Caregiving while in Academia, Strategizing by Minority Women: A Rendition of Career Trajectories
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2024-07-09
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en
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This study focuses on the experiences of women from minoritized backgrounds in Dutch academia, who have caregiving responsibilities. This group faces many barriers in their careers and were expected to have unique experiences due to the intersections of their identities. The research aim is to understand how minoritized women in academia have used strategic decision-making to navigate their careers, and by doing so confront the notion of the ideal worker. This qualitative, inductive research used a narrative approach from which the career trajectories of 5 women in Dutch academia were rendered. The stories were analyzed using Grounded Theory methodology, to minimize bias from the researcher. The study shows that in their careers, women were highly mobile, were actively engaging in family planning, and faced many (often structural) barriers. They received support from their environments, which helped them carry the responsibilities and navigate such barriers. Their roles as caregivers fostered connections to the people around them, placing women differently in certain contexts. This study reimagines the notion of the ideal worker as a caring one, which should be considered more ideal than an ‘unencumbered’ worker, since ties of care embed a worker in their social environments.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen