The Counselor, the Mom, the Task-Master: Acker's Gendered Organization in Women Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Work

• In Event: Understanding Experiences of Minoritized Contingent Faculty

Abstract

Across all types of non-tenure track faculty the workforce of these faculty remains overworked, underpaid, and marginalized. As more women fill these roles, their increased presence signifies an obscured view of what women are and are not capable of doing, in effect gendering the work and producing a feminized field. In this paper, we add to conversations on gender and non-tenured faculty by explicitly examining the effect of gender on women within these precarious positions; specifically, we present a critical qualitative inquiry of 23 non-tenure track women at two midwestern, comprehensive universities. We utilize Acker’s (1990) theory of gendered organizations to analyze their experiences and highlight the underexamined impact of gender on the well-established, hierarchical practices of higher education.

Authors

• Emiko Blalock, Michigan State University

• Alyssa Stefanese Yates, Michigan State University