Abstract
Our research team, comprised primarily of academic women from the Australian Regional University Network (RUN), formed a group named Gender Regionality and Inclusion in Teaching (GRIT) to investigate women’s working conditions and career progression. This chapter draws on autoethnographic narratives to report on the nuanced challenges experienced by women working in regional universities. Findings indicate there is a slow crisis in regional universities encroaching on women’s abilities to agentically progress their careers. Continued underfunding of regional universities impacts the resources, facilities, and professional development opportunities available to staff, and the consequences for women are exacerbated by their desire to maintain family and community ties in regional areas. In addition, the staff requirement to travel between dispersed campuses makes little allowance for women with caring and other responsibilities and further reduces agency in their career trajectory.