Ramona Gunter and Amy Stambach

As Balancing Act and As Game: How Women and Men Science Faculty Experience the Promotion Process 1 Studies on the division of domestic labor find that women take on a greater proportion of domestic responsibilities; this has implications for both women and men who work in demanding jobs. In this study of women and men science faculty at a major research university, the authors find that women tend to relate their experiences of the promotion process to both their domestic and faculty roles, whereas men tend not to consider that their domestic roles have any bearing on their experiences of the promotion process. Women view the promotion process in terms of the components that make demands on their time, and they suggest ways that the process could (and should) be changed. Men view the process as a challenging game, and they describe the promotion process, as it currently exists, as necessary and acceptable. The authors find that there are compelling reasons to reconsider the structure of the promotion process and to strengthen and expand the programmatic supports that address the needs of women.

Introduction Science as a gendered domain has provoked considerable discussion among historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and organizational theorists. Historians and anthropologists point out that academic science has typically been a male-dominated field, and that it continues to be organized in ways that reflect its gendered history (e.g., Eisenhardt and Finkel, 1998; Scheibinger, 1998). Organizational theoRamona Gunter is a Ph.D. student in education policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has master's degrees in Education Policy Studies and Cultural Anthropology and a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Physics. She has worked as a researcher studying math and science education since 1996. The focus of much of this work has been on student experiences in undergraduate math and science courses and gender differences. Her current work looks at the experiences of science faculty, academic staff, and graduate students in their work environments.

Amy Stambach is associate professor of education policy studies and an affiliate of the Department of Anthropology and the Women's Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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rists and sociologists argue that gender operates at the institutional level in ways that supersede any unique individual's case; they observe that gender, as a social structure, factors into scientists' experiences of institutional processes (e.g., Bielby, 1991; Cole and Zuckerman, 1991; Sonnert, 1995; Suitor, Mecom, and Feld, 2001; Zuckerman, 1991). This paper shares each of these considerations but focuses on a single issue: that of how women and men science faculty discuss their work and non-work experiences, women in terms that explicitly call attention to gender roles and men in terms that are symbolically gendered but do not explicitly mention gender. We suggest that gendered roles factor into how one experiences and views the promotion process. Men are more apt to describe success as a result of endurance, toughness, and willpower--all attributes conventionally associated with masculinity--and they are less apt to draw a connection between their domestic roles and their faculty roles. Women, on the other hand, are more apt to relate their domestic roles to their faculty roles and to talk about success at work (and home) in terms of available time and opportunity to manage time effectively. All faculty scientists are subject to institutions' formal criteria for tenure and promotion. To meet these expectations, faculty members prioritize and judiciously allocate their time. Regardless of other responsibilities and time commitments, time for research is a top priority; research publications are a key factor in promotion decisions. In addition, faculty members must allocate time to teaching, committee work, and supervision of graduate students. Time that is dedicated to work responsibilities is time that cannot be allocated to domestic responsibilities or to personal needs. It is easy to see how the professional responsibilities of faculty members can encroach on their non-work lives. In this paper we discuss how twenty-two women and twenty-two men faculty in the sciences at a major public research university talked about the promotion process and about their non-work lives. We find the following general themes: 1) Both men and women talked about women's roles as mothers and potential mothers. Almost all of the women (91 percent) and nearly half of the men (45 percent) talked about the difficulty of balancing the dual roles of mother and faculty member. Very few interviewees (18 percent of men and no women) said it was difficult to balance the roles of father and faculty member5 2) Half of the men described the promotion process as a game or competition. Some discussed the "rules" of the game and the strategies by which it should be played. Some evoked images of an endurance contest--a contest in which only the physically and emotionally strong survive. Only a few men (18 percent) said that rising to these challenges or playing this game produced undue tension in their lives. Women did not use game-oriented terms to talk about the process; most (82 percent) talked about the difficulty of managing time, and the physical and emotional stress they experienced while trying to balance work and non-work lives.

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3) While about half the men (45 percent) mentioned negative consequences of the promotion process, only three of these men suggested the process should be changed. Of the men, most (86 percent) made comments consistent with a view that the current promotion process is a necessary and acceptable process--and some explicitly stated this view. In contrast, many of the women (55 percent) talked about the promotion process in terms of job expectations that could be--and should be--more flexible. Gender roles intersect the institutional structure in ways that appear to influence how men and women talk about the promotion process. Our interviews are filled with examples of how women's domestic roles influence their experiences as faculty members in the sciences (and vice versa). The experiences women described are consistent with the literature on women in professional positions in that our interviewees described their perceptions of time constraints and feelings of tension between obligations at work and home (e.g., McFarlane, Beaujot, and Haddad, 2000; Press and Townsley, 1998; Suitor, Mecom, and Feld, 2001). Our interviews are also filled with examples of how men's domestic roles influence their experiences as faculty members in the sciences (and also vice versa). These examples may not seem as obvious though; men did not tend to draw connections between their thoughts about and experiences with the promotion process and their roles as husbands and fathers. We intend to bring this connection to the fore. To do so, we draw on women's comments about the promotion process as a backdrop from which to consider men's comments about the process. In this way, we intend to bring out what remained unstated in our interviews: Men's domestic roles allow for more flexible and more discretionary time, with the consequence that men experience the promotion process not as a matter of compromising on domestic and work obligations but in terms of skillfully organizing and executing tasks)

Study and Methods This study is part of a larger project funded by an NSF-Advance institutional grant to study and promote academic women in science positions. During its first year Advance researchers conducted baseline interviews with women faculty in various science and engineering departments on campus. All women faculty in the biological and physical science divisions (n--184) received e-mails announcing the upcoming interviews and requesting their permission to be considered in the pool of possible interviewees. One woman refused (giving a 1 percent refusal rate at this stage). Advance researchers then randomly selected twenty-five women from the six schools and colleges where most biological and physical science professors are located. These women received e-mails requesting their participation in an interview. One woman refused to be interviewed (giving a 4 percent refusal rate); this woman was replaced. Another woman indicated that she was leaving the institution;

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while she did participate in an interview, another woman was also selected to replace her giving a total sample of twenty-six interviews. Four women requested that their interviews not be taped. In this paper we include the twenty-two women whose interviews were taped. The initial interview protocol was designed to address issues relevant to women in academic science. In addition to general questions regarding their work and their work environments, we asked women to talk about the following: how departmental decisions are made and whether they feel they have a voice in these decisions; if and how their work has been recognized within their departments and colleges; aspirations for administrative appointments; if their career has progressed as expected (and if so, in what ways); commitments outside of work, and if and how they managed the connection between their work and non-work lives; how their departments respond to faculty members' needs to deal with issues related to child-care (or care of other dependents) during the workday; physical and mental health; knowledge regarding various campus programs (particularly those that target the needs of women); and perceived gender differences with respect to specific issues listed in the literature. 4 For the purposes of our own study, which includes but also extends beyond the objectives of the Advance research team, we also interviewed men faculty in the life sciences. 5 We used information from department websites and individual faculty websites to select men who range from junior to senior faculty and who have different types of appointments (research, extension, and clinical). 6 We included some men who serve as department chairs and college deans. We selected some faculty who had won teaching awards, some who had won research awards, and some who had received large research grants. We selected two faculty who had posted pictures of themselves with young children on their websites under the assumption that these were fathers who had young children at home. 7 In all, we selected twenty-five men and sent e-mail messages to each explaining our study and requesting their participation in an interview. Some responded to the e-mail, agreeing to participate in an interview. We called the remaining faculty members, discussed the project, and requested an interview. In all, twenty-three faculty members agreed to participate. We interviewed twenty-two. (One faculty member who agreed to participate did not show up for the scheduled interview giving an overall refusal rate of 12 percent.) In interviewing men, we used a modified form of the original Advance interview protocol. We included questions about departmental decision-making procedures; the recognition of interviewees' work within departments; interviewees' aspirations for administrative appointments; interviewees' career progress; interviewees' commitments outside of work; and how their departments deal with issues of caregiving. We excluded those questions that seemed specific to women's experiences:

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We did not ask about physical and mental health, knowledge of various campus programs, or perceptions of gender differences specific to the list of differences found in the literature. 8After discussing the first few interviews, we decided to change the order of the remaining questions--asking those questions that elicited the most detailed and lengthy responses first. In addition, we asked men to comment on their perceptions of the career progress of women in their departments. This question paralleled but did not exactly match the question we asked women, namely: how did women perceive gender differences with respect to specific issues as reported in research literature?

Literature Productivity--generally measured in terms of research publications--is a key consideration in promotion decisions (Fox, 2000; Long and Fox, 1995; Sonnert, 1995; Zuckerman, 1991; Cole and Zuckerman, 1991). The tight connection between publishing and promotion creates a work ethos characterized by long hours working in the office and at home, competition for resources (e.g. applying for grants), and an overall urgency produced by the understanding that research must proceed at a fast pace. To succeed, it is generally believed that faculty members must put more than the standard thirty-five to forty hours per week of time into their work. To understand the experiences of men and women in academic science then, it is important to consider the non-work factors in their lives that also create demands on their time. These include social and community activities, personal activities related to health ~and relaxation (e.g. exercise, sleep, reading, movies, music), and domestic responsibilities. While many of these activities might be sacrificed as workrelated demands increase, it is unlikely that one would (or could) neglect many domestic responsibilities--particularly for those who have children or other dependents (see endnote 2). Food and other household items must be purchased, meals must be prepared, clothes must be washed, and dependents' needs must be attended to. In a household headed by two adults these responsibilities could be shared equally, but in most such households they are not (Risman, 1998). Despite feminist activists' far-reaching and important efforts to try to equalize domestic asymmetries, and despite women's greater participation in paid labor, married women continue to take on a greater proportion of domestic duties (Suitor, Mecom, and Feld, 2001; McFarlane, Beaujot, and Haddad, 2000; Wilkie et al., 1998; Sanchez and Thomas, 1997; Peterson and Gerson, 1992; Barnett and Baruch, 1987). One might assume that husbands participate more equally in domestic labor when they have children and when their wives are in the labor force. However, Sanchez and Thomson (1997) find that fatherhood does not increase the husband's

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participation in domestic labor while "motherhood substantially increases wives' housework and curtails their employment" (p. 763). Wilkie et al. (1998) find that husbands' views regarding sharing domestic labor has a stronger effect on their participation in domestic labor than do wives' views. And McFarlane et al. (2000, p. 61) report: "[W]omen's time in housework is increased when their husbands spend more time in paid work, but men's time in housework is not significantly affected by the employment time of their wives." Schiebinger (1999, p. 93) reports: Professional womenwork roughlyfifteenhours longer at home each week than do their husbands. Over a year this adds up to an extra month of 24-hour days. And they sleep less. Married women tend to get 20 minutesless sleep per night than their partners; womenwith children get 40 minutes less sleep per night than their husbands. In a week the average working mother gets 4.6 hours less sleep than the average working father. This adds up to almost 10 days less sleep per year. These patterns hold even in familiesin which the woman significantlyout-earns the man. The implications of the research on men's and women's participation in domestic labor is that men have more discretionary time than women to put into their careers. Given the findings reported above, one might assume that married women scientists--particularly those who have children--publish less than their single peers who do not have children. Surprisingly, research does not support this assumption. Marriage and children do not appear to have a negative impact on women scientists' publication rates (Sonnert, 1995; Cole and Zuckerman, 1991). It appears that women scientists with children prioritize both work and family responsibilities at the expense of other activities and interests. Based on interviews with seventy-three women scientists, Cole and Zuckerman (1991, pp. 160 and 162) report, "All these women do, to be sure, acknowledge that children take up a great deal of time. They are 'a definite time commitment. That means that you are doing less with other t h i n g s ' but not scientific research. The research continues." Findings from a study on how men and women faculty distribute their time suggests that marriage and children do affect the amount of time married women with children spend on work responsibilities--but the mean difference is small. In a study by Suitor, Mecom, and Feld (2001) on gender, household labor, and scholarly productivity among university professors, married women with children reported an average of 48.10 work hours a week compared with 50.25 work hours reported by all women. 9 It appears that married women with children maintain their work responsibilities while taking on greater domestic responsibilities. Suitor and colleagues' data suggests that across the three categories of (1) "all tenure-track faculty," (2) "married tenure-track faculty," and (3) "married tenure track faculty with children," men spend more time than women on research. Further, their study illustrates that men's time on research does not appear to be related to status as husband or father, while women's time on research does: Compared with all women, married

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w o m e n with children spend less t i m e on research. While there is no significant difference in total w o r k hours b e t w e e n m a r r i e d m e n with children and m a r r i e d w o m e n with children, there is a significant difference in total w o r k and d o m e s t i c hours. C o m p a r e d with their m a l e counterparts, married w o m e n with children spend m o r e time on household labor, child-care, and w o r k c o m b i n e d - - o n average, just o v e r eighteen hours a w e e k more. While the productivity rates o f married w o m e n scientists with children m a y not suffer (Sonnert, 1995; Cole and Z u c k e r m a n , 1991), their personal lives, including their emotional and physical health, arguably do. To maintain their research productivity, w o m e n with children often give up personal time that w o u l d o t h e r w i s e be spent on relaxation, socializing, exercising, and the pursuit o f n o n - w o r k interests (e.g. reading, movies, and hobbies) (Schiebinger, 1999; Cole and Z u c k e r m a n , 1991). The d e m a n d s of domestic duties c o m b i n e d with the d e m a n d s o f a challenging and t i m e - c o n s u m i n g career creates tension and introduces stress into o n e ' s life (Hays, 1996). Indeed, the w o m e n we interviewed spoke readily about the tension they experienced while trying to fulfill both d o m e s t i c and w o r k obligations. Thus, w h e n w e interviewed m e n faculty in the sciences, one of the things w e wanted to learn was whether they also experienced difficulty w h e n trying to c o m b i n e w o r k and nonw o r k responsibilities. I f so, we wanted to learn what aspects o f their n o n - w o r k lives they had difficulty addressing and h o w this influenced their lives in general.

Findings The Balancing Act M o s t (91 percent) of the w o m e n we interviewed talked about the difficulties o f fulfilling both w o r k and h o m e obligations (particularly child-care responsibilities). S o m e said they were not able to do enough: T h e r e was a l w a y s s o m e t h i n g that had to g i v e - - a n d typically the " s o m e t h i n g " was b r o k e n d o w n into either work or family. W o m e n explained: Right now [my life] is not balanced at all. I work probably seventy-five to eighty hours a week here. And I said to my kids the other d a y . . , if I get tenure it will be a family effort. It's going to be that all four of us got tenure. So we talk about it a lot at home: Why I'm not at home very much, why I'm missing out, you know, soccer games, and why I can't bring my kids in for a day in the lab to see how to do experiments (F1). ge:~

I just run my ass all day. . . . I think my husband thinks [division of labor at home is] fifty/fifty, but it's not. It's not. Most times it's okay, but when I'm under a lot of stress at work, then I feel more resentful because I feel like I really need [him] to be doing [his] job [at home] because I have

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some other stuff I need to be working on . . . . I don't do any work at home hardly. I'm either too tired, or if I just read a paper when I'm with the kids, and they're doing a puzzle, they read in that I'm doing work and they don't want me to do it (F25).

I've never had the focus or energy in my research program that I would have if I've never had kids. On the other hand, my kids have never had a mom that's as invested as I would be [if I were] at another job . . . . Sometimes it's more the subtle attitudes and guilt. You know, guilt was kind of posed on me by my family. But when I talked to other women, other professional women, not even necessarily university, but just guilt [about family and about work] is the overriding feeling. That you're never doing enough of it (F6). O t h e r w o m e n w e r e m o r e positive: B y s c h e d u l i n g their w o r k d a y s to a c c o m m o d a t e their f a m i l y responsibilities, b y w o r k i n g at h o m e , b y s a y i n g " n o " to c o m m i t t e e w o r k and c o n f e r e n c e s , b y e m p l o y i n g services to help with h o u s e w o r k and c h i l d - c a r e , and b y enlisting the help o f their h u s b a n d s , these w o m e n said t h e y w e r e able to k e e p up all responsibilities. All o f these w o m e n d i s c u s s a desire to " b a l a n c e " w o r k and faro-" ily obligations. B a l a n c e is a c h i e v e d w h e n t h e y are able to do enough at w o r k and at h o m e . W e refer to w o m e n ' s efforts to fulfill b o t h w o r k and h o m e o b l i g a t i o n s as a " b a l a n c i n g act." W o m e n w h o did not h a v e c h i l d r e n also talked a b o u t the difficulty o f fulfilling b o t h w o r k and h o m e obligations. F i v e w o m e n said they c o u l d not see h o w it w o u l d be possible to h a v e a f a m i l y while at the s a m e time m a i n t a i n i n g their career. O n e w o m a n explained: I guess not having kids, too, was something t h a t . . , it was almost like it wasn't really an option. Well I guess I have to say that because all of a sudden I'm forty and I just never had the time for it. It was never something I felt I could take time out and do well. So to me, I don't think I had the choice of having a career and having kids (F3). N o t i c e that the " b a l a n c i n g act" w e write o f is the act o f b a l a n c i n g r e s p o n s i b i l i ties to home and responsibilities to work. Nothing is said of responsibilities to self. In fact, while a t t e m p t i n g to b a l a n c e w o r k and h o m e responsibilities, w o m e n with children told us they miss out on o p p o r t u n i t i e s to s p e n d d e s i r e d time with family, socialize with friends, relax, and exercise. E v e n those m o t h e r s w h o said t h e y rec e i v e d a lot o f help with d o m e s t i c responsibilities f r o m their h u s b a n d s raised these c o n c e r n s . O f the f o l l o w i n g t w o m o t h e r s w h o e x p l a i n the difficulties o f s p e n d i n g time on self while also balancing responsibilities to w o r k and h o m e , the first w o m a n ' s h u s b a n d stays h o m e fulltime in o r d e r to be the p r i m a r y c a r e g i v e r for their child a n d the s e c o n d w o m a n ' s h u s b a n d takes on an equitable share o f the d o m e s t i c r e s p o n s i bilities. T h e s e w o m e n explained: I know my colleagues with still their girlish figures are out there exercising and have tried to encourage me to come out and run or even walk with them. I know that once I start socializing

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that's going to be it for the day because I love to do it. So I have had to make a conscience effort, ifI have to get this work done I can't socialize because I know how much I enjoy it. So that's what I gave up. There! i just figured it out. I gave up my love for socializing to get this [balancing work and family] to work (F19).

I would love to have time to actually develop and cultivate more of my friendships, you know, and be able to get together with a friend. And that's the part of combining career and family that I never really thought about. The fact that the time that you have for your personal avocations, if you're really doing, you know, a pretty full court press on both of the other two [work and family] (F15). It is c l e a r that the w o m e n i n o u r s a m p l e i d e n t i f i e d w i t h the role o f s c i e n t i s t . M o s t o f the w o m e n also a p p e a r e d to i d e n t i f y w i t h the r o l e o f m o t h e r , a n d t h e s e w o m e n all m a d e the s a m e p o i n t : It is d i f f i c u l t to b e b o t h f a c u l t y m e m b e r a n d m o t h e r , .and do b o t h j o b s well. I n fact, m a n y w o m e n e x p r e s s e d a b e l i e f that p a r e n t i n g affects w o m e n ' s careers m o r e so t h a n m e n ' s . O n e w o m a n said: I think the family issue [is a challenge that women encounter in general]. I think that is an issue because I don't think men take parenting with the intensity of feeling that women do. And that is a gross, gross generalization that I hesitate to make, but I do think that it is true (F1). T h e m e n in o u r s a m p l e also a p p e a r e d to i d e n t i f y w o m e n as b o t h s c i e n t i s t a n d m o t h e r . N o n e s u g g e s t e d that w o m e n are n o t s u i t e d to s c i e n c e . I n fact, e l e v e n m e n m a d e c o m m e n t s that either i m p l i e d or e x p l i c i t l y stated that w o m e n s c i e n t i s t s are e q u a l - - o r e v e n b e t t e r - - t h a n m e n s c i e n t i s t s i n t e r m s o f ability. T h e s e m e n said the following: I think that at any given hiring situation we' re best off to hire the person that's most well qualified for the position whether they're green or purple or male or female. That being said, I also accept the premise that . . . . My suspicion is if we did that, we'd have far more women working in higher-level positions than men (M20).

You know, some of the women who were in this particular research group that I'm in had infinitely more talent than they're given credit for, and they've been held down, I think, because of their gender. . . . They don't get appointed as editors of some of the journals. They don't end up on review panels for grants. They don't get the same recognition that a man with similar credentials or even lesser credentials might get (M4).

In [my field] women have traditionally had positions, but it has always been the case that they have really had to be substantially better than the men with whom they may have been competing---or compared (M24).

