Academic Career Development And Identity Of Female Scholars In Colleges And Universities

With the development of popularization of higher education, more and more women go to university to study. Today women have been the important researchers and teachers in colleges and universities,so their career development must draw public concern. Some research consider that academic women are still the weak group in academic fields, for which they give the reasons. But most of researchers study women’s academic development in positivism ways, which lack of women’s own voices. How do academic women see themselves when they face the different popular attitudes to them? What are their growing experience and academic development like? How do they feel in this process? This research really want to solve these problems. Therefore, this study aims to present the real experience and inner feelings of academic development of women in colleges and universities, which comes from their own review about their growth and academic life.This paper interviewed two academic women separately more than three times, while other related people around them and some observation about their life, so it is a qualitative research. And most materials come from their own narratives. This study has three main parts:the portraits of two academic women will be the start, then come their universities experience and career choices, and paying much more attention to their real work experience in academic circles.Academics in different disciplines have different temperament. Their life experience make their values different, and affect their attitudes to their family and work.Academic women’s careers choices has connection with their identity, which is related to their participation and investment to their work. And family background, college experience and outer events will affect their career choices. This study suggests that academic women’s career choices has connection with their parents’ jobs and parenting style, as well as their major in college. And some key people and events will help them go into academic field.Experience in academic circles is not always very well. Firstly, this study find out that gender discrimination is still a hidden obstacles in academic world, although it is not very obvious. Especially in the stage of access to career, men seem more popular, and women’s motive to academic work is not very strong. This arouses our deep thinking about academic work. Secondly, Seniority, which is Chinese traditional concept, may block academics’development, especially in career advancement. Thirdly, marriage and family really have some effect on their career. Role expectation from society make women throw themselves into their family instead of work, and success in family will bring more sense of accomplishment. Furthermore, this two examples also indicates that there are differences between different disciplines’academics, women researchers and teachers as well.All in all, identity of academic women in colleges and universities is not constant, but serial and dynamic. Many elements, like the times, family background, college experience, social culture, key events and important men, are not only separately affecting academic women’s identity in different stages, but also working together to act on their career development. The two academic women’s telling reflects that they are interacting with other people, other groups, even politics, economic, culture and social system all the time. And in reality, academic women’s fate is miniature of our society.