Gender Gap in Academia

You don't need to browse too many studies and advanced researches to realize that from the very beginning, single mothers start they academic life with a significant disadvantage compared to their male counterparts. Regardless how generous their home country social system is, a single woman will always cope with disadvantages and discrimination, and keeping the pace with the other colleagues - male especially, is a ride which starts from a disadvantageous perspective from the very first start. When it comes to academia, the struggle is getting even more complicated, for reasons that I will further explain.

In order to keep yourself from drowning in the academic world, you need to become obsessed with published articles in academic publications, teach as many classes as possible and also add every year a couple of conferences to your portfolio. Reading the latest academic results in your domain of activity and also writing moderately - but firmly - fast your next book is also a priority. Nowadays also social media and shaping your voice as an academic influencer matters. As the official - state - funding of an university is always scarce, applying for grants and always being aware of various financial opportunities is important. Add to this also applying for different scholarships and residences which may diversify the contacts, knowledge and academic opportunities.

However, when you are a single mother, balancing those exhausting activities that keep you late at night and wake you early in the day, are competing with the priority of keeping your child feed, clean, ready for school, perfectly fit to become an independent adult, healthy, but also entertained. When kids are screaming happily in your house playing the Indians, how can you easily focus on your next teaching plan or edit your chapter? And besides your health, you need money and insurances paid in time and many other bills to be paid. Indeed, also people with high qualifications and education might do once in a while the mistake of dealing emotionally with jerks. 

What happens often in such stressful situations is that the academic single mother might decide to take a break from academia, do one or two or even three jobs more rewarding financially and not necessarily within your academic field - but someone who is overqualified academically can easily adapt to the competitive business domain as well. Time is passing, you write less and read the latest reports from your field even less. Not time for conferences or other academic gatherings, as you don't have time to go to library or afford to spend one night reading. 

In the next 2-3 years there is no new title and new activity added to your academic CV. Sooner, you see how former colleagues are getting tenures and publishing new books, and you are happy with your stable world, where bills are paid and your child is happy, but sadly, you feel like you wasted your talents and chances only because it might happen to be in the wrong relationship. 

Of course that there is not always happening so tragically and it could be that you are energetic and ambitious enough to keep yourself on the swimming line of academia, although juggling with other jobs - this writer here, is an example. But at the end of the day, you will feel at least 10 times more worn out than your relaxed colleague which is only unhappy that the editing of the last chapter didn't turn out as expected.

Things are made this way and the system is created in a way which does not offer too much generosity to the outbreakers and people which cope with some special - sometimes at the limit of survival - situations. At the end of the day, you simply might feel guilty that you made once that wrong choice and now you have to pay not only with your time, money and health, but also with your career. 

It is not easy and coaching and support for those women who are fighting hard not only to survive, but also to outperform, is not easy. But it is doable and it is worth every single effort. Also, to prove that at the end of the day a life dedicated to the world of mind can succeed over adversities, be it social or gender-based. 

Academic history in Osnabrück

Osnabrück has a relatively new academic history: the high education institution was established in 1974. Before that, the most prestigious educational center was since 1632 the Gymnasium Carolinum. Nowadays, with its 13,500 students from all over Germany and abroad, it is considered a prestigious university center in Lower Saxony area. 

The architecture style combines the classical, well-tempered bourgeois balance of volumes characteristic for the most part of the historical building with some bold, white and steal very modern buildings. The main offices are hosted in the baroque castle, but the majority of the classes are held in modern classrooms. Among the specialities studied here are: Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Business Administration and Economics. One of the famous students of the university is the former German president Christian Wulff. 

The university staff comprises 209 professors and more than 900 additional academic personnel. As a first time traveler in Osnabrück, I noticed how much life the young people, reading or carrying books on the old cobblestone streets bring to the city. Either staying in the grass and discussing or solitarily reading or talking to each other, the students bring dynamism to the city and make everything around them feel and look young.

The turning point of campus politics

After the last year racial unrest in US and Canadian universities, it seems that it was about time to start a larger discussion about the successes and failures of campus politics. Aimed to explain the current state of the art of academia beyond the high walls of universities, Campus Politics aims and succeeds to offer a balanced perspective on what was wrong and right with the philosophy that structured the campus everyday life in the last decades. 

In a way I was expecting more boldness in approaching strategies such as the downsides of 'political corectness' and left wing mindsets, but this is not the purpose of the book. Instead, it offers a basis for serious discussions, and possible reconsiderations in the future. First, you need to know the terms and conditions and the reality. For instance, contrary to the stereotype, there are more conservative teachers and students in the North American universities than expected, which can explain how, in fact, the 'politically corect' approach was not that successful, despite the predominance of this discourse in the public space. 

Many terms, such as freedom of speech - which isn't 'a license for professors to do whatever they want' - are sometimes misused and misunderstood, ant the race and gender equality is still an aim. In a way, academia is only one of the many environments a person is part thereof during a lifespan and as long as the other segments of the society ignore the need to consider seriously their admission and acceptance policies, universities are not (the only) responsible for the failure. 

Another merit of the book is to take into consideration the 'very hard to understand world' shaped by the challenges taking place after 9/11, and also mentions the anti-Israel bias that can be encountered in many high-end academic circles. 

As everything is in the making right now, with an unknown outcome, there is the responsibility of the students to offer a different approach. Instead of requesting the administration to take the needed measures, better they try to request and fight directly for their rights. 

Written in a very analytical way - without trying to be apologetical or over-critical, with many information about the history of campus politics, the book is a recommended read to both academics and students, and anyone interested to understand the current academic challenges in the USA. 

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange of an honest review

Being an academic while working

Here we are again! No, I didn't mean at the beginning of the year, as I usually don't count my life from a January to another. It means that the beginning of the new working season brings a lot of challenges for my already fragile academic life. 

Since I left high-school and started the university, I cope over and over again with the same problem: the balance between my long hours of work and the need to catch up with my academic interests. Even though I followed the à la carte academic menu, I didn't give up my freedom for a full time career in the academia, as what interests me the most now and in the future is to write, not to teach. I may consider this option soon as well, but for the moment, the need to do proper research and finish a couple of very interesting projects started a couple of months and even years ago is my main priority.

My morning enthusiasm to have everything done in due time was significantly diminished when shortly after I finish my first coffee I realized that I also need to do some non-academic chores, for being able to pay my freedom of writing and doing research. 

As I didn't reach yet the impressive level of being able to self-sustain my daily needs only from my books and academic achievements, I still need to keep some projects that eat a lot of time and without a drop of high-thinking in them, but serious enough and financially important to secure 4-5 days the month when I don't need to do anything else but focus on my writing, or allowing me to buy online the books that I cannot read at the library.

It is a schizophrenic reality but not so dramatically demanding for not giving me the hope that I should continue one more year, or maybe two. Today, for instance, I continue the research for my next book, while I stop every 30 minutes to check if new freelance gigs are available on my online platforms. This will continue tomorrow too. But there is always a price for a free life and I am ready to wait a little bit longer till, finally, I can enjoy the luxury of being nothing else but an academic. Meanwhile, I know that it's all for the good and trying to get the best of my experiences.

Happy academic life everyone!