-family conflicts for parents in an international setting.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. HDR-0811170 and OISE-0936970. PI Sara Wadia-Fascetti, and Co-PIs Luis Falcon, Jackie Isaacs, and Graham Jones are gratefully acknowledged for their support. Thanks are due to Debra Guckenheimer and Sorina Vlaicu for conducting the interviews and to Lisa Frehill for collaborating on the design of the interview guides and inspiring discussions. We are also grateful to, Eliza Rosenberry and Kaitlin Nesbitt for their critiques and suggestions. Finally, we owe special thanks to Emily Smykla and Katrina Uhly for assisting us with various aspects of the research and for their critical reading of several drafts.
Citation
Lubitow, A. and Zippel, K. (2014), "Strategies of Academic Parents to Manage Work-Life Conflict in Research Abroad", Gender Transformation in the Academy (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 63-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-212620140000019003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited