“What kept me going was stubbornness” : Perspectives from Swedish early career women academics in geography

• The rise of neoliberalism is creating inequalities for women as they balance their private lives and career trajectories. Geography as a middle sized discipline bridging the social and physical sciences offers insights into the ways neoliberal policies are felt by early career women (ECW). Using a life course model, this study presents the results of a workshop which sought to explore the ways in which women geographers, in Sweden, perceive and experience obstacles in their career advancement and which coping strategies they put in place to overcome those. The results show the blurring of the ECW ´s work and private lives. We find the experiences of ECW in Swedish geography departments are consistent with those of women in other countries. We conclude that ECW carry extra burdens in their career trajectories as academics due to increasingly neoliberal working environments, lack of mentorship, and an increasing pressure to produce measurable outputs and precarious employment. We argue that initiatives and programs aimed at retaining women in academia need to take on a broader perspective acknowledging the entanglement of women´s private and public spheres.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Genusstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Gender Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Geography

early career women

academia

neoliberalism

Sweden

genusvetenskap

Gender Studies

kulturgeografi

Human Geography

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)