Attention to shaping the direction of one’s career according to personal needs and preferences is growing. However, there is limited understanding how contextual antecedents affect career authenticity. Moreover, little is known about whether antecedents of career authenticity operate in the same way for men compared to women and if the impact of these antecedents differs per position. In this study, we contribute to these gaps in the literature by analysing the role of five antecedents of career authenticity in the academic context. Our analysis is based on a cross-sectional survey collected among a sample of 398 academics working in The Netherlands. It shows that justice in promotion practices is the most important contextual antecedent in explaining career authenticity in academia. After analysing the data using multi-group Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), we found that some antecedents relate differently to career authenticity for men compared to women. Our data also showed how most antecedents operate differently per academic rank. These insights show that higher education institutes can boost their academics’ career authenticity but should tailor such actions to academics of different genders and in different positions.