Academic resilience in higher education: A qualitative study on women academics

The purpose of this study is to analyse the obstacles that women academics encounter during academic development process and resiliency strategies that they use to overcome these obstacles. The study is a case study which is a design of qualitative study. The participants consist of women academics who work at Republic of Turkey universities. The participants were interviewed and semi-structure interview was used. The data of the study was interpreted using content analysis method. According to study results, the elements that direct female academics to the academic process are determined as internal and external motivating factors. In addition, it has been observed that female academics face difficulties and obstacles in the categories of individual risk factors, social risk factors and pandemic process risk factors while becoming an academic and advance academically. Participants stated that individual and environmental protective factors helped them cope with these difficulties and obstacles. Finally, female academics evaluated their suggestions for women who will build an academic career, from individual and professional perspectives.