Women's work-life balance strategies in academia

Although work-life balance in academia is a widely represented topic in the academic discourse, there is still no structural solution to this phenomenon. The main aim of this article is to analyse how the intersection of gender, class and ethnicity effects and shapes the strategies of female academics of two ethnic groups at in two Serbian universities developed to rationalize and explain their actions and decisions on work-life balance. The qualitative research was based on twenty semi-structured interviews. The findings show that when explaining their attitudes and decisions women used certain rhetoric and life strategies. The intersectional analysis conveyed that there is a difference between the strategy's women used in order to cope with family and career obligations when it comes to different ethnic backgrounds. There is a class difference as well, which is intersecting with gender and ethnicity, thereby resulting in a new inequality among women in academia. The challenge of finding work-life balance is great for women, who decide to deal with it on a micro level, in their own family and in their own way not questioning the organizational structures upon which work in the academic social context is based.