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At the same time, m a n y o f the m e n also s e e m e d to view w o m e n as mothers and primary caregivers. Seven men made c o m m e n t s either explicitly stating or implying that when w o m e n have children, they will c h o o s e to participate less in paid labor and spend more time as caregiver.10 And ten men (including two who expressed a belief that mothers are less committed to their careers) said tenure was especially hard on w o m e n because o f their dual roles as faculty m e m b e r and mother. Very few men mentioned that tenure was difficult for m e n who had dual roles as faculty m e m ber and father. The prevailing view (held by both w o m e n and men) appears to be that the m o t h e r - - a n d not the f a t h e r - - p l a y s the role o f primary caregiver. Having said this, we offer a cautionary note: M e n ' s perceptions o f w o m e n ' s experiences as faculty m e m b e r and m o t h e r m a y reflect their personal observations o f the population (it appears that most w o m e n take on the primary caregiver role) rather than their personal views o f women. Although c o m m e n t s regarding the difficulty of balancing the dual roles o f father and faculty m e m b e r are noticeably absent from most o f our interviews (with both w o m e n and men), some m e n did m a k e comments to this effect. Three stated that having children is difficult for m e n as well as w o m e n ; one o f these men was a divorced father who had primary responsibility for his children every-other week and talked about the difficulty o f keeping up with work responsibilities while having fulltime responsibilities for his children. Two other men talked about the difficulties they experienced while balancing their work responsibilities and their child-care responsibilities. And one man talked about the guilt and sadness he experienced over the fact that he was not able to spend more time with his children. With respect to the promotion system, w o m e n described their experiences in terms o f balancing work and family responsibilities (and not always s u c c e s s f u l l y ) often at the expense o f personal interests and activities. Within this context, m a n y w o m e n (50 percent) talked about the p r o m o t i o n system in terms o f its three categories o f performance (teaching, service, and research). T h e y identified this aspect o f the system as making it difficult to manage time between work and h o m e responsibilities. The need to prepare for teaching, serve on committees, and maintain research and writing functions to fragment time. One w o m a n explained: In terms of work environment, you have a lot less fragmentation of your time when you're in a government research position, whether it's government or private I guess, either way. You don't have the diversity of demands on your time and you don't have the amount of fragmentation, so it's easier to control your time in an environment like that. And as a young mother and a scientist I think it was much easier to be in a position there than it would have been to have been an assistant professor and have a new baby. Because I was able to work part time with full support, I was promoted while I was working part time, and I ended up working my way back from 50 percent to about 80 percent time over three years, and you can't tell that from looking at my resume, you can't tell that I had a hiatus from working full time (F15).

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In fact, several women (32 percent) said that having the option to work less than fulltime would help them maintain their careers during the stressful time when young children are at home.

Playing the Game Men described their experiences with the promotion system as challenging and hard. With the exception of a few (18 percent), they did not discuss their experiences in the context of struggling to balance work and home responsibilities. Most (86 percent) described their experiences in the context of trying to meet the levels of performance (in one or more of the three areas mentioned above) expected of them. And half of these men evoked images of a game or competition to discuss how they responded to the promotion system. To be sure, a few men (14 percent) specifically said that they viewed it as a game. The game involves rules, strategy, and time. Being successful in the game means knowing and playing by the "rules"--knowing what is expected of you and just doing it. Being successful in the game requires working hard and working fast: "The process itself is just like taking the whole thing down to a small amount of time and asking you to jump through that" (M 12). It means competing with peers by putting more hours in at the lab (M5) or providing more services to extension clients (MI6). It means strategizing in order to maintain self while maximizing performance in areas that count. As one man said: "You have to decide where to distribute the failure . . . . Otherwise you won't survive and it chews folks up" (M10). A few of the characterizations (18 percent) evoked images of an endurance competition. Being successful in the game means finishing the competition with enough strength and willpower left over to pick up your self and go on: It's survival of the fittest and you have to go as fast, as hard as you can, you know (M15).

Tenure's an extremelychallengingperiod. . . . Some of whom get it collapse exhausted and never accomplish any more again (M10).

The process itself is so... so tough. So you may be left as a burnt out wreck at the end in some ways (M6). These last descriptions--suggesting a competition of strength and willpower-are characteristic of the kinds of competitions that are commonly associated with masculinity (Connell, 1995). Classic sociological definitions of hegemonic mascu-

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l i n i t y in s o c i e t y - - t h a t is, c u l t u r a l t e r m s a n d i m a g e s t h a t e v o k e t a k e n - f o r - g r a n t e d notions of "what a real man is" (Goffman, 1963)--typically stress strength, competitive sportsmanship, and endurance. Men's emphasis on playing by the "the rules o f t h e g a m e " is a r g u a b l y a s s o c i a t e d w i t h m a s c u l i n i t y as w e l l . ( S i m i l a r l y , S c h l e e f [2001] f i n d s that m e n l a w s t u d e n t s r e s p o n d m o r e p o s i t i v e l y t h a n w o m e n l a w stud e n t s to t h e c o m p e t i t i v e , c h a l l e n g i n g e n v i r o n m e n t , a n d t h a t m e n t e n d to d e s c r i b e t h e p e r f o r m a n c e e x p e c t a t i o n s in g a m e - o r i e n t e d t e r m s . ) I n o u r d a t a , s o m e m e n s u g g e s t e d t h a t w o m e n r e s p o n d d i f f e r e n t l y t h a n m e n to t h e e x p e c t a t i o n s set o u t b y t h e p r o m o tion s y s t e m : I do think that if you took sort of the pool of scientists that we have and evaluated its "evenness" for high quality, that if you allow more women into it, actually the evenness would increase. [I think that] because we have a lot of men who are not particularly good at what they do, but they've gotten to where they've gotten by sheerforce of personality (M4) (emphasis added).

I think a lot of guys say: "Well, it's kinda shady, but I'll prove I'm tough enough to do it." You know . . . . Where women are, perhaps, given the option, perhaps, too much of saying: "Oh, you don't have to do this stupid thing. You don't have to prove you're good enough to do it" (M13).

Our society sort of builds up t h i s . . , has high expectations for men that you, you produce, you know. You tough it alone. You make it alone . . . . I imagine it's harder for women. Cause men are used to seeing that in the rest of society, you know? You're just, you know, you're supposed to tough it out (M14).

