Academic Women in Neoliberal Times

This book explores the gendered dimensions of academic life in the Australian university, examining key discourses through a feminist lens. It reveals how women generate neoliberal and feminist shifts, manage contradictions, and carve spaces of influence and authority, offering new insights into gender inequality in neoliberal times.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 281 pages
Publication date: 26 June 2021
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

This book delves into the intricate and multifaceted aspects of academic life within contemporary Australian universities, exploring the gendered dimensions that shape this realm. Through a feminist lens, it examines key discourses, including academic performativity and identity, and critically analyzes how these discourses are intertwined with the structure, systems, operations, and cultures of the university. By conducting in-depth qualitative interviews with academic women in Australia, the author employs a range of experimental methods to highlight the performative and discursive choices that women make regarding their academic careers. Through this exploration, the book unveils how women actively contribute to the generation of neoliberal and feminist shifts, navigate the complexities they create, and carve out spaces of influence. Moreover, it offers fresh perspectives on gender inequality in the Australian university context during the neoliberal era, challenging prevailing narratives and prompting a re-evaluation of existing discourses.

This book explores the gendered dimensions of academic life in contemporary Australian universities, examining key discourses such as academic performativity and identity through a feminist lens. It scrutinizes how discourses of neoliberalism and feminism are entangled in the structure, systems, operations, and cultures of the university. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with academic women in Australia, the author employs a mix of experimental methods to emphasize the performative and discursive decisions women make regarding their academic careers. The book reveals how women themselves generate neoliberal and feminist shifts, manage the contradictions they produce, and carve out spaces of influence. Moving towards a re-evaluation of existing discourses, the book offers new insights into gender inequality in the Australian university in neoliberal times.

Weight: 454g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030450649
Edition number: 1st ed. 2020