Gender Differences in the Understanding and Pursuit of

Gender Differences in the Understanding and Pursuit of Life Purpose among University Faculty 33 rd Annual ASHE Conference November 8, 2008 Jacksonville, Florida Don Thompson Cindy Miller-Perrin Pepperdine University

Literature Review Undergraduates are far more spiritual than was once recognized and desire guidance in their search for spiritual truth and meaning from their colleges and universities. One particularly important aspect of faith and spiritual development in the context of higher education is its connection to the process of developing a sense of meaning and purpose in life, a process commonly referred to as vocational development. Questions about life meaning and purpose often surface during the college years as students consider issues associated with personal identity, faith beliefs, and career options An academic mentoring community helps students develop vocational calling (Parks, 2000; Fowler, 2000).

Literature Review Professors want to speak about matters of spirituality, but lack institutional support and encouragement (Astin & Astin, 1999). Faculty with spiritual character are more likely to help students develop social connectedness, responsiveness and accountability (Bennett, 2003). Despite the potentially important role of faculty in student vocational development, most research on spirituality in higher education has focused on students rather than faculty. Very little research has examined either how faculty view their roles as vocational mentors or how faculty conceptualize and experience vocation in their own lives.

Extending Our Own Work The current presentation describes our findings on gender differences in discerning and acting on lifepurpose in the academy, extending the results of our most recent publication: Thompson, D. & Miller-Perrin, C. (2008). Vocational discernment and action: An exploratory study of male and female university professors. Review of Religious Research, 50(1), 97 -119.

Definition of Vocation One’s “sacred lifework”, including any human activity that gives meaning, purpose, and direction to life. One’s calling – which transcends job/career, including friendship, parenting, marriage, church membership, and community involvement.

Research Hypotheses There are potential gender differences with regard to the nature and development of vocational calling. Gender differences are evident in faculty members’ discernment of life purpose perceptions of vocational barriers

Sample Characteristics Survey 144 faculty - 75 respondents Age range: 23 -64; mean: 47. 7 28% Female, 72% Male Predominantly Caucasian, Married, Protestant Essay 120 faculty – 83 respondents Age range: 29 -69; mean: 40. 4 43% Female, 57% Male Predominantly Caucasian, Married, Protestant

Faculty Survey 75 -item survey that assessed faculty members’ Definitions of vocation Personal experiences of vocation Barriers to vocational discernment and action. Respondents indicated the degree to which they agreed with each statement using a 5 -point Likert scale

Survey Results: Men and Women Conceptualize Vocation Similarly Vocation is defined as: Job/career/profession (82%) One’s life purpose (92%) God’s will for one’s life (82%) Vocation encompasses: Marriage (62%), Parenthood (70%) Friendship (42%) Service to others (64%) Vocation does NOT depend on one’s gender (69%)

Survey Results: Men and Women Perceive Vocational Barriers Differently Demographic Factors Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Education, Income Personal Attitudes and Negative Emotions Fear, Self-doubt, Personal Control, Apathy, Security Interpersonal Relationships Family, Boy/Girlfriend, Friend, Spouse, Mentor, Teacher, Colleague, Boss Sociocultural Pressures Finances, Discrimination, Family Duties, Church Tradition

Barrier Differences ** *

Faculty Essay Faculty completed an autobiographical assignment as part of a seminar designed to integrate faith, learning, and vocation. Focus on some or all of the following issues: The major “turning points” along one’s vocational journey Particular moments of crisis or confusion as well as moments of joy and clarity along the journey Particular individuals who have contributed either positively or negatively to vocational development Experiences that have either affirmed one’s sense of calling or that have shaken the sense of calling Distractions, tensions, or barriers along the way that have hindered the pursuit of vocational calling

Essay Results

Turning Points Women most frequently mentioned turning point experiences that occurred in the form of a personal loss: When I was fifteen, my parents separated. This meant the end of economic stability for my family, as my father took all of our savings with him, but a new sense of peace came over us all. I began to work full -time while in high school in order to help support my family at home and my sister away at college. While it may seem strange to some, I saw this period as a gift. I learned at a very early age that I could support myself. This opened up a whole world to me, as I realized that I could take risks in life. Suddenly, the world beyond my hometown seemed to open its doors to me.

