The precarity paradox

Abstract This article investigates precarious working conditions and their effects on female academics working in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in Hungary. We aim to show how precarity in different formats, such as contractual and economic precarity combined with gender-based discrimination, is present through career stages based on twenty-six individual and group interviews conducted with female PhD holders, including both researchers at the early and mature stages of their careers. The results confirm a precarity paradox whereby those with the highest level of education experienced fixed-term contracts, low incomes and gender-based discrimination over time at different career stages, and junior and senior female teachers and researchers suffered significant impacts at the personal, job, career and organisational levels, undermining their research excellence, well-being and career progress.