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Background Women are under-represented within academic general practice, particularly after mid-career.
Aim To explore the lived experiences of early/mid-career female academic GPs and inform ways to reduce attrition through the GP academic career path.
Method Adapted Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method, which uses multiple interviews with each participant to build a nuanced picture of how their life has unfolded over time. 32 interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of 13 female academic GPs recruited through UK departmental mailing lists and via snowball sampling. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, analysed in two ways: thematically using Braun & Clarke’s method, and interpretively to identify biographical storylines — key narratives and ‘plots’ that characterised the participant’s journey into, through and (in some cases) away from academia.
Results Thematic analysis surfaced decision making and career trajectories, challenges of balancing the separate spheres, impact on personal life and support strategies. These themes gained meaning within key biographical storylines including: ‘negotiating entry to, and thriving in, academia’; ‘becoming’; ‘turbulence and uncertainty in the academic career path’; ‘navigating motherhood and societal expectations’; and ‘academia as respite?’. Participants described their efforts (sometimes successful, sometimes not) to weave together these storylines into a unifying biographical narrative and manage practical and ethical tensions between their clinical, academic and personal responsibilities.
Conclusion Women academic GPs live complex and demanding lives. Different strands of their unfolding life narratives —as clinicians, academics and partners/carers — generate recurrent tensions and conflicting pressures. Academic support structures should address (among other things) the career-limiting impact of short-term contracts.
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British Journal of General Practice
