Women and academic career progression in Greece: Barriers and opportunities for early career researchers

Women’s early academic careers continue to be shaped by structural inequalities, even within policy measures designed to support academic entry and progression. This article examines women’s participation in Greece in the national Action ‘Acquisition of Academic Teaching Experience by Early Career Researchers Holding a Doctorate’, approaching the programme as a teaching-oriented route into academia. Focusing on women’s experiences, the study explores how academic precarity, work-life balance, social background, academic culture and evaluation practices shape participation in early academic career-development initiatives. Adopting a qualitative approach and drawing on thematic analysis, the article shows that the Action functioned as an important route into academia while also making broader structural inequalities visible. Although it offered opportunities for independent teaching, academic socialisation and academic profile development, women’s participation was shaped by insecure working conditions, care responsibilities, unequal access to networks and the gendered effects of evaluation criteria. By examining a specific national policy instrument, the study contributes to the literature on women’s academic careers by showing how early academic career progression is shaped not only by formal access to opportunity, but also by the material, social and institutional conditions under which women are able to benefit from it.