Time as R e s o u r c e W h e t h e r the p r o m o t i o n p r o c e s s is e x p e r i e n c e d as " b a l a n c i n g a c t " o r " g a m e , " e v e r y o n e n o t e d t h a t t i m e is a k e y r e s o u r c e . T o b a l a n c e w o r k a n d n o n - w o r k o b l i g a t i o n s s a t i s f a c t o r i l y , o n e m u s t h a v e e n o u g h t i m e to p u t t o w a r d s r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s in b o t h a r e a s . To p l a y t h e g a m e s u c c e s s f u l l y , o n e m u s t h a v e the t i m e to p l a y t h e g a m e at the s a m e l e v e l as h i s o r h e r p e e r s . S o m e w o m e n s u g g e s t e d t h a t m e n - - m o r e women--have

than

this t i m e :

I think most [men] don't have as much to juggle . . . . I think they just generally have less responsibilities at home. And a lot more freedom on their time to have someone else picking up the slack. But that may be my perception. That's not, you know, fair across the board either (F15).

I think the women are a little bit more stressed. Especially the ones with families, I think. Well, I am compared to somebody I'm working with right now. He's much calmer, but maybe it's his personality. No, I t h i n k . . . I think his wife takes care of things (F18).

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Some men agree. One stated: [Tlhere's no questionthat the demandsand vagariesof child rearing and marriage,urn, have. . . . The burdens of those things have been heavier on women than men. I mean, today as well (M24). The perception that men have more time at their disposal than women is consistent with our interviewees' reports regarding time spent on home obligations. Within our sample, more men than women reported relatively light domestic workloads (on self-reporting regarding contributions to domestic labor, see Press and Townsley, 1998). Of seventeen married women, eight said they take on a greater share of domestic work. Three women were currently divorced and had primary responsibilities for their children. Of those women who said their husbands participate equally in domestic work, a few revealed possible points of conflict in their reports. For example, some stated that while they had no time for personal activities (such as exercise and relaxation), their husbands participated in weekly sports activities. In contrast to the women, sixteen of twenty-two married men said they do not take on an equal share of the domestic workload. Six men had wives who stayed home full-time (and five had wives who stayed home full-time at an earlier point in their careers). Seven men described their wives' jobs as compatible with child-care responsibilities. As such, their wives dealt with most child-care arrangements and most issues that arise when a child is sick. Their wives were home when the children were home from school or daycare. Women argued that the promotion system--with its three standards of performance--not only created huge demands on time, but also made it difficult to manage the time they had. Men also stated that the promotion system creates huge demands on time. However, several men (36 percent) stated that the flexibility inherent in a faculty member's job allows people to deal with work and non-work demands: You can arrange your work day (or night for that matter) in any way you want. Three men (who all held administrative positions) argued that this is a plus for faculty members who have children--it allows parents to take care of both work and home responsibilities. Indeed, three other men who shared primary child-care responsibilities with their wives said they were able to do so precisely because of the flexibility inherent in their jobs. Together with their wives, they worked out their schedules so that child-care responsibilities could be handled. For these men it appears that flexibility was indeed a key factor in their ability to balance their work and home responsibilities; however, it may be that this type of flexibility provides a workable solution only when the home responsibilities are shared. In short, we suggest that insofar as women take on more domestic responsibility, time is a resource that is more available to most men than most women. Insofar as success and promotion requires that faculty members m e e t - - a n d surpass--their

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peers' levels o f p e r f o r m a n c e , we suggest that m o s t m e n are better situated than m o s t w o m e n to experience the promotion process positively. Indeed, the following q u o t e - b y a w o m a n - - i s striking because it s e e m s to r e w a r d m e n precisely b e c a u s e they have the " l u x u r y " to put m o r e time into their work: R: Well, I feel like I spend 100 percent of my time doing my job or taking care of my kids, and there's no time for myself. And if I try to make time for myself then my husband gets resentful because he has to pick up the slack. And so, and because I do less [work] than he does anyway when I'm home, I'm expected to be involved and do things for the kids and clean up the house and things like that. And it's fine, but it's, you know, really stressful, and I need some time to myself and I just don't have it. I: Right. Is he able to take time for himself too? R: He gets some. [He participates in a sport three days a week.] R: And it's very hard for me to be objective, because as I've said before, when men ask for time off, they really want it, and they in general do a lot more work outside of [regular 9 to 5l hours than I do. So I think there may be a difference in attitude [towards men and women in my department], and it would be appropriate because I take on a lot more family responsibilities than the average male in my department (F21).

Discussion and Conclusions W o m e n and m e n described different e x p e r i e n c e s with the p r o m o t i o n system. W o m e n described their experiences in terms o f the struggle to b a l a n c e w o r k and h o m e responsibilities and m e n t i o n e d aspects o f the s y s t e m that m a k e it difficult to m a n a g e time. M e n described their experiences in t e r m s o f rising to the challenge o f the p r o m o t i o n s y s t e m ( m a n y e v o k i n g i m a g e s o f a g a m e or competition) and m e n tioned personal t r a i t s - - s u c h as will, motivation, and e n d u r a n c e - - t h a t are d r a w n on to m e e t the challenge. O f equal note is that w o m e n did not talk a b o u t rising to the challenge o f the p r o m o t i o n s y s t e m and m o s t m e n did not talk about conflicts between the role o f faculty m e m b e r and the role o f father. We suggest that the different w a y s o f experiencing the p r o m o t i o n s y s t e m described b y w o m e n and m e n can be understood in t e r m s o f the intersection o f gender and the institutional structure. W o m e n and m e n tend to be differently situated in the domestic domain, and as such they e x p e r i e n c e different types o f constraints on their time. M o r e w o m e n than m e n in our study t o o k on the greater share o f d o m e s t i c r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s - - p a r t i c u l a r l y those responsibilities that cannot be scheduled at o n e ' s c o n v e n i e n c e (e.g. picking up a child f r o m school), or cannot be scheduled at all for that matter (e.g. taking care o f a sick child). T i m e is not simply a limited resource that m u s t be divided b e t w e e n d o m e s t i c and w o r k responsibilities, it is s o m e t i m e s a

