Tenure in a Chilly Climate

Abstract

n this article we discuss the emo- tional and structural dimensions of seeking tenure in a chilly climate1 and describe and analyze the devalu- ation and hostility junior women faculty experience working in that climate. We write as two women who have been through difficult ten- ure cases (one of us succeeded, one of us did not). Happily, we both have moved on to other institutions experienced the profession and our own tenure processes as profoundly as tenured faculty. We have both junior faculty, both of us knew very little about what it was like to live gendered. Despite the obsessing about tenure that threatens to con- sume so many conversations among through a difficult tenure case. We have been struck by how submerged the stories are. We have known col- leagues for years before learning that they were denied tenure at their first job. We have heard snippets of stories about earlier Department of Labor complaints or lawsuits filed against our own departments but have rarely heard complete accounts. We relay parts of our stories because sharing them with each other has helped us to understand our own situations and move on, talking with others who had been through the experience while we were going through it was uniquely helpful, and, frankly, we would have liked to have read others' stories at the time. The similarities between our two stories and others we have learned of suggest that our cases are not merely idiosyncratic.