Leaving Academia: Dual-Career Relationships and Partners’ Attrition from Academic Careers
Background: More than one third of academics are coupled with another academic, with more women being in such dual-career relationships. Little is known about how these couples’ experiences affect their attrition from or persistence in academia. Methods: We analyzed survey data of academics at 100 U...
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| Language: | English |
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Mary Ann Liebert
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Women's Health Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1177/26884844251366373 |
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| author | Jill A. Fisher Yu Tao Margaret Waltz Torin Monahan |
| author_facet | Jill A. Fisher Yu Tao Margaret Waltz Torin Monahan |
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| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: More than one third of academics are coupled with another academic, with more women being in such dual-career relationships. Little is known about how these couples’ experiences affect their attrition from or persistence in academia. Methods: We analyzed survey data of academics at 100 U.S. colleges and universities to answer two research questions: (1) Among all academic partners, who are the most likely to abandon their desired academic careers in terms of their gender, race, and field? (2) What effects does leaving academia have on those partners’ career outcomes? Results: We found that 22% of aspiring academics in academic relationships leave that career pathway. One third leave for personal reasons, including to prioritize their partner’s career. When partners leave academia for personal reasons, they are less likely to be employed in any job and, when employed, are paid less than their counterparts who leave academia for professional reasons. Among our results, we found notable gender differences. Compared with men, women in medicine were more likely to leave academia for personal reasons. Moreover, the earnings of women who leave academia due to personal reasons are the most negatively impacted. Conclusions: These trends indicate that the choices made by dual-career couples in response to the academic job market and to universities’ policies for partner hiring have substantial effects on the demographic makeup of academic research and scholarship. By supporting the needs of academic couples, universities have the opportunity to make their own institutions more diverse and to patch a hole in the leaky pipeline. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1e14fd73150d487aa2cc39fabfef16c8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2688-4844 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Mary Ann Liebert |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Women's Health Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-1e14fd73150d487aa2cc39fabfef16c82025-08-20T03:40:31ZengMary Ann LiebertWomen's Health Reports2688-48442025-01-016175276210.1177/26884844251366373Leaving Academia: Dual-Career Relationships and Partners’ Attrition from Academic CareersJill A. Fisher0Yu Tao1Margaret Waltz2Torin Monahan3Department of Social Medicine and Center for Bioethics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA.Department of Social Medicine and Center for Bioethics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.Department of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.Background: More than one third of academics are coupled with another academic, with more women being in such dual-career relationships. Little is known about how these couples’ experiences affect their attrition from or persistence in academia. Methods: We analyzed survey data of academics at 100 U.S. colleges and universities to answer two research questions: (1) Among all academic partners, who are the most likely to abandon their desired academic careers in terms of their gender, race, and field? (2) What effects does leaving academia have on those partners’ career outcomes? Results: We found that 22% of aspiring academics in academic relationships leave that career pathway. One third leave for personal reasons, including to prioritize their partner’s career. When partners leave academia for personal reasons, they are less likely to be employed in any job and, when employed, are paid less than their counterparts who leave academia for professional reasons. Among our results, we found notable gender differences. Compared with men, women in medicine were more likely to leave academia for personal reasons. Moreover, the earnings of women who leave academia due to personal reasons are the most negatively impacted. Conclusions: These trends indicate that the choices made by dual-career couples in response to the academic job market and to universities’ policies for partner hiring have substantial effects on the demographic makeup of academic research and scholarship. By supporting the needs of academic couples, universities have the opportunity to make their own institutions more diverse and to patch a hole in the leaky pipeline.https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1177/26884844251366373academic couplestwo-body problempartner hiringdual-careerleaky pipelinesurvey |
| spellingShingle | Jill A. Fisher Yu Tao Margaret Waltz Torin Monahan Leaving Academia: Dual-Career Relationships and Partners’ Attrition from Academic Careers Women's Health Reports academic couples two-body problem partner hiring dual-career leaky pipeline survey |
| title | Leaving Academia: Dual-Career Relationships and Partners’ Attrition from Academic Careers |
| title_full | Leaving Academia: Dual-Career Relationships and Partners’ Attrition from Academic Careers |
| title_fullStr | Leaving Academia: Dual-Career Relationships and Partners’ Attrition from Academic Careers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Leaving Academia: Dual-Career Relationships and Partners’ Attrition from Academic Careers |
| title_short | Leaving Academia: Dual-Career Relationships and Partners’ Attrition from Academic Careers |
| title_sort | leaving academia dual career relationships and partners attrition from academic careers |
| topic | academic couples two-body problem partner hiring dual-career leaky pipeline survey |
| url | https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1177/26884844251366373 |
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