Striking the balance between academic profession and family: a study of female academics in universities in the Greater Bay Area Open Access

Motherhood influences women’s identities, practices, and experiences in all spheres of their lives (McMahon, 1995; Arendell, 2000; Pillay, 2009). Compared to the social expectations toward being fathers, being a mother generally means more responsibilities and commitments (Romanin and Over, 1993). Many studies have explored the issue of work-life balance among female academics whose jobs require performing diverse duties, including teaching, research, and social services (Ismail and Rasdi, 2008). Most studies suggest that female academics struggle with juggling motherhood and an academic profession. Strict work expectations and heavy household responsibilities often lead to several negative chain effects, such as health problems and depression in their personal lives (Dam and Daphtardar, 2012).

Unlike past studies that only highlight the conflicts and tension between the academic profession and family, this paper examines how female faculty cope with work-family issues in practice, involving both positive and negative stories. This study aims to gain an overall understanding of the challenges, hardships, and potential benefits that female academics encounter. In addition, it focuses more on how the family helps reshape the identity of professor mothers. The following questions will be addressed: (a) How do female faculty perform in their academic professions? (b) How do they deal with the work-family balance issue? and (c) How do they perceive their academic profession and identity of being professors as well as being mothers?

Motherhood refers to cultural expectations of mothers that vary over time and space. As women enter the labor market, tensions emerge between mothering expectations and employment (Bailey, 1999). Hays (1996) introduced the concept of the intensive mothering model imposed on females to illustrate an image of good mothers. It is mainly influenced by contemporary neoliberal rationality, emphasizing individual responsibility, risk management, self-surveillance and control (Shirani et al., 2012). However, Kerrane et al. (2022) claim that intensive mothering prioritizes child well-being and implies that caregiving is incompatible with paid employment. Working mothers suffer a “motherhood penalty” and “maternal wall” regarding hiring and promotion (CohenMiller, 2020).

More specifically, an increasing amount of research explores the experiences of female faculty, and how motherhood shapes or constrains women’s careers. The bulk of care work hinders academic mothers from career advancement (Acker and Armenti, 2004; Wilton and Ross, 2017). Academic mothers reported that maternity and parental leave for infant care would cause the loss of productivity, collaboration, and publications, even the tenure track (James et al., 2021; Williams, 2004). Some academic mothers may seek external help to maintain balance. For example, Jenkins (2020) has mentioned that a professor mother relied on a network of other people, including grandparents or paid childcare, for overseas fieldwork.

On the other hand, some female academics consider motherhood as a joyful experience, which can benefit both their personal lives and their academic careers, including added income, broadened perspectives, greater social support, and increased self-esteem (Barnett and Hyde, 2001). The academic accomplishments achieved by professor mothers can buffer them from consuming stress at home (Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2004). In return, family support, such as a supportive husband, could help them achieve a better work-life balance (Jakubiec, 2015).

However, literature about the positive aspects of academic motherhood is relatively rare, while the negative effects brought by motherhood have been overemphasized. There is an unbalanced view on this issue. From this perspective, this paper aims to fill the gap and present a more comprehensive image of academic mothers.

A diverse literature on women professors suggests that socio-cultural influences and organizational politics affect female faculty’s academic careers. It reveals that women professors encounter various barriers to achieving promotion, pursuing the tenure track, and taking on leadership positions.

Both an American study (Sax et al., 2002) and a Chinese study (Tang and Horta, 2021) noted that in the 20th century, the proportion of women represented in higher education remained quite small. This could be attributed to the absence of women-friendly working environments and inadequate perception of obtaining a professorship as a woman (Sanders et al., 2009). Despite a growing awareness of feminism, hidden gender discrimination in academia still influences female scholars’ career development, as it is generally viewed as a men’s domain (Pease, 1993; Kataeva and DeYoung, 20171993). Pease’s study (1993) revealed that, when categorizing the work of teaching and research divisions at a research university, undergraduate teaching was usually labelled as “women’s work”. Heijstra et al. (2017) coined the term “academic housework”, which refers to all academic service work within the higher education institution. Female professors are more likely to be assigned to this kind of work (Aiston, 2014).

In addition, organizational politics for promotion may weaken female academics’ willingness to promote (Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2016). To pursue high-quality academic production, the working norm is often set to be “working all the time”. This naturally sacrifices the family bonding and even threatens the well-being of academics (Göktürk and Tülübaş, 2021). For some professor mothers, pursuing the tenure track is an optional choice rather than a compulsory requirement (Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2016). From this perspective, being an ideal professor mother is hard in a competitive working culture (Sutherland, 2010). In fact, supportive policies can help female academics better cope with their work-family issue. The autonomy granted by departments and universities brings more freedom (Francis and Stulz, 2020). A study has confirmed that female faculty who can effectively integrate work and family issues experience greater flexibility in their career development (Wolf-Wendel and Ward, 2015).

