The Experience of Academic Non‐Mothers in the Gendered University

In this article we report on data from an empirical study concerned to explore the experience of women academics managing non-motherhood and work in the gendered university. Although there is a growing body of work on the gendered experience of higher education in general and the experience of mothers as academics in particular, as yet there is little on non-mothers and work. Drawing on our data we suggest that non-mothers as well as mothers are affected by the ideology of motherhood and this has consequences for non-mothers as workers within the academy. In addition to being perceived by students and other staff as ‘natural’ carers because they are women, academic non-mothers are expected to put in the time and energy that mothers can not. However, as our data demonstrate, non-mothers often have caring responsibilities outside the institution too. Overall, we argue that non-motherhood needs to be recognized for the complex identity that it is.