Job Refusal and Job Departure among Academic Dual-career Couples

• In Event: 294 - Regular Session. Sociology of Higher Education. Faculty and Gender Strategies, from Dual Partner Job Search to Co-Authorship and Mentoring

Abstract

We investigate how gender stereotypes influence career decisions by exploring the extent to which male and female dual-career academics’ early career decisions take into account the careers of their partners. Specifically, we consider whether female and male academics would have refused their job offer or left their university if their partner had not found appropriate employment. We pay special attention to the relative importance couple’s place on their careers and the role of academic discipline in this relationship. Analyses using unique survey data from faculty at seven U.S. institutions find that female dual-career academics who consider their career primary to their partner’s career have a higher odds of rejecting a job offer if their male partner could not find appropriate employment than men who consider their careers as primary, particularly when their partners work in STEM disciplines. Women whose partners are in STEM disciplines—regardless of whether her career is primary or secondary to her partner’s career—are significantly more likely to report that they would have left the university if their partners had not found appropriate employment than their male counterparts. We discuss implications for findings, particularly as they relate to recruitment and retention of women faculty in STEM disciplines.

Authors

• Hong Zhang, Washington State University

• Julie A. Kmec, Washington State University

• Tori C Byington, Oregon State University