The academic career: a study of subjectivity, gender and movement among women university lecturers

Changes in the higher education system have resulted in increased demands on effectiveness and marketisation. These demands have changed what it means to do academic work. In this study, 19 female academic lecturers have been interviewed in order to get them to reflect upon their opportunities and conditions in career. The aim is to analyse how this specific group manoeuvres; that is their 'becoming subjectivity' in academic career. This means an interest in analysing their locations, positions as well as their material and discursive conditions. The results show how many see teaching as important in career, but also as a trap that restrains them in their chances of research advancement. Several express that a lot of teaching drain the time and energy needed for other opportunities in career. There are also a few who experience teaching as a place where people actually collaborate more than compete and find alternative career strategies. Even so, these women appear caught in their careers, which can relate to gender, and to the experience of incapacity' to find directions in a more competitive structure.