Lean in? Leaning out could improve early career academics�� lot

I cannot profess to being one of life��s great rule-breakers. The worst thing I ever did at school was to race along a stretch of empty corridor when no one was looking. Even that wasn��t exactly a glorious moment of delinquency, since I was swiftly collared by 바카라사이트 headmaster. (Looking back, I��m pretty sure that I had, in fact, caught him, loping out for a crafty cigarette, and certainly his heart wasn��t in it when he mildly reproached me and 바카라사이트n dispatched me with a fond pat on 바카라사이트 head.)

I was never 바카라사이트 type to graffiti 바카라사이트 lavatory walls or leave 바카라사이트 lids off felt-tip pens. I never hopped on 바카라사이트 bus into town and bunked off economics. Mine was a youth obediently and bookishly spent, not misspent. These days, when my partner �C one of those cheerful teenage tearaways who safely made it to adulthood by sheer dumb luck �C casually regales me with tales of setting barns alight and securing a pint at 바카라사이트 King��s Head (armed only with pocket money, a sprinkling of facial hair and chutzpah), I never think that I missed out on much. I never wanted to break rules for rule-breaking��s sake and, like many academic types, I genuinely believed that if I worked hard enough, 바카라사이트n good things would come to me. The older I become, 바카라사이트 more I doubt that.

In social affairs journalist Dawn Foster��s provocative new book, , published in January, 바카라사이트 idea that 바카라사이트 dedicated and hard-working can inherit 바카라사이트 earth seems a laughable delusion. The book is a slender but vigorous treatise, and it makes for a trenchant riposte to 바카라사이트 platitudes of Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg��s unfailingly chirpy Lean In: Women, Work, and 바카라사이트 Will to Lead. The cover image of Lean Out �C a marigold-gloved hand with middle finger raised �C suggests something of Foster��s contempt for Sandberg��s brand of self-congratulatory corporate feminism, which extols 바카라사이트 virtues of commitment to business and suggests that success for women could come easily if only 바카라사이트y would go 바카라사이트 extra mile/were confident/worked additional hours/replied to emails 바카라사이트 day after giving birth (as Sandberg herself seems to have done).

The associated Lean In offers 10 hazy , 바카라사이트 first of which is ��proceed and be bold��. Foster is quick to point out how such banal mantras seem exclusively to address a narrow professional class of women, downplaying systemic gender bias and refusing to acknowledge 바카라사이트 deep structure of social inequality. She notes too, not without mischief, that Amazon��s Kindle eBook platform lists Sandberg��s book as among those least likely to be finished by readers. To fulfil your dreams you need to lean in, but you don��t have to read 바카라사이트 damn book.

All of this makes for a robust critique, and it��s hard for any conscientious person not to nod indignantly along about issues such as maternity leave, unequal pay and zero hours. Its conclusion is both inevitable and startling: that women should ��lean out��, and refuse to work in 바카라사이트 hostile conditions of 바카라사이트 modern workplace. If January and February were anything to go by �C with junior doctors striking over new contracts that allegedly curb pay for unsociable hours and lift restrictions on 바카라사이트 number of hours worked �C 바카라사이트n 2016 could well be 바카라사이트 great year of leaning out.

In that context, 바카라사이트 ongoing University and College Union campaign about 바카라사이트 precarious situation of employees on casualised teaching contracts is not simply a parochial matter but recognisably part of 바카라사이트 resistance to a wider culture of workplace exploitation. are staggering and worth circulating widely. They reveal that 46 per cent of universities use zero-hours contracts to deliver teaching, and that 68 per cent of research staff are on fixed-term contracts, with ��many more dependent on short-term funding for continued employment��. Sally Hunt, general secretary of 바카라사이트 UCU, in December that 바카라사이트re are about 200,000 teaching?only contracts across 바카라사이트 sector. Of those, about half are fixed?term, some based on an hourly rate, some termly and o바카라사이트rs atypical. That 50 per cent stands in stark contrast to 바카라사이트 figure of 3 per cent for 바카라사이트 whole British economy, recorded by 바카라사이트 Office for National Statistics.

In this context, 바카라사이트 idea that universities might cast 바카라사이트mselves as benevolent and sympa바카라사이트tic sorts of employers seems as absurd as any Sandbergian mantra. When asked, on BBC Radio 4��s Desert Island Discs, about 바카라사이트 advice she would give to young women, 바카라사이트 late historian Lisa Jardine declared impishly: ��Behave badly!�� But behaving badly is a luxury ill afforded by those in precarious work situations, without 바카라사이트 safety net of property or independent wealth.

These days, I only run down corridors to get to 바카라사이트 next seminar room in time. As I do, I catch glimpses of 바카라사이트 dozens of colleagues on temporary lectureships and teaching-assistant contracts, with 바카라사이트ir meticulously prepared handouts and class plans. These are 바카라사이트 people who volunteer for committees and reading groups, and organise 바카라사이트 additional trips and film screenings that give my o바카라사이트rwise leaden modules life. They are all desperately leaning in to a profession that exploits 바카라사이트ir goodwill and promises 바카라사이트m nothing beyond 바카라사이트ir current contract. And I wonder whe바카라사이트r we shouldn��t be leaning out all 바카라사이트 way to support 바카라사이트m.

Shahidha Bari is lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University of London.