ABSTRACT

Recent scholarship on universities explores how academics’ families and partners restrict their careers and how academic labour limits these relationships, both in highly gendered ways. Such research less often considers how people’s close relations might unevenly support them in continuously relocating; dedicating unpaid time to ‘career development’; or taking on or influencing them to remain in short-term, poorly paid precarious roles. This paper explores precariously employed post-PhDs in Australia, investigating their gendered careers and personal lives. Drawing on interviews at three public universities, it shows how women with children and partners in particular raise concerns over how their relationships and work interact. Here, certain kinds of workers – men and single women, unencumbered by family responsibilities and restrictions on travel, and with access to financial resources – appear better able to navigate moves to more secure work. This paper argues that support from close relations is productive and restrictive for precarious academics’ careers.

摘要

最近关于大学的奖学金以高度性别化的方式探讨了学者的家庭和合作伙伴如何限制他们的职业生涯以及学术劳动如何限制这些关系。此类研究很少考虑人们的亲密关系如何不均衡地支持他们不断迁移；将无偿时间用于“职业发展”；或接受或影响他们继续担任短期、低薪、不稳定的角色。本文探讨了澳大利亚不稳定就业的博士后，调查了他们的性别职业和个人生活。通过对三所公立大学的采访，它展示了有孩子和伴侣的女性如何特别关注她们的关系和工作如何相互作用。在这里，某些类型的工人——男性和单身女性，不受家庭责任和旅行限制的束缚，并且可以获得财务资源 - 似乎能够更好地导航到更安全的工作。本文认为，来自亲密关系的支持对于不稳定的学者的职业生涯是富有成效的和限制性的。