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resource that must be taken from one pressing responsibility and allocated to another. In this context it makes sense that women tended to focus on the components of the promotion system (teaching, service, and research) that make demands on their time. In contrast, many of the men in our study described their participation as fathers in terms of activities that are regularly scheduled and routine (e.g., eating dinner with the family, putting their child to bed, and taking their child to activities such as soccer or music lessons). Most men did not describe their roles as fathers as placing them in a position in which they feel a need to compromise their home or work obligations. This is not to say that time was not an issue for men, but that it was an issue of investment rather than compromise. It is for this reason, we suggest, that men did not talk about the promotion process in terms of the components that create demands on time; rather, they talked about it as a "game" and discussed how they "played" it. Women and men also had different views of the promotion process; and it is not surprising that their views seem to be related to their experiences. Women focused on the three areas of performance delineated by the promotion process and how--taken together--these expectations produce great demands on time and make it difficult to manage the time they have. Women suggested that the process could (and should) be more flexible: expectations for teaching and committee work could be relaxed; part-time appointments could be granted. Men focused on the challenge presented by the promotion process, and talked about rising to that challenge. Men did not suggest that the process be changed; however, they did note that certain types of people do well in such a process--and other types do not. Our findings highlight how one's experience as a faculty member in the sciences at a major research university is not only influenced by one's abilities as a scientist and motivation to do science, but also by one's domestic role. It is the combination of faculty role and domestic role that sets the stage for certain kinds of experiences: e.g., a challenging "game" or a balancing act. These experiences, in turn, influence how one views the system: e.g., necessary and acceptable or unnecessary and (perhaps) unacceptable. It is not our intention to indict the promotion system, and we stress that the parameters of our study do not allow us to make such conclusions. However, we do point out that many more women than men in our study suggested that the system could (and should) be changed. Assuming this is a legitimate issue for discussion, we point out that it is an issue raised by members of the academy w h o - - a s a group--hold the least power to put such a discussion on the floor. Women are underrepresented in the category of full professor; women are underrepresented in administrative positions such as department chair and college dean. In addition, we note that three

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men in administrative positions dismissed the idea that time is at best difficult to manage--and at worst, impossible--for those who have childcare responsibilities, stating that faculty members can schedule their days in any way they choose. Here, we raise the question of whether changing the promotion system is an issue that should be explored; and if so, we wonder whether more women and like-minded men must hold positions of power before such an issue will be taken under consideration. A surprising finding of our study is that despite the fact that men are aware that the promotion process, as it currently stands, places greater demands on women than on men, many men nonetheless continue to support the promotion process in its current structure and organization. To our knowledge, no study has ever shown that men hold these views simultaneously. That is, no other study has indicated that men knowingly participate in a promotion process that men also know to be disproportionately benefiting men. Moreover, many institutions of higher education (including the institution in this study) have worked to advance gender equity. Many have implemented family leave and tenure clock extension programs that compensate faculty who are new parents, ill, or caring for family members. In theory, these programs apply to women and men; in practice, women draw on them more frequently. Our research suggests, indirectly, that despite the availability of such programs (each of our interviewees acknowledged them), and despite the fact that these programs have been designed to build equity into the promotion system, programs such as family leave and tenure clock extension may be useful but not final solutions to attaining gender equity. Some of our interviewees had suggestions for change. Notably, it was mainly women who posed these suggestions. Among their suggestions were the possibility of accepting part-time positions ("appointment flexibility"); the possibility of accepting major research grants at a percentage of their full cost annually and then spreading out the funding for additional years ("funding flexibility"); and the ability to relax non-research obligations at certain stages in their lives---e.g, childrearing ("job flexibility"). Some women also said they would like to see institutional structures that would promote strong networks among scientists in their areas of study and among women scientists in general. "Science networks" would bring together people with related interests and help to further each individual's research. While "women's networks" do exist on campus, some women reported difficulty getting connected to these networks; these networks would provide a forum for women to discuss important issues. The fact that it was mainly women who proposed ways to change the promotion system has one further implication, as does the fact that many women proposed no change at all. With so many interviewees (ten men and twenty women) stating their beliefs that women with children have a more difficult time with the promotion

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Gender Issues / Winter 2003

process than do others, it is worth asking why only a few (one man 1~ and twelve women) suggest that the system should change. Our findings indicate indirectly a belief among many science faculty that the promotion system is designed to "produce good scientists" and that tampering with the system in any way would risk compromising the quality of the profession. In other words, there remains a professional cultural belief that the system itself advances only good scientists, not that the system is a process through which scientists must progress to demonstrate their worthiness. Our findings suggest that nearly all men and more than half of women science faculty in our sample subscribe to this philosophy. Further, women who do advocate change, as we mentioned above, are rarely in positions of power to advance ideas institutionally. For this reason, our findings suggest that, as a matter of policy, institutions of higher education would do well to represent women faculty views in administrative deliberations about promotion policy. Among the institutional arrangements that might assist women without downgrading their status, and that might be regarded as "fair" by men (insofar as these suggestions fall within the realm of "fair game playing" that men describe in our study) are the "funding," "appointment," and "job flexibility" options that several women faculty reported to us. In conclusion, we believe that our primary findings--that men in academic sciences describe the promotion process as a game to be played and won, that women see it as a balancing act, and that both men and women academic scientists identify women faculty as more challenged than men in having to negotiate work and family roles--suggest that the academic science promotion process places greater stress and competition for time on women than on men. These findings contribute to a wider literature that demonstrates that academic women take on a disproportionate share of domestic labor (Risman, 1998; Suitor, Mecom, and Feld, 2001) by indicating that indeed, women and men faculty, themselves, acknowledge this disproportion and consider that it may be an impediment to faculty women. Institutionally, this awareness suggests the need to maintain and strengthen programmatic supports for women, such as tenure clock extension for parental leave and "safety net" procedures to support and promote academic women in science positions. In addition, it suggests the possibility that the promotion process should be reconsidered: Are its expectations functionally relevant to the job requirements? Could (and should) performance expectations be designed in a different way?

