CRASSH Research Culture Seminar Series: How Do Women Researchers Navigate Research Culture at Cambridge?

We were delighted to have the following speakers on our latest CRASSH research culture panel:

• Claire Barlow (Department of Engineering)

• Mollie Etheridge (Faculty of Education)

• Esra Ozyurek (Faculty of Divinity)

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The panel was moderated by Marie Collier (Department of History of Art).

Unfortunately, Kathryn Moeller (Faculty of Education), who was scheduled to join us, was unwell. We hope Kathryn made a swift recovery and hope to see her at future events.

One (somewhat unanticipated) highlight of this panel was the inclusion of an early career researcher, a mid-career researcher, and a senior researcher. In addition, the context of their careers varied considerably. For example, Claire’s subject area is engineering and materials science – traditionally a very male dominated area. Mollie works in education, with mostly other women, and the focus of her work is care and gender. Esra was born in Turkey, and has a multi-national experience of research in divinity and anthropology.

Esra was interested in speaking about the larger context and structure in which we work as women in research. For example, commercialisation of higher education, the changing nature of HE and diversity and opportunity. She has been struck by the fact that commercialising HE has led to more short contract positions, and more lower paying jobs. These jobs are more likely to be occupied by women, immigrants and people of colour. So, they have a ‘foot in the door’ of elite institutions, but often cannot progress to more stable and higher paid positions. (Authors note: these people are also often used in statistics to make institutions appear more diverse than they actually are). She suggests more solidarity around the world with our colleagues, as well as support to keep higher education and knowledge generation alive.

Mollie spoke about education as a field of research, and how it is not always given the platform as a discipline that it deserves. This could be (in part) because of the assumption that everyone in education is a teacher. However, education has a rich interdisciplinary core, spanning psychology, philosophy, sociology inter alia. She also thinks this speaks to the hierarchies of care in society, that ‘those who care about something are valued more highly that those who care for something’.

In terms of obtaining her doctorate, Mollie has personal experience of the lack of safety nets when one has health issues and / or caring responsibilities. However, she feels that the process of having to find her way academically alongside her caring responsibilities has been transformative, as she started researching theories of care. The jeopardy to her career also meant that she had to rebuild a new, and better structure to these aspects of her life.

Claire came up as an undergraduate at Cambridge when the undergraduate population was approximately 10% women. Overall, she has had a very positive experience at Cambridge. She has benefitted from robust feedback and support from colleagues. Outside of Cambridge, she has had more experiences of people assuming she was the ‘sidekick’ to male colleagues.

When asked ‘do you think your gender has had an effect on your career’? Esra felt that this has manifested differently in each context that she has worked in. In some countries, women are expected to occupy certain types of positions, and this intersects with elitism. Here, she does not feel like universities are less sexist spaces than general society. Sometimes the behaviour is just covered by more of a veneer of politeness or civility.  

Mollie concurred that this ‘feeling’ exists, and may be linked to who the system is structured to benefit, and the abstract figure of the ‘ideal academic’. She thinks it does affect how people are paid. Contracts and the grading system can penalise those who work or study part-time, and those who take career breaks or have caring responsibilities (all more likely to be women).

Claire gave an interesting perspective, based on her experience as deputy head / head of department. She felt that her status as ‘the other’ in a primarily male environment allowed her to diffuse certain situations, and provide a different energy.

In terms of research culture specifically, there was a general feeling that women are over-represented in terms of those attempting to foster a positive environment, spearheading initiatives and pushing this agenda forward. Claire brought up a good point that interdisciplinary meetings can provide a great venue for highlighting differences in research culture and helping people to see that there are alternative ways of doing things. College communities, which are inherently interdisciplinary, can also help with this. Claire also felt that science needs to make connections with people and society to be optimally effective, and hence collaboration between STEM and AHSS can enhance the translational value of research.

When asked if they had done anything different in their career because of their gender:

• Esra speculated that her gender may have influenced her in a pro-social manner as an anthropologist and ethnographer, to focus on relationships and studying connections.

• Mollie’s experience of pregnancy and transition to parenthood directly influenced her work, and the methodologies she employed. For example, how the body is ‘used’ in various forms of work.

• Claire felt her gender hasn’t really influenced the way she operates.

Our final question was on what you would share with colleagues:

Esra: “Not everyone who looks very confident really is; look inside for what you are curious about”.

Mollie: “Eat lunch.” (…which pertains to continuing to take care of yourself despite your responsibilities ;-).

Claire “Follow your interests, and have a go.” (Marie contextualised this by noting that women are socialised to take less chances, such as not applying for jobs for which they don’t meet 100% of the criteria).

~ We would like to thank our panel for a great discussion. Also, those who attended the seminar and Robinson College for hosting. Check back on the website for upcoming research culture seminars!