Staging Women’s Lives in Academia: Gendered Life Stages in Language and Literature Workplaces

Description

Argues that institutional change must accommodate women’s professional and personal life stages. Staging Women’s Lives in Academia demonstrates how ostensibly personal decisions are shaped by institutions and advocates for ways that workplaces, not women, must be changed. Addressing life stages ranging from graduate school through retirement, these essays represent a gamut of institutions and women who draw upon both personal experience and scholarly expertise. The contributors contemplate the slipperiness of the very categories we construct to explain the stages of life and ask key questions, such as what does it mean to be a graduate student at fifty? Or a full professor at thirty-five? The book explores the ways women in all stages of academia feel that they are always too young or too old, too attentive to work or too overly focused on family. By including the voices of those who leave, as well as those who stay, this collection signals the need to rebuild the house of academia so that women can have not only classrooms of their own but also lives of their own. Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 Graduate School......Page 19 Early Career (Including Tenure)......Page 20 Midcareer (Including Post-Tenure)......Page 22 Late Career and Retirement......Page 25 Works Cited......Page 28 Part I. Graduate School ......Page 30 Chapter 1. A Job That Gets Old Fast: Age Studies, Academic Labor Criticism, and the Graduate Employee ......Page 32 Notes......Page 41 Works Cited......Page 42 “Chilly Climate”: An Introduction......Page 44 “The Lady with the Grey”......Page 46 Contexts: Family and Field......Page 48 Online: “On a Plowed Road”......Page 49 “Even Women Themselves”......Page 51 Conclusion......Page 53 Notes......Page 54 Works Cited......Page 55 Chapter 3. The Accidental Academic, or How to Succeed in Academia through Failure and Doubt ......Page 58 Notes......Page 67 Work Cited......Page 68 Chapter 4. Uses of My Anger: Negotiating Mothering, Feminism, and Graduate School ......Page 70 Feminist Praxis as a Mother......Page 72 Feminist Praxis as a Graduate Student......Page 74 Notes......Page 78 Works Cited......Page 79 Chapter 5. The Chaos of Kairos: Conflicting Discourses of Timing, Mothering, and Flexibility ......Page 82 Myths of Flexibility......Page 87 Will Work for Change: Reflecting on Collective Public Acts......Page 90 Writing about Flexibility from Inside the Elastic Model......Page 92 Works Cited......Page 93 Part II. Early Career (Including Pre-Tenure) ......Page 96 Chapter 6. Working-Class Women on the Tenure Track ......Page 98 Notes......Page 107 Works Cited......Page 108 Chapter 7. My Double Life in Academia, or Extreme Parenting on the Tenure Track ......Page 112 Works Cited......Page 123 Chapter 8. Solo on Stage: The Single Mother’s Solitary Path to Tenure ......Page 126 The Hurdles of the Single Pre-Tenure Mother......Page 127 The Financial Impact of Not Having a Spouse Pre-Tenure......Page 131 The Social Stigma and the Isolation of the Pre-Tenure Single Mother......Page 134 The Stress of Pre-Tenure Single Parents......Page 136 Works Cited......Page 137 Chapter 9. Square Peg, Round Hole: My Journey toward Professor of Practice ......Page 140 Works Cited......Page 150 Chapter 10. Currency ......Page 152 Works Cited......Page 163 Chapter 11. Settling Down without Settling: Reflecting on Ambition, Agency, and Acquiescence ......Page 164 Socialization: Becoming the Girl I Was Supposed to Be......Page 167 His and Hers: Challenges for Dual-Career Couples......Page 171 Understanding the Past, Determining the Future......Page 174 Works Cited......Page 175 Part III. Midcareer (Including Post-Tenure) ......Page 176 Chapter 12. Lives Like Mine: Notes at Midlife on Career Change ......Page 178 Works Cited......Page 188 Chapter 13. The Good Enough Academic Mother at Midcareer ......Page 190 Works Cited......Page 201 You Can Take the Girl Out of Brooklyn . . .......Page 204 Spinsters in the Tower: On Marital Status, Gender, and Age in Academe......Page 207 Location, Location . . .......Page 210 Shalom, Y’all......Page 213 Notes......Page 214 Works Cited......Page 215 Chapter 15: (In)Visibilities: A Woman Faculty of Color’s Search for a Disabled Identity That Fits ......Page 218 Notes......Page 228 Works Cited......Page 229 From Smoke Stacks to Ivory Towers......Page 232 The Numbers Tell a Story......Page 233 The Other......Page 235 Can You Hear Me Now?......Page 236 C-A-R-E Is a Four-letter Word......Page 237 The Unofficial Playbook for English Composition Instructors......Page 238 The Complexities of Choice......Page 239 Blue Collar: Not the Dress Code......Page 240 Onward and Upward!......Page 241 Works Cited......Page 244 Chapter 17. Staging Women’s Lives on the “Altac” Track ......Page 248 Bickford’s Story......Page 249 Bethman’s Story......Page 250 The Challenges of Altac......Page 251 Best Practices and Recommendations......Page 255 Notes......Page 257 Works Cited......Page 259 Chapter 18. Gratitude, Agency, and the Reformation of the Stage Approach ......Page 262 Attitude of Gratitude......Page 266 Assertions of Agency......Page 269 Gratitude for Agency......Page 271 Notes......Page 272 Works Cited......Page 273 Part IV. Late Career and Retirement ......Page 274 Chapter 19: The Academic Slow Lane ......Page 276 Slow Academia......Page 278 The Academic Fast Lane......Page 282 Slow Feminism......Page 285 Notes......Page 286 Works Cited......Page 287 Chapter 20: Relentless Improvising: A Full Professor Struggles to Manage Work, Family, and Health ......Page 290 A Classical Liberal Arts Education......Page 291 Graduate School Fellowship......Page 293 Finding a Job......Page 294 Complexities of Family, Household, and Health......Page 296 Environmental Challenges......Page 299 Works Cited......Page 302 Chapter 21: An Academic Evolution: From Chicanita to Mamá to Abuela ......Page 304 Works Cited......Page 314 Chapter 22: Love’s Labors: Taking Care of Mother ......Page 316 Works Cited......Page 325 A View of Her Own......Page 326 To Live Deliberately......Page 327 Agency......Page 328 Alternative Models of Aging......Page 331 No Regrets......Page 333 Fourteen Things to Do Before You Retire......Page 334 Works Cited......Page 337 1......Page 340 2......Page 345 3......Page 346 4......Page 348 Works Cited......Page 350 Chapter 25: Retirement in Two Voices ......Page 352 Works Cited......Page 363 Contributors......Page 366 Index......Page 376