Family and the Field
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Christopher Lynn, University of Alabama; Michaela Howells, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Version: View help for Version V1
Version Title: View help for Version Title PLOSONE Article
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application/x-spss-sav | 2.4 MB | 08/14/2018 08:15:AM |
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application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document | 1.4 MB | 08/14/2018 07:49:AM |
Project Citation:
Lynn, Christopher, and Howells, Michaela. Family and the Field. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-08-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/E105404V1
Project Description
Summary:
View help for Summary
Field-based data collection provides an extraordinary
opportunity for comparative research. However, the demands of pursuing research
away from home creates an expectation of unburdened individuals who have the
temporal, financial, and social resources to conduct this work. Here we examine
whether this myth of the socially unencumbered scholar contributes to the loss
of professionals and trainees. To investigate this, we conducted an
internet-based survey of professional and graduate student anthropologists (n = 1025) focused on the challenges and
barriers associated with developing and maintaining a fieldwork-oriented career
path and an active family life. This study sought to determine how (1) family
socioeconomic status impacts becoming an anthropologist, (2) expectations of
field-based research influence family planning, and (3) fieldwork experiences
influence perceptions of family-career balance and stress. We found that most
anthropologists and anthropology students come from educated households and
that white men were significantly more likely to become tenured professionals
than other demographic groups. The gender disparity is striking because a
larger number of women are trained in anthropology and were more likely than
men to report delaying parenthood to pursue their career. Furthermore,
regardless of socioeconomic background, anthropologists reported significant lack
of family-career balance and high stress associated with the profession. For
professionals, lack of balance was most associated with gender, age, SES, tenure,
and impacts of parenting on their career, while for students it was ethnicity
relative degree speed, graduate funding, employment status, total research
conducted, career impact on family planning, and concern with tenure (p < .05). Anthropology bridges the
sciences and humanities, making it the ideal discipline to initiate discussions
on the embedded structural components of field-based careers generalizable
across specialties.
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