Changing Patterns of Job Entitlements in Academe: Labour Market Entry

Abstract

Using the general work experience in Canada and the United States as a point of departure, the authors explore shifts in the characteristics of cohorts of newly hired instructors at Canadian universities from 1977 to 1991. They show a pattern of changes in academic job entitlements and major contributions of teaching outside the tenure stream (i.e., in external labour markets). These shifts include increased difficulty of access to academic appointments, manifested by increasing age of entrants, higher credentials, and a decreasing proportion of senior hires. Women’s accelerated entrance to academe coincides with reduced options and a future of much more chaotic and difficult career trajectories, which they, as well as male entrants, must confront.