Oldal 89 [89]
OCR
WOMEN IN THE SCIENTIFIC ELITE MULTIPLE TYPES OF FEMALE IDENTITY AMONG FEMALE SCHOLARS 1st group: the “dual attachment” type The first group is formed from female scholars who have a fundamentally traditional approach when it comes to the role of a woman within a family. The group characteristics described in GIM with regards to women preferring traditional female roles, i.e. supporting the gender status quo in many aspects‘? can be considered true for this group. They do not differentiate between men and women, however, when it comes to career and the academic field. They are thus in favour of equality and progressive in this latter aspect. This is exactly why they consider academic or leadership roles important. The interviewees within this group accept — and believe — the fact that women need to work much harder if they intend to achieve the same level of respect their male peers achieve, primarily due to them having an opinion that women “must” deal with the majority of household tasks, which they consider completely natural: Women must obviously deal with most of the work around the house. As it happens to be in my life, I need to serve the needs of ten men at the moment [...], my husband, my three sons and my six grandsons. Had I not learned to work tirelessly in my childhood, I would certainly be in a difficult position right now. (Subject no. 10, DSc, technical sciences) So I practically think my bringing the child to the nursery is an integral part of the regular womanly tasks. (Subject no. 23, natural sciences) It doesn’t matter from the perspective of oeuvre if one is at home for a year or so. I intended to savour it in fact. I always held the mothership role in high regard and found it important. The scientific career |...] is important of course, but it isn’t the most important facet of one’s life. (Subject no. 27, social sciences) They have also stressed that while the support of the family is important to them, they still consider that if a women stumbles upon issues due to the additional workload stemming from the female role, it is not for the Academy to deal with them, and positive discrimination is far from being the appropriate method either. These difficulties need to be handled in the earliest stages of a career, especially because nobody will be interested past a certain point in what way and through what sacrifices one achieved the academic DSc degree or an academic position. 267 Becker-Wagner: Doing Gender Differently. + 87 +
