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An obstacle to hiring faculty is the inability to offer a spouse or partner an appropriate faculty position or other employment. The development of clear dual-career faculty hiring policies can be a significant step forward in establishing a consistent approach to securing employment for spouses or partners of intended faculty hires. Dual-career programs at a variety of universities were analyzed to determine if any common features existed that could be adapted by a university seeking to implement such a program. This paper presents the results of that study, including recommendations for universities to consider as they develop dual-career hiring programs.
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PARTNERING THROUGH IT: CONFRONTING THE INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES FACING DUAL-CAREER ACADEMIC COUPLES
Purpose: Meeting the needs of dual-career academic couples can be an important step in recruiting and retaining university faculty and researchers. The goal of this essay is to review the existing scholarship on dual-career hires and offer concrete recommendations for university administrators.Background/Motivation: Attending to dual-career needs is especially relevant to efforts at diversifying the academic workforce, as multiple studies have indicated that faculty appointments are a major contributor to the so-called leaky pipeline causing attrition of women and scholars of color, particularly in biomedical and STEM fields. We take it as a feminist imperative to confront institutional discrimination against dual-career scholars and to intervene in the service of collective praxis.Intended Audience: Scholars and administrators interested in understanding and overcoming institutional barriers to achieving diverse, inclusive, and family-friendly academic workplaces.Contribution: This essay synthesizes the recent literature on dual-career hires and offers recommendations for university administrators.Positionality: We approach this issue as a senior academic couple that has navigated dual-career job searches for close to twenty years and has held faculty positions together at three different academic institutions. We are a white, hetero dual-career academic couple interested in developing resources for individuals striving to activate change at their universities.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2122460
- PAR ID:
- 10422637
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
- Volume:
- 29
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1072-8325
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 87 to 101
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v29.i3.40
