The increasing reliance on contingent labor of all types is a crisis, and one that is particularly relevant to the equality and advancement of people in historically under-represented groups.  The contingent labor crisis disproportionately affects women, even more so in the case of intersecting minority identities such as race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, and gender identity.  Women are over-represented in non-tenure track positions and under-represented in tenure track ones (for statistics from the U.S., click here). In addition, a very recent survey conducted by the Classical Association of Canada shows particularly disturbing disparities in tenured or tenure track faculty under 45, who are both most likely to have been hired in the recent economic downturn and LESS likely to be part of the “old guard” or to come from graduate cohorts with gender disparity: the survey respondents reported twice as many men as women under 45 in full-time tenured  or tenure track faculty positions.  In addition, far more women across every age group hold contingent positions, with twice as many women as men in full-time contingent positions and 1.5 times as many women as men in contingent part-time positions. 

Contingent faculty face an unfeasibly heavy, under-compensated work load.  To be taken seriously as candidates for tenure track positions, contingent faculty must keep up their research regardless of what their positions technically require.   Contract faculty face significant barriers to researching due not only to their heavier teaching workload, but also due to lack of institutional support and access to funding.  Thus it can be the case that the job one has is actually hindering one from ever getting the job one wants.

Women are particularly affected by the intersection of unreliable, heavy-workload, and under-compensated work with issues of pregnancy, parenthood and other caring roles, and work-life balance.  Even women who are not mothers and have no intention of becoming mothers are negatively affected by the perception that our potential fertility and familial duties are a detriment to our ability to be successful academics.  Negative attitudes about working mothers are a detriment to ALL women’s careers.

Work-life balance is elusive for those with a much heavier teaching load than tenure track faculty (usually a minimum of 3/3 in order to bring a household of one parent and one child above the poverty line in most parts of North America).  It is not unusual for contingent faculty to work 10-12 hours a day, six or seven days a week, with no stability, relatively (or drastically) low wages, and fewer benefits, such as travel funds or other professional development funds, healthcare, and even dedicated office space, than tenured faculty receive.  The problems are even worse for those who work on limited, per-course contracts or at more than one institution.

For many women (and some men), the years immediately following the completion of the PhD are also the years in which they have to make decisions about whether they are going to have children, when they are going to do so, and how many to have.  The instability in life and finances that are caused by the increasing number of years spent in temporary positions makes it difficult if not impossible to plan for the future.  In turn, the difficulties of contingent positions may be more likely to force women in their thirties to opt out of academia if they also want to have children.  Those who stick it out may have to decide against children.  For some women, this is no decision – they do not want children and are happy without them, but women should not feel as though they were forced into a “choice” they might not have made if there had been more support for them.

For those of us who decide to combine family and contract work, there is yet another set of challenges, as financial instability and frequent moves often add stress to long-term relationships or marriages, make it difficult for a spouse to establish or continue in his or her career, and can negatively affect children’s lives.   Many contract workers are not eligible for maternity leave or benefits or any leave to care for ill family members.  This leads to financial hardship as well as questions about what kind of position, if any, they will come back to after taking any type of family leave.  It is also extremely difficult to arrange for child or eldercare when one’s schedule and income can change drastically over the course of the year, and may include working outside of regular business hours.

These positions have long since ceased to be a temporary training ground or part of the natural life-cycle of the profession, if they ever were, and are instead creating a tier of low-wage, low-prestige workers who are increasingly unlikely to ever make it into the tenure stream.   Those who are already disadvantaged are more likely to be trapped in the lower tier.  Many in contract positions have to work, and due to concerns such as student loans or family necessity cannot afford to take time off to research or to take lower-paid but more prestigious post-doctoral positions.  There is a real danger of academia becoming effectively closed off to all but those who are already in a privileged position.