Professor Mommy: Finding Work-Family Balance in Academia
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Professor Mommy: Finding Work-Family Balance in Academia
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781442208599 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 01/21/2014 |
| Edition description: | Updated |
| Pages: | 246 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Professor Mommy
Finding Work-Family Balance in AcademiaBy RACHEL CONNELLY KRISTEN GHODSEE
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Copyright © 2011 Rachel Connelly and Kristen GhodseeAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4422-0858-2
Chapter One
A success story—told with the 20/20 Vision of hindsightA Hopeful But Cautionary Tale
When we first started talking about writing this book and how we were going to organize it, we had to make a decision about whether we should start with the good news or the bad news. There is already a lot of bad news out there, but there are also many young women who go into the academy not truly realizing what they are up against. So despite the fact that the goal of this book is to encourage some subset of young women to ignore the odds and pursue an academic career despite a battery of obstacles, we decided to start with the bad news: the empirical facts about the relationship between motherhood and academia.
The academic studies of the effect of parenthood in the academy do show a negative correlation between parenthood and tenure for women. According to a study by Joan C. Williams, "The Glass Ceiling and the Maternal Wall in Academia," women who have children soon after earning their doctoral degrees are far less likely to receive tenure than men who have children after finishing the PhD. Williams reviewed more than one hundred different studies in social psychology and tried to provide some answers as to why this finding is persistent across institutions and disciplines. Williams's review is essential reading for anyone entering into academia but particularly for young women, who will face stereotypes and often considerably more hostility than their male colleagues. She identifies two key factors at play in limiting women's possibilities for success in the academy: the "glass ceiling," which applies to all women, and the "maternal wall," which specifically refers to discrimination against mothers. In other words, she finds that it is a combination of sexism and mommyism that keeps women from advancement on par with their male colleagues. Williams argues that the glass ceiling and the maternal wall reinforce each other, creating a variety of barriers that women must overcome if they are to achieve tenure.
In a 2004 study, Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden examined two large data sets to investigate work-family balance issues in the academy. The study challenged the traditional definition of gender equity in higher education, which is often defined as gender parity of graduate students, tenure-track faculty, and ultimately tenured faculty. In other words, when there is a fifty-fifty representation of men and women at all ranks in the academy, there will be gender equity. Mason and Goulden, however, argued that the definition of gender equity should include equity across familial outcomes, such as rates of childbirth, marriage, and divorce. Their study used data from the survey of doctorate Recipients as well as data from a 2002–2003 study of work-family issues among the ladder-rank faculty at the nine university of California (UC) campuses. In total, Mason and Goulden examined the career trajectories of more than 30,000 PhDs in all disciplines and surveyed more than 8,500 UC tenured and tenure-track faculty.
Their results were troubling for those of us interested in promoting the idea that it is possible to combine academia with family life for women. The first finding of interest was the effect of children younger than six years old in the household at the time of beginning a tenure-track job (which they defined as up to five years after earning a PhD). Controlling for a variety of factors, the study found that women who had "early" babies were far less likely to achieve tenure than men who had children under the age of six in their households. In the sciences, 77 percent of men with "early babies" earned tenure, compared to only 53 percent of women in the same category. In the humanities and social sciences, 78 percent of men with young children in the household within the first five years after completing the degree earned tenure, compared to 58 percent of women. Most of the women not earning tenure had not been denied tenure. instead, the authors hypothesized that many women were leaving tenure-track jobs for what they called "second-tier positions" in the academy because of the strains of combining professional work with motherhood and marriage. This was sobering news indeed.
Turning the analysis around, Mason and Goulden also examined the impact that academic careers might have on the family-formation patterns of men and women. Using the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, they examined the family composition of ladder-rank faculty twelve years out from earning their PhDs. Sixty-nine percent of ladder-rank men were married with children, 15 percent were married without children, and 11 percent were single without children. For ladder-rank women, only 41 percent were married with children, while 20 percent were married without children and 28 percent were single without children. Among the population of single parents, 11 percent of ladder-rank women were raising children on their own, compared to only 5 percent of ladder-rank-faculty men. interestingly, among "second-tier" women, 60 percent were married with children and an additional 20 percent were married without children. of second-tier women, only 14 percent were single without children, half the percentage points of the ladder-rank-faculty women.
What this all means is that "women who are appointed as ladder rank faculty within three years of receiving their PhDs have a 50 percent lower probability of being married than do men and a 52 percent lower probability of being married than women appointed to second-tier positions." Furthermore, ladder-rank-faculty women had a 144 percent greater probability of being divorced than did ladder-rank men, and a 75 percent greater probability than did second-tier women. Not only did motherhood negatively impact a woman's chances for success in academia (if by success we mean achieving tenure in a "first-tier" position), but it seems that academia also negatively impacted a woman's chances for success in her personal life. she was more likely to be single, more likely to be divorced, and more likely to delay childbearing, potentially until it is too late. indeed, from their study of UC faculty, Mason and Goulden found that whereas only 20 percent of men claimed that they had fewer children than they wanted, the percentage points were twice as high for women.
