---

The first cross-cultural analysis of the differences in career trajectories and experiences between a senior group of women academics and a younger group who are at early and mid-career stages. Major themes in the autobiographical stories of these women were national context; organisational context; family, class and location; and agency.

---

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. The Context; Barbara Bagilhole and Kate White PART II: REFLECTIONS OF WOMEN IN ACADEMIA 2. A Standard Academic Career?; Pat O´Connor 3. Shaping an Academic Belonging: The Interloper Syndrome by Gender and Class; Barbara Bagilhole 4. A Mature Age Student; Jenny Neale 5. A Non-typical Academic Career; Maria de Lourdes Machado-Taylor 6. An Outsider in Academia; Kate White PART III: THE NEXT GENERATION 7. Careers of Early and Mid-career Academics; Teresa Carvalho, Ozlem Ozkanl?, Heidi Prozesky and Helen Peterson PART IV: EXPLORING GENERATIONAL CHANGE 8. Continuity and Change in Academic Careers; Kate White and Barbara Bagilhole

---

Teresa Carvalho, University of Aveiro, Portugal Maria de Lourdes Machado-Taylor, CIPES, Portugal Jenny Neale University of Wellington, New Zealand Pat O´Connor, University of Limerick, Ireland Özlem Özkanl?, Ankara University, Turkey Helen Peterson, Uppsala University, Sweden Heidi Prozesky, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

---