In a recent piece for University World News, Julia Orupabo (Institute for Social Research, Norway), Marjan Nadim (ISR), Marte Mangset (University of Oslo), and Sigtona Halrynjo (ISR) discuss their recent study of academia’s ideal worker norm and how academics navigate this in the Norwegian context. The authors write that scholars often feel they must choose between scholarly success and family life. They propose that permanent contracts—rather than gender—might be what really enables resistance to total work devotion. Additionally, the authors highlight how academics are redefining success by eschewing the narrative of staying in academia at all costs, resisting or refusing undervalued tasks, and asking what kind of academic they want to be.
