Being an academic: how junior female academics in Korea survive in the neoliberal context of a patriarchal society
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Being an academic: how junior female academics in Korea survive in the neoliberal context of a patriarchal society Yangson Kim1 · SeungJung Kim2
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This study aims to analyze the experiences and challenges of Korea’s junior female academics (JFAs), whose work environments align closely with the cultural context of a patriarchal society that follows neoliberal principles. It also explores how they overcome these challenges while maintaining the status quo. Thirteen JFAs working in the fields of the humanities and social sciences were interviewed to examine their experiences and challenges. The interview data were analyzed within the neoliberal context of a patriarchal society using the concept of academic growth put forward by O’Meara, Terosky, and Neumann (2008) within the sociocultural and external environment. This study illustrates JFAs’ struggle to survive in their academic career in a neoliberal context and a situation infused with patriarchal culture. JFAs endeavor to produce high research performance to find opportunities for stable positions. However, it is difficult for JFAs who have children to achieve enormous research output without family support. Otherwise, they work with robust self-regulation and endurance. Also, JFAs encounter various obstacles, including patriarchal networks, limited job opportunities, gender-based division of labor, and harassment. The findings show that the problems JFAs face are perceived as personal issues, leading to low self-esteem and promoting a sense of failure in them. Therefore, social compromise and understanding of JFAs based on institutional support are needed to nurture female academics who are facing various challenges. Keywords Junior female academic (JFA) · Korea · Neoliberal context · Patriarchal culture · Work–life balance
* Yangson Kim yskim@hiroshima‑u.ac.jp SeungJung Kim [email protected] 1
Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama, Higashihiroshima 739‑8512, Japan
2
Research Institute for Higher Education, Korean Council for University Education, Seoul 08504, Korea
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Higher Education
Introduction Korea’s government and universities have adopted a neoliberal approach to university management to increase the global competitiveness of Korea’s higher education (Shin 2012). Neoliberal policies implemented in higher education across the globe and in Korea (Byun and Kim 2011; Lee and Lee 2013) include performance-based funding and salary structures, awarding tenure status to full professors only, and a range of employment and promotion systems. As a result, universities expect academics to seek funding from external sources to publish their research in international peer-reviewed journals and participate in service activities within and outside the university. In addition, these changes in higher education based on neoliberal ideas affect gender dynamics in academic communities (Lund 2012; Van den Brink and Benschop 2011). In particular, Korea’s junior academi
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