Academics are viewed as producers of knowledge and practices, especially across generations (Larson, 1977). Academic profession mainly refers to careers as teachers and researchers within higher education institutions. Consequently, it emphasizes two key responsibilities: knowledge transfer and research scholarship in universities (Williams, 2008).

Within the tenure track system, research productivity is undoubtedly more important for promotion and tenure decisions (Cummings and Finkelstein, 2013). Beyond external tenure systems, academics also hold subjective understandings of their careers. These perspectives shape their work attitudes, overall satisfaction, and desire for professional development. Hermanowicz’s study (2016) suggested that faculty in specific academic environments and career stages made different career decisions. By evaluating work satisfaction at the micro level and the university environment at the macro level, he identified three elements of the academic profession: rising career expectations, an intensified competitive work climate, and greater difficulty in achieving professional goals. How female academics navigate this changing and competitive academic landscape is a key focus of this study.

This study is based on a longitudinal research project about career development and identity construction of female academics in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). The fast urbanization process in the GBA contributes to the development of an international higher education hub (Liu and Hamish, 2024). The project is devoted to investigating the career path and practical strategies of female faculty working in the GBA. This study, as a branch of the project, more specifically explores the ways in which female academics strive for work-family balance and career development.

Adopting a qualitative research method, this study interviewed 20 female academics working in universities located in the GBA (Table 1). Due to the academic network of the researcher, convenience sampling was adopted. Participants mainly majored in education, humanities, and social sciences. Most of them have earned PhD degrees, while a minority are still in the process of pursuing their PhDs. Regarding the academic rank, twelve participants are from the professorate track, entitled professor (n=4), associate professor (n=4), and assistant professor (n=4); while eight interviewees are from the teaching track, entitled senior lecturer (n=1) and lecturer (n=7). In terms of family conditions, all participants have one or two children.

Narrative data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted either face-to-face or online. Each interview lasted from one to two hours. The interview guide included questions and prompts regarding teaching work, research work, career development, difficulties and successes in work, as well as family issues. Most interviews were recorded with the participants’ approval. The names of participants were replaced with pseudonyms to ensure privacy protection. The audio recordings of interviews were transcribed verbatim after fieldwork.

The data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, which generates a series of key themes (Charmaz, 2006). First, line-by-line open coding was conducted to analyze the interview transcripts. Particular codes emerged consistently across both the professorate track and the teaching track. Second, focused coding was applied by identifying the most significant and frequent codes to explain and categorize larger segments of data (Charmaz, 2006). Third, new concepts were generated to explain themes in different groups. For participants on the professorate track, three key themes emerged: persisting in professional pursuits, taking research responsibilities, and achieving family-work balance. For the teaching track group, three key themes emerged: struggling for a PhD degree, surviving at the workplace, and seeking family-work balance. Finally, coding comparisons were made by different researchers to ensure trustworthiness and reach theoretical saturation (Creswell, 2008).

In this study, two distinct groups were identified based on their career systems: the professorate track and the teaching track. The former group includes participants entitled as professors, associate professors, and assistant professors. They reported three key themes: persisting in professional pursuits, taking research responsibilities, and achieving work-family balance. The latter group is mainly composed of lecturers, who emphasized struggling for a PhD degree, surviving at the workplace, and seeking work-family balance.

1. Persisting in professional pursuits

In this study, professional pursuits involved career aspirations, career expectations, educational beliefs, and career attitudes. All these terms were more frequently mentioned by interviewees within the professorate track. They have gone through hardships in the academia and accumulated rich experience to achieve a smoother career stage. In this process, they usually persist in a deeply spiritual pursuit. Their passions and aspirations toward academic work guide them to move forward. Rose, Helen and Linda all mentioned their educational beliefs:

Although strongly eager for academic achievements, they still accept that reaching success will be a long journey. Therefore, they often choose to work at their own pace. Helen shared her attitude towards her career, explaining that success naturally comes after step-by-step hard work.

One more point highlighted is that academic autonomy can help strengthen the educational beliefs of female faculty, thereby shaping their professional pursuits. Holly reported how teaching autonomy inspired her:

1. Taking research responsibilities

Almost all interviewed participants on the professorate track show strong academic and social responsibility in teaching, doing research, and even leading research teams.

Most of them persist in their belief in being a good teacher and continually improve their teaching skills. High-quality preparation and curriculum design are frequently emphasized. They value the significance of delivering useful and practical knowledge to students and pay more attention to well-designed classroom instructions.

They really cared about students’ feedback and learning outcomes. Therefore, they kept close interactions and used diverse strategies to engage with students in class.

Although some participants admitted that teaching really drains a lot of energy and time, they are willing to dedicate themselves to teaching work.

