Building a picture of the impact of academic career breaks

Finding out about academic career breaks turns out to be quite a challenge. You can help us by taking part in our survey, but I’d like to share with you what we’ve found out so far. To begin, I’d like to draw your attention to some stark statistics related to academic career progression, with sincere apologies for their binary nature:

• The academic workforce in the UK is split 44.5% women and 55.5% men¹
• 48.7% of academic contracts are full time. Of those, 39.5% are held by women and 60.5% by men²
• Higher proportions of male full-time academic staff (25.9%) had contract salaries of £57k or over than female full-time academic staff (13.9%).³
• 22% of professors in the UK are female⁴
• 20% of vice-chancellors are female⁵

What causes this pattern of academic career progression?

We know that there are many factors that influence academic career progression. In the UK, factors such as research reputation, personal and professional reputation, the need for a significant and continuous publications profile and teaching experience are needed to progress. We also know that the early career is often dominated by temporary contracts so that progression requires mobility to chase jobs.

What impact can a career break have on progression?

A career break is a period of time when a person leaves their role with the intention of returning. Examples of career breaks include maternity or paternity leave, absence to meet family commitments or for ill-health etc.,

The need for research and teaching experience means that taking a career break can have a significant impact on the speed and ability with which a person can progress in an academic career.

While career breaks affect men and women, certain reasons behind the interruption seem to prevent women in particular from progressing.  Professor Paul Boyle, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, who leads a campaign for gender equality at UK universities, notes that female representation is distinctly lacking in senior roles.

Women academics who are mothers are less likely to be promoted than non-mothers, and are more likely to be on lower salaries⁶

What changes are needed to help balance academic career progression?

The kind of changes that are needed to balance progression more evenly across genders and career stages has been the subject of a recent article by Boyle and colleagues⁷. Recommendations include:

1. Changing the grant application process and removing any barriers to women that have been inadvertently established.

2. Shifting away from a focus on quantity to quality of research output.

3. Acknowledging the benefits of career breaks, with institutions being more supportive to those wishing to return.

The issue of re-entry to academia is recognised

There are some great initiatives out there that address the balance and tackle re-entry to academia after a break. For example, the Daphne Jackson Trust, which offers flexible fellowships to allow men and women to return to careers in STEM fields after a career break, has been in existence since 1992.

It conducts a regular survey of its former fellows. Its most recent survey⁸ showed that the most common lengths of academic career break were four and five years. They also highlighted that prior to interrupting their career, 26% of respondents had three years’ research experience (PhD or equivalent) whilst 28% had over nine years’ research experience.

The Equality Challenge Unit’s Athena Swan Charter is another initiative established in 2005 to “encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in STEMM employment in higher education and research”.

The Wellcome Trust offers Career Re-entry Fellowships for postdoctoral scientists who have recently decided to recommence a scientific research career after a continuous break of at least two years.

The picture of the impact of career breaks is patchy

However, our shared understanding of the real and perceived impacts of career breaks across disciplines and career stages remains patchy. For this reason, Piirus and jobs.ac.uk, supported by Research Media  has launched an Academic Career Breaks Survey and we invite you to participate.

About the survey

Our survey will be of interest to current or former academics and those who support academics. The survey takes 10 minutes to complete and is anonymous. Respondents can choose to enter a prize draw for a £100 Amazon voucher.

The more responses we collect, the more we will have to share and open the debate. So please help us build the big picture on this important issue by taking the survey.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to The Daphne Jackson Trust and Professor Paul Boyle and colleagues for their feedback on the survey design. We are indebted to them for their assistance and insights.

Thank you to Research Media for their support in delivering the communications for the outputs from this survey.

References

1. Equality Challenge Unit, Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report, 2014
2. HESA (figures are for 2013/14)
3. Ibid
4. Professor Paul Boyle spearheads campaign for gender equality 
5. Equality Challenge Unit, Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report, 2014
6. Boyle 2015, op.cit.
7. Nature (10 September 2015) Vol 525, Boyle, P, Smith, L, Cooper N et al. Women are funded more fairly in social science.
8. Leading the Way for Returners: A survey of former Daphne Jackson Fellows, 2015.  This survey was conducted in 2015 of 277 of its former fellows – 96% of whom were women.

Image credit: COD Newsroom, 2014, [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Flickr