Professional challenges and coping strategies of female faculty in public sector colleges: A phenomenological study in District Bhakkar

Abstract

This thesis addresses the issue of professional well-being and coping methods of women faculty members in the District Bhakkar, Pakistan in the field of higher education in the public sector colleges. It is dealing with gender disparity in academic institutions with respect to the implications of institutional constraints, cultural expectations, and resource shortages in female lecturers. The thesis introduces the potential conflicting demand between personal and professional roles and focuses on the problems that women have to encounter regarding the solution to maintaining both personal and professional responsibilities and following the culturally defined gender roles. It adopted a qualitative research design, a phenomenological approach in order to have research on lived experiences of female lecturers. The interviews of 13 female faculty members in government colleges in Bhakkar were semi structured. The analysis included identification of main challenges, coping strategies, and institutional restraints that can affect their professional life using the thematic approach. The results indicate that female lecturers have to cope with serious barriers that include classrooms that are extremely crowded, lack of facilities and gender expectations. Also, they feel unsupported by the institution especially when it comes to receiving professional education, childcare, and safe transportation. Amid the coping strategies, there is self-strength, the unofficial support system, as well as implicit resistance to institutional constraints as used by the participants. The thesis explains the implications to these findings in context of the gendered power structure in academia. It utilizes the Academic Job Demands Theory (AJDT) and the Socialist Feminist Theory to describe the influence of structural inequalities in the field of higher learning on professional development of female faculty members. The research points at the necessity of institutional change so that gender equity was encouraged and female lecturers experience an improved working environment.

Key Words: Challenges, Coping Strategies, District Bhakkar, Female faculty, Public Sector Colleges.