In 1991, at a Midwest Sociologists for Women in Society (MSWS) panel on careers for women in sociology, I talked about “Redefining Success as a Feminist Academic.” Today, 20 years later I am on another MSWS career panel Career Stages: Issues and Transitions, with my focus on retirement.
From 1977-2006, I was a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Northeastern Illinois University. Beginning in 1988, I started teaching self-defense and also took on leadership for IMPACT Chicago. Since I retired from Northeastern in 2006, I have continued as the director of IMPACT Chicago and am still teaching self-defense. I have also had the opportunity to teach a graduate course once a year at University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) preparing graduate students to teach their first sociology course (Colloquium on the College Teaching of Sociology) and co-authored a gender studies textbook with Michael Armato Investigating Gender: Developing a Feminist Sociological Imagination. Just as my life while I was a professor had many layers and complexities not neatly covered by my title, so is retirement multi-layered and complex. The label “retired” does not have much meaning beyond I am no longer employed full-time.
When reflecting on retirement as a career stage, I decided to return to the points I made 20 years ago when I was mid-career as a way to share my thoughts about retirement. This decision has come from my realization that what was success for me as a feminist academic is also success for me as a retired feminist academic.
We are more than our jobs.
No matter how wonderful and rewarding our jobs might be, we are more than those jobs. We need to have lives and interests beyond those jobs even while we devote ourselves to our work. This approach to life becomes very important when you are in a situation where you have retired and now have no job, but also if you are suddenly unemployed or have a job that you do not enjoy. The consistent thread for me is that I am a feminist sociologist; this identity is not tied to the particular job I have but to my life-long commitments and interests.
Life is a Process
When I started graduate studies in sociology, sociology was a male-dominated field and I, like many other female colleagues, had to navigate often hostile territory. Being hired in a feminist-friendly department like Northeastern did not protect me from challenges with the university and colleagues in other departments about how to carve out a feminist academic career. As chairs, deans, and college presidents came and went, I was constantly negotiating how to implement my commitment to being a feminist sociologist.
Figuring out how to be a feminist sociologist continues to be a process even after retirement. After all, most people expect retirement to mean that you give up the work you did when you were employed. I am no longer a professor but I’m still a feminist sociologist, so teaching, research, and service are still something I continue to do although I recognize that how I continue to engage as a feminist sociologist will change as aging continues.
Carpe Diem—an important part of this process is to seize the day because it is important for this very moment that you live your life to the fullest and in the way you want to be living. But ironically seizing this moment also means that you are creating pathways right now for your future. Your future is not something that just happens at some magical point, so make efforts to create paths that are taking you in the direction you want to go.
Take risks
Twenty years ago, I urged my peers not to get stuck in teaching and writing about the same things but to take risks by stepping into new areas of study, develop new courses, attend conferences, shake things up. Taking risks continues to be important in retirement. Given our financial and health circumstances, what is a risk for one of us may not be for another, but find a way to try new things, meet new people, and to step outside of your comfort zone.
Engage in collective action for social justice
Finding time for engagement in collective action for social justice is always a challenge but I needed that engagement throughout my career, no matter how small my engagement was, to feel like a feminist sociologist. As feminist sociologists, we have so much to offer and so much to gain by engaging in collective action for social justice. Retirement does not change what we have to give or gain.
In short, retirement is not an end nor a beginning but another direction and opportunity to be a feminist sociologist.
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