Chapter 1. The positioning and making of female academics: A review of the literature; Denise Mifsud -- Chapter 2. Being tough, being humorous and being explicitly feminist: The intrinsically disordered nature of my ways around the academia; Isabel Menezes -- Chapter 3. You must wait to be asked: Career advancement and the maternal body; Caroline Gattrell -- Chapter 4. How babies taught me to 'do' academia: Crafting a career in an institution that was not built for mothers; Catherine Mazak -- Chapter 5. Writing myself into an academic career; Rowena Murray -- Chapter 6. Academic fluidity? An unconventional route to the professoriate; Jackie Potter -- Chapter 7. My personal journey on the pathway of resilience; Sarah Skerratt -- Chapter 8. Actively constructing yourself as a professor: After appointment; Beverley Yamamoto -- Chapter 9. How to fall into a career trap (without even realising); Inger Mewburn -- Chapter 10. Mis-making an academic career: Power, discipline, structures and practices; Devorah Kalekin-Fishman -- Chapter 11. A personal journey of a long and winding road to professorial status: An alternative pathway and the challenges, trials and tribulations; Moira Lafferty -- Chapter 12. The process of becoming a woman professor and 'unbecoming' gender inequality: A female drama of resistance; Denise Mifsud.

This book explores the experiences and perspectives of female professors. Analysing the gendering of this process using various theoretical perspectives, this edited collection examines the active ‘making’ of careers, and how this has been possible. The editors and contributors cut across institutions, cultures and continents to seek to understand how women navigate the gendered process of becoming a professor, with each chapter applying a different theoretical or methodological approach to her experience. The chapters are not mere descriptions of career trajectories, but analytic narratives anchored within distinct theoretical and philosophical frameworks. In turn, they shed important light on how – and if – institutional structures and systems are adapting to move towards gender equality. Offering practical advice as well as thoughtful reflection, this book will be of especial interest to early career female academics. .