The Chronicle: Colloquy: The question

THE QUESTION

Elisabeth and Lewis Perry, a long-time, two-career academic couple, discuss their experiences on the academic job market in an essay in the new issue of The Chronicle. While husband and wife are now happily employed (in a job-sharing arrangement), they discuss the many difficulties facing academic couples. Some scholars, particularly those who are married to other academics or who have tried to recruit such academics, say that colleges should explicitly favor spouses in hiring decisions -- as a means of making it easier for academic couples to find satisfying work without being in long-distance relationships. Others say that merit should be the focus of hiring decisions and that giving preferences to spouses amounts to unfair favoritism. Should colleges give preferences in faculty hiring to the spouses of other faculty members or to the spouses of prospective faculty members? Do colleges handle academic couples fairly in the hiring process? What should colleges do to help academic couples?

For further information, see this background article:

Two Academic Careers and One Fulfilling Job (3/17/2000)

: 48 RESPONSES (New 4/27)

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