Abstract
This study presents a model of lifestyles based on the form of women's acculturation to academic life. The model rests on the assumptions of patterned behavior and values which can be termed “women's culture” and “academic culture” respectively. Since becoming academics requires women to mediate the boundary between behaviors expected of women and those expected by the overwhelmingly male academic profession, an acculturation rather than socialization model was employed.
The in-depth study of the acculturative modes of professional behavior is both an exploratory and a qualitative effort to derive issues and categories from women's own perceptions. Forty-two women from diverse disciplines and institutions were interviewed. Interviewees were either advanced PhD candidates or had recently entered professional work.
Three modal categories emerged from content analysis of intensive interviews. Reorientation reflected the effort of women to exemplify the norms of male academic culture. Reaffirmation required the command of both professional norms and traditional feminine roles and values. Reconstitution was an effort to reformulate professional participation into a lifestyle more compatible with women's cultural norms.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, C. and Murray, J. (eds.) (1971). The Professors: Work and Lifestyles among Academicians. Cambridge: Schenkman.
Ardener, S. (ed.) (1975). Perceiving Women. New York: Wiley.
Astin, H. (1973). “Career profiles of women doctorates,” in A. Rossi and A. Calderwood (eds.), Academic Women on the Move. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Bernard, J. (1966). Academic Women. New York: Meridian/World.
Caplow, T. and McGee, R. (1958). The Academic Marketplace. New York: Basic Books.
Chodorow, N. (1974). “Family structure and feminine personality,” in Rosaldo, M. and Lamphere, L., Woman, Culture and Society. Stanford: Stanford University.
Chodorow, N. (1978). The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley: University of California.
Dohrenwend, B. P. and Smith, R. J. (1962). “Toward a theory of acculturation,” South-western Journal of Anthropology 18: 30–39.
Epstein, C. (1970). Woman's Place: Options and Limits in Professional Careers. Berkeley: University of California.
Freeman, B. C. (1977). “Faculty women in American universities: up the down staircase,” Higher Education 6: 165–188.
Fulton, O. (1975). “Rewards and fairness: academic women in the United States,” in Trow, M. (ed.), Teachers and Students. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gilligan, C. (1979). “Woman's place in man's life cycle,” Harvard Educational Review 49: 431–446.
Graham, P. (1973). “Status transitions of women students, faculty and administrators,” in A. Rossi and A. Calderwood (eds.), Academic Women on the Move. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Hochschild, A. (1975). “Inside the clockwork of male careers” in Howe, F. (ed.), Women and the Power to Change. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kanter, R. M. (1977). Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books.
Kilson, M. (1976). “Status of women in higher education,” Signs 1: 935–942.
Lewis, L. (1975). Scaling the Ivory Tower. Baltimore: John Hopkins.
Ortner, S. (1974). “Is female to male as nature is to culture?” in Rosaldo, M. and Lamphere, L. (eds.), Woman, Culture and Society, Stanford: Stanford University.
Peters, D. (1974). “And Pleasantly Ignore My Sex: Academic Women, 1974.” Ann Arbor: Center for the Study of Higher Education University of Michigan.
Rich, A. (1976). Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York: Norton.
Rosaldo, M. (1980). “The use and abuse of anthropology: reflections on feminism and cross-cultural understanding,” Signs 5: 389–417.
Sassen, G. (1980). “Success anxiety in women: a constructionist interpretation of its source and significance,” Harvard Educational Review 50: 13–24.
Trow, M. (ed.) (1975). Teachers and Students. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Walker, D. E. Jr. (ed.) (1972). The Emergent Native Americans. A Reader in Culture Contact. Boston: Little Brown.
Wilson, L. (1942). Academic Man. New York: Oxford.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jensen, K. Women's work and academic culture: Adaptations and confrontations. High Educ 11, 67–83 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00162800
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00162800