Exploring the Strategies and Behaviors that Full-Time Female Academics Utilize to Navigate Career Barriers

Despite increasing attention to gender inequities in academia, full-time tenured female faculty continue to face disproportionate challenges in their career progression, including gender bias, institutional pressure, and lack of equitable support. While existing literature largely centers on these barriers and occasionally explores some institutional interventions, few studies investigate the individual strategies and behaviors women actively deploy to navigate these challenges. This qualitative study addresses that gap by exploring the experiences of 14 full-time tenured female faculty members in U.S. four-year institutions. This research draws on semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to understand how participants enacted strategies to overcome career barriers. Findings revealed four overarching strategies: Staying on Track, Navigating Assertiveness, Managing Relationships, and Impression Management—each composed of specific behaviors, a total of fifteen behaviors. These behaviors were not employed in isolation, rather, participants interwove strategies and behaviors dynamically to respond to shifting institutional and external and internal pressures. Participants also emphasized that the strategies and behaviors enacted were not always successful or did not yield the desired outcomes. Practically, the study offers insight into faculty development, mentorship design, and policy reform by highlighting what female faculty do and how they do it—not just what they face. These insights inform the broader discourse on gender equity in higher education by spotlighting agency, adaptation, and perseverance among tenured female faculty.