In general, this group of women faculty presented a collective image of responsible and self-disciplined female academics. They emphasized their identities as teachers. Although juggling multiple work tasks may sacrifice their personal lives, they still prioritize their teaching duties.

Moreover, the participants also seriously highlighted their identity as researchers, especially the social influence of their research. Although publications are necessary in the evaluation for the tenure track, they are not the only motivation for conducting research. They prefer to do “useful research” that brings social benefits, rather than doing “right research” solely for more publications.

On the other hand, some participants also paid attention to the pragmatic impact of their research work, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

In this study, some female faculty members have taken leading positions in their departments. One common trait is their strong willingness to bring benefits to their team. Rose and Joy both mentioned that they would like to do more for the team, even at the expense of their personal time.

In addition, they all tried to create a friendly and supportive working atmosphere for their colleagues.

1. Achieving work-family balance

The academic mothers often experience significant time constraints as they juggle professional responsibilities with family life. In addition to caring for young children, some also need to take care take of their ageing parents. In this study, most participants mentioned the necessity of properly allocating their time for both career and family obligations.

In this study, most female academics mentioned that family support played the most important role in their lives. Some considered their husbands as good partners, sharing a large portion of family responsibilities. Other family members or friends also helped a lot.

In some cases, childcare service was chosen to exchange for extra time dedicated to work. More importantly, family provides strong mental support for them to pursue their academic careers.

In addition, they have developed a series of work strategies to help achieve work-life balance. Accumulated experience and collaborative teamwork were perceived as crucial for coping with stressful research work and improving publication output.

Attending academic conferences was reported as an alternative strategy to maintain publication records.

1. Struggling for a PhD degree

Different from the participants on the professorate track, female faculty on the teaching track displayed more intensive work and life pressures. In this study, there are four lecturers who are still striving for their PhD degrees. At the same time, they also need to undertake teaching and administrative duties. Clara and Faye mentioned that they usually suffered from severe time clashes due to their heavy workload.

Except working pressure, some participants also highlighted the countless pressure brought by their PhD dissertations. They spent lots of time studying and gave priority to the writing of their dissertations.

1. Survival at the workplace

The female academics on the teaching track are still on the way to meeting their career requirements. First, most of them attached importance to teaching. Accumulation of teaching experience and interactions with students were especially emphasized.

Some self-driven factors motivate the participants to actively engage in their work. Julia mentioned that she was unwilling to be a lecturer without career pursuits, and she expected to attain career success. Besides, she also believed that academic autonomy allowed her to pursue potential career development.

1. Seeking work-family balance

Female faculty on the teaching track often experience more stress in their work. They need to put more effort into getting promotion. Family often serves as a temporary escape from the busy work.

In order to better handle academic work and family issues, they are more likely to move on at a slow pace. Laura and Carly both mentioned that they were not hurried to get promoted. Instead, they wanted to work at their own pace.

In addition, participants on the teaching track prefer to spend more time in their leisure activities to recharge themselves.

In summary, the participants of this study, on the professorate and teaching tracks respectively, present individualized work norms and implement various strategies to cope with their intensive working pressure (Figure 1). More importantly, a supportive family structure is highlighted as essential in achieving work-family balance.

Specifically, female faculty on the professorate track attach great importance to research work, emphasizing its pragmatic meaning and social contributions, which largely reflects their personal interpretation of the academic profession. However, those on the teaching track often experience a more struggling career life, where a PhD degree is considered as the starting point. At the same time, their teaching workload is heavy, leaving limited time for research. Research work is usually arranged in a flexible way, such as avoiding time-consuming research projects, or combining teaching and research activities.

Furthermore, a strong sense of responsibility in teaching can be observed in almost all participants. Besides, a supportive family structure is fundamental in the formation of their academic profession, as it provides essential emotional support and alleviates pressures associated with motherhood.

This study examines the lived experiences of female academics on both professorate and teaching tracks. Our findings showed that women faculty on the professorate track emphasized their responsibilities in academic work and pursued the tenure track at their own pace. In contrast, female faculty on the teaching track suffered much more from greater intensity in their work, including the hardship of pursuing a PhD degree and adapting to academia. These findings align with the research of Ward and Wolf-Wendel (2012), which suggests that institutional context significantly shapes the daily experiences of junior female faculty, while senior faculty tend to achieve greater stability and encounter less stress.

