BU Research Blog

Achieving work-life balance is a struggle that many women in academia face and those with competing demands, such as caring responsibilities, will have unique ideas and experiences of work life-balance. Despite the varied care experiences of women, work conducted with women in academia has tended to focus on childcare responsibilities and there is a scarcity of research examining the experiences of those with other caregiving responsibilities.

In the hope of gaining in-depth insight into diverse experiences of work-life balance, we are currently conducting a photo-production study “Work-life balance through the eyes of women in academia with caring responsibilities” and would like to invite our colleagues to take part and help us spread the word about our study among their networks.

We are looking for UK-based women academics who have caring responsibilities. While we would like to particularly encourage those who provide regular care for an adult (partner, parent, another member of their family, friend etc.), we will be very happy to hear from women with childcare responsibilities. The study involves taking a few photos illustrating participant’s idea of work-life balance and then taking part in an online interview (approx. 45-60 minutes) to talk about the photos and participant’s understanding and experience of work-life balance. We appreciate that women academics are incredibly busy and so we are very flexible in terms of arranging the interviews within or outside working hours. We have got Amazon vouchers to thank our participants for their time and effort 🙂

The findings from our study aim to inform universities practices and policies to promote better support for women academics. Also, the photos – at participants’ permission and after necessary anonymisation – will be used to create a traditional and online exhibition that will hopefully provide space for reflection, discussion, and inspiration for the general public including academic and non-academic staff in HE.

If you are interested in taking part please email Agata (awezyk@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Catherine (ctalbot@bournemouth.ac.uk). If you know someone who would be willing to participate, please share our contact details with them.