Stalled academic

I'm reading a book right now called "Challenges of the Faculty Career for Women" by Philipsen (I was just thinking how interesting it would be if the author was a man instead of a woman... would that be perceived as kosher? Do you have to be part of a minority / underrepresented group to "safely" make comments?)

The author interviewed female faculty at various stages of their careers across various academic settings (from community college to major research universities). One particular late-career academic, speaking on the topic of attaining "balance," said 'I have accepted, although it still hurts, that I will not be promoted, and that I will retire as an associate professor.' I guess something had to give and she decided to sacrifice some career aspirations for fulfillment in other aspects of her life.

This reminded me of a recent conversation I had on this same topic with an assistant professor. She said that a faculty member in her department had decided, after receiving tenure, to focus on teaching and give up research altogether. This "ensured that she will never advance beyond associate professor." Unlike another professor I know, whose department ostracized him after a similar decision (yes, he's at an MRU), this woman's department was happy to have someone take on more of the "unwanted teaching burden."

I don't want to open a whole can of worms here, but I do remember at my previous MRU that there was a lot of (inconclusive) talk about starting 2 separate tenure tracks in each department - teaching and research. The idea is everone gets to do what they love, and you don't have bad teachers teaching or bad researchers researching. A topic worth revisiting later...