Being an Early Career Feminist Academic ― Global Perspectives, Experiences and Challenges

This book highlights the experiences of feminist early career researchers and teachers from an international perspective in an increasingly neoliberal academy. It offers a new angle on a significant and increasingly important discussion on the ethos of higher education and the sector's place in society.

 

Higher education is fast-changing, increasingly market-driven, and precarious. In this context entering the academy as an early career academic presents both challenges and opportunities. Early career academics frequently face the prospect of working on fixed term contracts, with little security and no certain prospect of advancement, while constantly looking for the next role. Being a feminist academic adds a further layer of complexity: the ethos of the marketising university where students are increasingly viewed as ‘customers’ may sit uneasily with a politics of equality for all. Feminist values and practice can provide a means of working through the challenges, but may also bring complications.

Amy Pressland is International HR Projects Manager for DB Cargo UK working on an international research project called Women in Management. Previously she was Lecturer in Education at the University of East Anglia, UK and has published articles and book chapters on mixed-sex sport in HE, European media representations of gender at major sporting events, the surveillance of sportswomen's bodies in British newspapers, and the media coverage of women's boxing..