Mothers in the Academy
Positioned and positioning within discourses of the 'successful academic' and the 'good mother
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4098609 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Arwen Raddon (University of Warwick, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 387-403 |
| Publication date | 2002-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Higher Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0307-5079 • E-ISSN: 1470-174X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0307507022000011516 |
| OpenAlex | W2132273747 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 88 |
| References cited | 32 |
Using a feminist poststructuralist framework of discursive analysis, this paper explores the ways in which women academics with children are both positioned and positioning within the complex and often contradictory discourses surrounding the "successful academic" and the "good mother". A biographical approach is taken to explore these discourses within the everyday experiences of Susan, an academic and mother. It is argued that while the intersection of these discourses -which are fluid and in process, rather than fixed and unchanging -creates conflict for mothers, not only within the academy but also in terms of their subjectivities outside of the academy, they can also provide sources of empowerment and potentially a space in which mothers can begin to consider the possibilities for new ways of being within the academy. Implications for the academic community and HEIs are discussed, with a particular focus on the development of a critical literacy
Academic community · Empowerment · Feminism · Higher education · Literacy · Pedagogy · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Mentoring and Academic Development
Geschlecht in universitären Kontexten
Women, research and the politics of professional development
Transformative Collaborations
My journey on breastfeeding
That’s not me anymore
“My Wife Says…”
“This Would Never be Possible if Not for Our Team Play”
Support and struggle
Perceived stress and well-being in doctoral students
Gender inequality and bias in Chinese universities
The care ceiling in higher education
Academics’ perceptions of what it means to be both a parent and an academic
“Stuck in the middle of what?”
Agency and cruel optimism in the care obfuscations of UK-based academic mothers
From kindness to constraints
Mentorship in Doctoral Education for Pregnant and Newly Parenting Doctoral Students
Good Mothers
Work‐family culture in academia
Gender and politics in the UK
Othering the ‘leaky body’. An autoethnographic story about expressing breast milk in the workplace
Under the Desk
Risky Business”
Mother, researcher, feminist, woman
Experiencing gender in UK political science
Gendered and classed performances of ‘good’ mother and academic in Greece
The Good Mother and Her Clinging Child’
What Covid‐19 could mean for the future of “work from home”
Work–Life Fragility, Dilemmas, and “Gambling” at the Intersection of Fertility Treatment and Employment
The Experience of Academic Non‐Mothers in the Gendered University
To See Ourselves As Others See Us? Incorporating the Constraining Role of Socio‐Cultural Practices in the Theorization of Micropolitical Resistance
Informality, emotion and gendered career paths
Cultural Sexism is Ordinary
Everyday sexism and racism in the ivory tower
Mentoring as affective governmentality
Narratives about Work and Family Life among Portuguese Academics
Agents for Change and Changed Agents
Work–family Conflicts and the Organizational Work Culture as Barriers to Women Educational Managers
Precarity, gender and care in the neoliberal academy
A Feminist Discourse Analysis of Popular-Press Accounts of Postmaternity
Confidence culture in neoliberal academia
Birth work’ accompaniment and PhD supervision
The marketised university and the politics of motherhood
Included or excluded? The dual influences of the organisational field and organisational practices on new female academics
Giving up as a willful feminist practice
The silence/ing of academic women
The rules of the game
Making choices but few changes
Women, know your limits
Women academics and research productivity
Shaming of lone mothers pursuing doctoral education
Gender and doctoral studies
The healing trifecta
Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Academic Career Goals
Too Old to Become a Mother? Risk Constructions in 35+ Women's Experiences of Pregnancy, Child-Birth, and Postnatal Care
Quantitative and qualitative dimensions of gender equity in Sri Lankan Higher Education
Intersecting ethics of responsibility
Certainty as social justice
Discursive self-positioning strategies of Estonian female scientists in terms of academic career and excellence
List-keepers and other carrier bag stories
The joys and challenges of academic motherhood
And it was all my choice but it didn't feel like a choice”
Through the eyes of farmers' daughters
(Re)Birthing the Academy
Women in gambling studies
Towards Diffractive Ways of Knowing Women’s Moving Bodies
Sleepless in academia
Caught between difference and similarity
Physical activity and the pressures of ‘good’ motherhood
Global linkages, the higher education pipeline, and national contexts
Mothers and researchers in the making
Academic mothers and the practice of embodied care
The Mirage of Merit
Timescapes of Flexibility and Insecurity
Flexible and Fixed Times Working in the Academy
Selling policy short? Faculty perspectives on the role of policy in addressing women's underrepresentation in engineering education
Academic careers and parenting
Conforming, accommodating, or resisting? How parents in academia negotiate their professional identity
Different people have different priorities
Tragic heroes, moral guides and activists
Differential experiences of time in academic work
She's From a `Good Family
I wanna be a toy
Where enterprise and equity meet
The transition to motherhood and part-time working
Caught between restrictions and freedom
Moral barriers between work/life balance policy and practice in academia
Work, parenting and gender
Interpreting Productivity
Motherhood and representation
The third way
Gender and Discourse
The Time Bind
Discipline and Punish
Social Support and Motherhood
Gender, Economy and Culture in the European Union
The Turn to Biographical Methods in Social Science
Gender, Careers and Organisations
Formations of Class and Gender
Counting Girls Out
Working and non‐working mothers
Archaeology of Knowledge
Questioning the Notion of Feminine Leadership
The Crafting of Care
A Serious Researcher or Just Another Nice Girl
Success, Gender and Academic Voices. Consuming Passion or Selling the Soul
Modernist Reductionism or Post-structuralist Relativism
Sacrifices in Greedy Universities
Constructing and Deconstructing Masculinities through Critical Literacy
Poststructural feminism in education
How to Keep a Good Woman Down
Women in the Academy
The archaeology of knowledge
Discipline and Punish
| Unique citing works | 88 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2004 - 2026 (23) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 86 |