Balancing on the Tenure Track: Issues for women in academe

The debate over whether or not faculty should be tenured has been making headline news. Although this debate is interesting, it often ignores the reality of individual academic lives. It especially minimizes the lived experiences of junior faculty who are plunged into the middle of this debate and begin their careers with the pressure to publish or perish, write award winning grants, teach, serve on academic committees, make connections in the community, and also manage their own personal lives. Some women may be further burdened by the additional pressure brought on by gendered expectations and norms in male-dominated fields, such as the STEM fields. Although creating tenure-track machines may serve a corporate model of education, one must ask whether or not students receive a valuable education when faculty time and energies are spent everywhere but teaching.