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Women Working as Casual Academics: A Marginalised Group

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Penny Bassett  and
Helen Marshall
Penny Bassett
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Technology, PO Box 14428, MCMC, Melbourne Vic 8001, Tel: +61 3 9365 2285, Email: [email protected], or [email protected]
Helen Marshall
Affiliation:
Department of Social Science and Social Work, RMIT, 124 Latrobe Street, Melbourne Vic 3000, Tel: +61 3 9660 3016
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Abstract

Organisations are becoming increasingly flexible in staffing, often using a small core of permanent staff and a peripheral contingent of contract, casual and temporary employees. Recent Australian and overseas studies suggest that this is also true in the higher education sector, with a casualisation of the academic workforce, particularly in the lecturer and below range. This is creating a large group of marginalised academics, the majority of whom are women. Such academics' opportunities may be limited because of the values implicit in the university culture. The possibility of a model of permanent academics on the one hand and a ‘casual’ underclass on the other has the potential to cause significant problems and to affect the quality of education provided.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , March 1998 , pp. 10 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 1998

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