Showing Up for Others: Narratives From Female Academics on the Process of Identity Formation

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the relationship between the process of identity formulation and emotional management within cultural rules of female academics and the higher education workplace. Through auto‐ethnographic narratives from three female academics, the authors explore their personal intersectional identity formation processes with the intent to contribute to the understanding of how academic structures can impact development of the self. The main findings suggest that three pieces of personal and work selves intertwine to form the female academic: questioning the self, shifting the self, and pushing the self. These “strategies” for coping and moving forward have evolved out of “being” for others. As a female academic, one's entire being is rooted in others and in giving for others, suggesting that the process of identity development is not fully internal, but also has external components associated with it. Identity formation and emotional management within cultural rules is part of a process of change in academia and of learning what works and does not work at any given time. By understanding the underlying value that is driving decisions and actions in this dynamic environment, better workplace decisions can be made that allow for one's goals to be reached with the hope of making the academic culture and workplace more inviting and impartial for females now and in the future.