| dc.description.abstract | Recent debates within the Norwegian academic community reveal concerns about the insecurity of the postdoctoral career structure. In addition, there was a lack of growth in the share of female postdoctoral fellows in Norway over the 2010-2020 decade. Based on these combined observations, this master’s thesis explores how the early academic career structure in Norway informs female academics’ decisions around remaining in academia. Through a qualitative case-study methodology, this thesis uses template analysis to analyze interviews with six female doctoral research fellows and six female postdoctoral fellows at the University of Oslo. This analysis results in four key conclusions. First, through the analytical framework, this thesis finds that gendered disadvantages related to the academic career structure in Norway are perceived by the participants. Second, the findings in this thesis align with the theoretical framework to indicate that the gendered nature of the academic organization can cause women to adjust their preferences and choose to leave academia. Third, this thesis builds on the theoretical framework to theorize that as men in Norway increasingly take on traditionally ‘female’ tasks in the domestic sphere, they are also disadvantaged by a career structure that caters to patriarchal gender roles. Fourth and finally, framed by feminist standpoint epistemology and the theoretical framework, this thesis illuminates perceptions of the early academic career structure in Norway which challenge the hegemonic understanding of organizations as gender-neutral. Considering these findings, this thesis recommends that Norwegian policies related to the academic career structure are adapted to better retain and support academics in their early careers. | eng |