Notes 1. Funding for this study was provided by a National Science Foundation Advance grant (#0123666). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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2. O f the forty-four faculty we interviewed, seventeen women were married, fifteen w o m e n had children; twenty-two men were married, and twenty-one men had children. Thirty-three faculty with children in our sample were married; three faculty (all women) with children were divorced and/ or separated; five faculty (all men) were divorced and r e - m a r r i e d - - f o u r had children from their first marriage and four had children from their second marriage. Owing to the large numbers of married or separated/divorced parents in our sample, we focus on child-care responsibilities as an example of extra-work obligations. 3. We remind the reader that these generalizations do not describe every individual in our sample. Some women and men described non-traditional arrangements with respect to division of domestic labor. A few women did not describe their experiences in terms of tension between h o m e and work obligations. A few men did describe their experiences in terms of the difficulty of addressing home and work obligations and stated that this was a concern. 4. The authors worked with Advance researchers on the development of the interview protocol and conducted many of the interviews. 5. Authors of this paper conducted all of these interviews. 6. Those with clinical appointments are on a different career track than are those with faculty appointments; while they go through a similar promotion process, their duties are different from those of faculty. Clinical staff spend a substantial amount of time working in the clinic, and spend less time doing research than their faculty colleagues. Faculty members who have extension appointments have little or no formal research responsibilities. Rather, "they consult with various communities statewide. In all cases, however, faculty and clinical staff must be promoted to tenure in order to be retained by the university. 7. We selected these men because we w a n t e d to increase our chances of getting some interviewees who had young children at home. 8. In retrospect we believe that we should have prompted men to talk about their physical and mental health as this is an important issue for men as well as women. In addition, m e n ' s particular health issues, and the way they manage these issues, would likely be an informative point of comparison. We would have liked to ask men to give their perceptions of gender differences on issues listed in the literature. However, time did not allow for this. 9. O f course, the actual difference in weekly work hours between women with children versus women without children is likely to be larger since "all w o m e n " includes married women with children. The inclusion of married women with children in the sample of all women likely pulls down the mean. 10. One man (M20) admitted that he struggles with these thoughts. He recognizes them as a personal bias that is not supported in his own experience. Although he finds himself thinking of women as potential mothers who will eventually leave the workforce, he also stated t h a t - - i n his own work e x p e r i e n c e - - t h i s generalization does not bear out. 11. While a few men suggested that the system should change, only one based his argument on his belief that women have a difficult time balancing home and work responsibilities.

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Fiss, Owen M. 1991. "An Uncertain Inheritance." In The Outer Circle: Women in the Scientific Community, ed. Zuckerman, Cole, and Bruer. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Fox, Mary Frank. 2000. "Women, Science, and Academia: Graduate Education and Careers." Gender & Society. 15(5): 654-666. Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma. NJ: Prentice-Hall. Hays, Sharon. 1996. The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven: Yale University Press. Long, J. Scott and Mary Frank Fox. 1995. "Scientific Careers: Universalism and Particularism." Annual Review of Sociology. 21 : 45-71. McFarlane, Seth, Roderic Beaujot, and Tony Haddad. 2000. "Time Constraints and Relative Resources as Determinants of the Sexual Division of Domestic Work." Canadian Journal of Sociology. 25(1): 61-82. Peterson, Richard R. and Kathleen Gerson. 1992. "Determinants of Responsibility for Child Care Arrangements Among Dual-Earner Couples." Journal of Marriage and the Family. 54: 527-536. Phillips, P. 1990. The Scientific Lady: A Social History of Women's Scientific Interests 1520-1918. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Press, Julie E. and Eleanor Townsley. 1998. "Wives' and Husbands' Housework Reporting: Gender, Class, and Social Desirability." Gender and Society. 12(2): 188-218. Risman, Barbara. 1998. Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition. Yale UP. Sanchez, Laura and Elizabeth Thomson. 1997. "Becoming Mothers and Fathers: Parenthood, Gender, and the Division of Labor." Gender and Society. 11(6): 747-772. Schiebinger, Londa. 1999. Has Feminism Changed Science? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Schleef, Debra. 2001. "Thinking Like a Lawyer: Gender Differences in the Production of Professional Knowledge." Gender Issues. 19(2): 69-86. Sonnert, Gerhard. 1995. "Gender Equity in Science: Still an Elusive Goal." Issues in Science and Technology. Winter 1995-96: 53-58. Suitor, J. Jill, Dorothy Mecom, and Ilana S. Feld. 2001. "Gender, Household Labor, and Scholarly Productivity Among University Professors." Gender Issues. 19(4): 50-67. Walby, Sylvia. 2001. "Against Epistemological Chasms: The Science Question in Feminism Revisited." Signs 26(2): 485-509. Wasserman, Elga. 2000. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. Wilkie, Jane, et al. 1998. "Gender and Fairness: Marital Satisfaction in Two-Earner Couples." Journal of Marriage & Family. 60(3). Zuckerman, Harriet. 1991. "The Careers of Men and Women Scientists: A Review of Current Research." In The Outer Circle: Women in the Scientific Community. ed. Zuckerman, Cole, and Bruer. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.