ABSTRACT
This chapter juxtaposes the paradox of work-life balance as an important attraction for women entering an academic career against the realities for attaining that balance faced by research and academic staff in an Irish university. Based on survey and focus group data, staff testified positively to the flexibility and autonomy that an irregular and informal academic work regime allows. However, there was a consensus that working excessive working hours is the norm. Opportunities for formal flexibility, such as part-time working, proved to be limited and take-up highly gendered. Hence it was mainly women who availed of flexible working and family-related leaves. Maternity leave often involved mothers ‘doubling up’ their teaching before, or more commonly after, taking leave. Many mothers had worked for periods during maternity leave and/or experienced exclusion and isolation from their colleagues or workplace. Taking paternity leave was not common, and a similar pattern emerged with take-up of unpaid parental leave by mothers as well as fathers. With some limited exceptions, the aspiration of work-life balance was perceived as a highly desirable mirage rather than a reality.