Turning Points Men most often mentioned a watershed experience: All of my science courses seemed like work; all the literature courses seemed like play. On Thanksgiving holiday, I had to work through some heavy-duty equilibrium problems for my quantitative analysis chemistry course, and I was to read Thornton Wilder’s Our Town for my American literature course. The power of the play overwhelmed me. I didn’t know it then, but I was feeling the difference between what Thomas De Quincey called the literature of knowledge and the literature of power. And I began to think, 'Something is wrong here. Why am I competent in but so unmoved by my major, and why do plays and stories and novels and poems move me so? ’

Mentoring Men are more likely to report a mentoring experience and mentors typically include family members and professors: In college, I came to know an incredible professor, who was theatre department. As I worked with him in classes, on stage, and as a work-study student, I came to understand more clearly the meaning of vocation. He exuded passion for his field, and he gave of himself unselfishly. When he wasn’t directing a play, he was pulling costumes for someone else’s production, running the box office, or designing sets. And when he wasn’t doing any of those things, he was telling me how his life in academic theatre had given him the opportunity to take his family all over the world, the skills to work on dramatic productions at his church, and the drive to produce and direct children’s theatre productions at Christmas and during the summers. In short, he provided me a vocational model.

Barriers Barrier Type Men Women Demographic 32% 56% SES Sex 66% 69% Fear Need for Security 21% 44% Parents Professors 38% 69% Lack of Financial Resources Religious Tradition Personal Interpersonal Sociocultural

Demographic Barrier Today, I can turn to my neighbors in Hollywood and say that I understand being without. I can say that I’ve been on the streets, that I’ve had to go without food, that I have lived in a garage like many of them are doing today, that I too grew up without a father, that I’ve tasted poverty, that I have dreamt dreams that were deferred like a raisin in the sun. And even though I have never told my story to any of my neighbors, they feel and acknowledge my solidarity with them. Upon reflection, I have come to understand that God rescued us from our poverty so that we can go back into it to help lighten the load of those still in it. This is my life-purpose, both metaphorically and literally.

Personal Barrier It wasn't until my mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer 3 years ago that I really began to ask one of the “ultimate questions”: what is the meaning in life, and what is the meaning in death? Perhaps because of the crisis I was experiencing in my occupation when we learned of her diagnosis, these questions became inextricably linked to my vocation. I was at UCLA Student Psychological Services, providing therapy to college students full-time. The limited free time I had was spent desperately trying to finish my dissertation. During that year my husband I were also planning our large upcoming wedding. Quite simply, even though I was finally providing the healing services I went to graduate school to provide, living the “life of service” I strived toward for years, I was burned out - emotionally, intellectually, physically exhausted. I found my finitude in all those areas. There I was, just beginning to see the light at the end of the long, dark tunnel of graduate school, and all of a sudden I was questioning if I pursued the right profession. I didn’t know what I was doing with my life, or more importantly, why.

Interpersonal Barrier My father was the most logical candidate to mentor me, but he was simply unavailable. Even when we were together, my interests and inclinations puzzled, irritated, or confused him. I did not doubt his love, but I did doubt his ability to know me or understand me. The distance from my father greatly confused me, so I invented a theory to explain my anomalous life: I had been adopted, I decided. Anyone today who looks at a picture of my father and me would laugh at my hypothesis. But to the child’s mind—being a changeling or an adoptee made perfect sense: I was left-handed, and everyone else in my family was right -handed. I had blue eyes and everyone else had brown. Everyone else cared about the football scene of “Friday night lights, ” and I didn’t. It was as simple and obvious as that: I was an orphan.

Sociocultural Barrier I have found my vocation in the resonance between my own struggles to reconcile the complexities of spirituality and life and the struggles of those I study. As a woman, about whom my church background has definite theological baggage, I also find a cultural explanation and, perhaps ironically, an escape from the ingrained gender traditions wrought so subtly as to become almost imperceptible to those who labor under their influences. To be expected to occupy a space that is uninhabitable dooms women to failure—thus the Victorian obsession with the fallen woman who becomes the scapegoat for all ills opposes the redeeming ideal who represents a panacea for the world. Neither one is real, but they make a congenial vision of good and evil. Victorian literary studies have allowed me to identify the gender issues, to see them in an historical light and to understand name the varieties of oppression that haunt the daily lives of women even still. To work intimately with Victorian literature is to confront the history of my religious heritage. It has aided in my working out where my religious tradition has been and why it has evolved in the way it has. It has provided—often in language so beautiful it will make you weep—a framework of Christian faith that has survived both the human tragedy and the human comedy, that can stand up to critical examination and reevaluation.

Conclusions Women reported experiencing a significantly greater number of barriers than men in their understanding and pursuit of life purpose, especially as related to their sex, interpersonal relationships, and sociocultural pressures. Male faculty tend to rely on mentoring experiences for discernment of their vocation more than women. Although women perceive more barriers than men, both sexes experience barriers to their vocational calling and the subthemes differ for men and women Vocation not only transcends job and career, but also gender, race, and class boundaries, and affirms equality among all men and women and their mutuality. The academy should provide opportunities for faculty to reflect on their calling and life purpose and potential barriers they may encounter along the journey.

Contact Information Don Thompson thompson@pepperdine. edu Cindy Miller-Perrin cperrin@pepperdine. edu