Additionally, this study presents positive portraits of female academics who hold strong educational and academic beliefs. Previous studies (James et al., 2021; Ward, 2019) suggested that intensive motherhood places academic mothers at a disadvantaged position. Limitless family duties and stressful academic work usually form an imbalanced situation. Some other studies also indicated that inadequacies of family support can reduce academic achievement (Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2016). Likewise, this study reveals that sufficient family support assists the busy academic mothers as supportive family members not only undertake more housework but also provide emotional support (Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2004). Beyond family support, the childcare system also helps academic mothers, especially in Hong Kong and Macao. Employing foreign domestic helpers to look after children prevails in these two regions (Ma et al., 2020). Macao also offers childcare service covering children from three months to three years old, which serves as an important resource (Vong and Vong, 2017). In contrast, in Guangdong, childcare primarily relies on family members, especially grandparents, due to the limited availability of public childcare institutions and high cost of employing helpers in Mainland China (Zhong and Peng, 2020).

Moreover, the institutional framework in academia is essential for female faculty seeking work-family balance, particularly influencing the processes of getting tenure and promotion, as well as how faculty members view their jobs (Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2012). Compared to their male colleagues, female academics are more likely to be assigned to undertake “academic housework” (Heijstra et al., 2017). Consequently, they often publish fewer papers, receive less funding, and devote more time to teaching (Aiston, 2014). Additionally, women faculty tend to get tenure or promotions later than male counterparts, due to maternity leave and caregiving duties. They may even give up research opportunities such as conferences, fieldwork, and international collaborations due to family duties and limited free time (CohenMiller, 2020). To cope with the uncertainties and ambiguities of tenure, a women-friendly working atmosphere and flexibility granted from departments enable female faculty to better balance multiple roles (Francis and Stulz, 2020; Wolf-Wendel and Ward, 2015). For example, flexible working hours can facilitate more effective time management (Jakubiec, 2015). Conversely, the absence of supportive institutional policies can hinder the career advancement of academic mothers (Hillier, 2023; Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2012).

Nevertheless, in this study, most participants adapted by developing their individualized working styles. They maintained academic autonomy, which strengthened their professional pursuits and enhanced their resilience in universities. The differences of academic promotion systems across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao illustrate the specific challenges female academics face in the GBA. In Guangdong, working in universities typically involves a tenured system with regular appraisals. Some new doctorates may be assigned to an independent system characterized by “up-or-out” policy (Wang and Wang, 2024). In contrast, Hong Kong and Macao exhibit internationally benchmarked promotion standards and high institutional autonomy. Universities in Hong Kong, in particular, emphasize intensive research output and rigorous academic reviews (Chao and Postiglione, 2017).

Previous research suggests that maternal guilt caused by the responsibility of motherhood deeply bothered some academic mothers (Hillier, 2023; Sutherland, 2010; Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2004). Some female professors even hide their maternal identities in academia due to potential gender biases. In contrast, fatherhood is often viewed positively, enhancing perceptions of men as more responsible, stable, and committed. Male academics can freely integrate their identity as a father without fear of professional devaluation or negative judgments (CohenMiller, 2020). Some academic mothers find themselves caught in a tension between demonstrating commitment to their families and their dedication to their academic profession. However, in this study, responsibilities associated with motherhood are linked to positive meanings of being mothers, teachers, researchers, and leaders. Their understanding of academic professions helps maintain a balanced recognition of their identities. Hermanowicz (2016) introduced the notion of “subjective career pattern” to interpret how academic faculty create meanings of their careers, classifying three academic worlds: elite, pluralists, and communitarians. In this study, most participants identify as elites or pluralists, recognizing the importance of their academic profession in their lives.

The findings suggest that family plays a positive and significant role in female faculty’s academic career. A supportive family structure provides strong emotional support, alleviates pressures from heavy academic work, and facilitates work-family balance. The coherence between academic and family life contributes to a better understanding of being an academic mother and achieving a sense of wholeness of oneself (Pillay, 2009). To some extent, motherhood helps reshape the identity of female academics (Pillay, 2009).

Furthermore, the professional pursuits of women faculty should not be overlooked. In this study, female faculty in the GBA consider their academic profession as a mission to contribute to society. They continuously accumulate experiences and explore their unique approaches to teaching and research. Their professional aspirations, commitment to high-quality teaching, and academic leadership encouraged them to persist in their career goals. At the same time, their family provides psychological support. Their perceptions of academic professionalism continually guide them to search for work-life balance in an active way.

The findings provide important practical implications for female academics, including the provision of helpful training programs, ensuring sufficient academic autonomy, reconsidering the norms of tenure and promotion, and developing multifaceted evaluation systems. This study analyzed how academic mothers navigate the academic world by adjusting themselves to ideal work norms and the challenging tenure track. Universities could consider how institutional environment can accommodate academic mothers, such as offering flexible working hours, supportive childcare service, a motherhood-friendly environment, and multiple accesses to different career paths.

This paper forms part of a special section “Special Issue on Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China: building a world-class finance, innovation and technology hub”, guest edited by Prof Roger C.K. Chan, Prof Peter K.W. Fong and Dr Alice Y.C. Te.