Stories from inside the ivory tower: women's experiences of combining paid work and family life when employed in the Victorian higher education sector

Sheree Cartwright's experiences of employment within the higher education sector mirror that of many women, being a combination of casual work and fixed-term contracts. This combined with the acknowledgement that the majority of female academics across Australian universities work in levels A, B and C, and an interest in how gender inequality, work and family are connected, led her research on how women resolve working in this environment with family commitments and the factors which influence the decisions they make. This report by Paula Johnson based on the presentation by Sheree Cartwright at the 2009 NTEU Women's Conference.