Women’s constructions of successful academic careers in STEM field: empirical evidence from South Africa and Sweden

Abstract

Using a social constructionist approach, this research presents the viewpoints of successful women working in academic STEM careers in South Africa and Sweden, with regard to what career success means to them. The insights generated by this research are based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with 44 women identified as successful by conventional academic standards. The results show that women professors evaluate their success in academia by both objective and subjective criteria. Research productivity stands out as the primary criterion by which women assess success, and by which career advancement may be made in both countries. However, the professors interviewed also valued subjective measures of success, such as satisfaction in one’s work, having a positive influence on others and the freedom to pursue one’s own research interests. An understanding of these subjective notions of career success may shed light on observed gender inequalities in academic careers in both countries.