ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses many strategies that women employ in the quest for successful careers in academe, as well as the difficult choices they face when negotiating their personal and professional lives. It focuses on the deep tension between the compulsion to assimilate and the desire for authenticity. The chapter utilizes a framework from the field of cognitive psychology to elucidate the foundation of this tension, enumerates the potential hazards of assimilation, and poses strategies for navigating assimilation, authenticity, and advancement. Cognitive psychologists interpret the assimilation imperative as the need to convey a group identity story that will be readily accepted by the members of the organization. The compulsion to assimilate into an organizational or group culture has strong psychosocial roots intended to maintain group cohesiveness through a shared identity. Structural contributors to gender dissonance include work-life imbalance, inconsistent expectations, and inequitable rewards.
