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

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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