Reasserting care in higher education: perspectives from female early and mid-career researchers

Universities globally face growing pressure to maintain competitiveness in research excellence. This corporatisation of market values often overlooks intersecting inequalities of gender, race, and class. This is especially true for a group of female Mid/Early-Career Researchers (M/ECRs) working in a large Australian university who experience significant challenges due to the undervaluing of care within universities. Drawing on Tronto's ethics of care, where care and democratic ethics are two sides of the same coin, this paper explores the marginalisation of care and solidarity in academia. Through first-hand narratives, it examines what the practice of 'care' amidst pressures entails, proposing that integrating care into academic work can counter neoliberal logics. However, at the practical and collective level, care is not without inconsistencies and paradoxes. By foregrounding collective and relational care, this study critically examines how public and private goods, obligation and responsibility, are mobilised to better foster an equitable academic environment.