A phenomenological research on the career barrier and job satisfaction experience of female academics

The aim of this research is to understand the career barrier experience of female academics. The second purpose of the study is to portray the career experience of women and display the role of job satisfaction in this experience. For this purpose, 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of female academics from different positions including managerial and non-managerial ones; and disciplines including Business Administration, Political Sciences and Communication Studies. The data gathered through the interviews were analyzed using the qualitative data analysis software MAXQDA, version 12. As a methodological perspective, phenomenological model was adopted. Academic profession is one of the most difficult professions to balance between work and life. Many female academics face challenges as prioritization and sacrificing something related to work or life. The researched revealed that on the one side, there is the experience of married female academics and some of them are mothers at the same time, who bear a huge responsibility. On the other hand there is the experience of single female academics who also bear huge responsibilities related to their parents and relatives. The academic performance pressure, which affects all academics was also revealed during the research as a significant face of female academics' career and especially career barrier experience. Female academics mentioned that, to publish not according to their own planning, but according to the promotion criteria and the institutional demands, reduce their sense of job satisfaction and construct barriers in front of them. During the interviews were also reported that, not to be able to take their time, being very tired always, being sleepless, especially for the females who have a child, feeling incomplete and guilty against their children. These issues are the dimensions of their career experience whereas also reducing their sense of job satisfaction