As these studies show, women in academia continue to face many inequalities, especially when also trying to be mothers. We do not intend to gloss over the challenges, but we also know many women who have successfully traversed these waters. Finding mentors and learning from the experience of those who have gone before is one of the most important things a young scholar can do to increase her chances for success. So having started this chapter with the bad news, we now present a story that challenges all these studies and statistics. It is Rachel's own story. Rachel is now a full professor and named chair in economics, as well as a mother of four children who has been married for more than thirty years to the same husband. Despite Rachel's nervousness about offering her experience up as a "success story," we include it so that you can get a feel for the types of choices that women in Rachel's generation made when deciding to become professors and moms at the same time. Of course, Rachel's story is just one experience, but important lessons can be drawn by reading about how things were for women in the academy not so long ago and reflecting on how one person made the choices that led to a successful combination of tenure and motherhood. And the really good news is that it is a lot easier these days than it was for Rachel. The number of women in the academy has increased, and the academy as an institution is slowly waking up to the need to make changes to help all parents better balance work and family. But even in places where the old rules are still in effect, it is possible to have your tenure and your family, too.
Planning is something Rachel has always done, but she admits she often makes plans with very little information. That combination doesn't really make sense when she looks back upon it now, but each plan always seemed reasonable at the time. And, so far, most of the plans (as naive as they were) have worked out well. Children were always part of the plan, and she and her husband intended to have four or five of them. They married while still undergraduates, and their plan even at that time was for Rachel to go to graduate school and to get a job as a professor at a small liberal arts college.
When Rachel was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, from 1981 to 1985, there were about fifty faculty members in the economics department. Of these, only three were women, and not one of those women had done what Rachel hoped to do: combine an academic career with having a family. Combining academic work and motherhood wasn't yet a topic of conversation even among the Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP), which was, at that time, just trying to convince "the guys" that women could do math and could compete in the academic game if given half a chance.
Like most starting graduate students, Rachel really didn't understand what the job of an academic entailed. From her vantage point, she had observed her undergraduate professors setting their own hours and coming and going from their offices when they wanted, and she thought that this was a job she could do in conjunction with parenting. Of course, she knows now that she was both right and wrong. One of the myths we would like to dispel in this book is this notion that the academic profession is an easy job to combine with parenting. Of course, you can combine academia with parenting as well as any job if you are willing to put the time into it. And being an academic does give you unusual flexibility in terms of where and when you work. Rachel can attend a parent-teacher conference in the middle of the day and her son's soccer game in the late afternoon, but she is careful not to do these things too often. There is no shortcut to sitting still and working. Time away from her desk in the middle of the day means Rachel will need to put in more time later in the evening or on the weekend, when other parents are relaxing with their children at home.
The university of Michigan was a good place to be a woman graduate student in economics in the early 1980s, as the economics department was admitting a sizable number of women graduate students. While it does not bother Rachel to be the only woman in a room, it was nice to have a cohort of other women with whom to study. These women are still among Rachel's closest friends and colleagues. But at the same time, the University of Michigan was not such a good place to be in terms of how the economics faculty treated women. Several professors refused to work with women students, fearing that they would give it all up once they married and/or had children. One faculty member refused to work with Rachel on her dissertation, despite the fact that she was a top student in her class. Her professors were also openly disapproving of her choice to concentrate her job search on small liberal arts schools in Maine. The world they knew and understood was the world of the Research I university; they couldn't fathom why Rachel would not want a job at a Research I. Despite their disapproval, Rachel was very sure of what she wanted. In the end, she convinced them to support her limited job search.
Bowdoin College in the mid-1980s was actively hiring women in order to address an enormous gender imbalance in the faculty, part of the legacy of Bowdoin as a men's college. The tenured faculty in the economics department (all men at the time) were not opposed to the idea of hiring a woman as long as they could be sure that she measured up as an economist. Rachel did not (and still does not) think there was anything wrong with that attitude. She was, however, very isolated in the department when she first arrived. Most of the guys in the department played basketball at lunch and generally worked alone on their research. Weeks would go by with no one in the department talking to her. But slowly, she found her place in the department. It has been a supportive environment to do all that she wanted to do—teach in a place where good teaching is valued, do research in a place where research is supported and success in research is celebrated, and still have time for home, family, and friends.
Rachel had her first child after just one year on the job. There was no maternity leave and no stopping of the tenure clock for childbirth (more on the timing of that decision in chapter 4). The next few years of the tenure track were very difficult. She was struggling to launch a post-dissertation research agenda on very little sleep and even less guidance from her dissertation-committee members and her Bowdoin colleagues. she remembers the middle years of the pre-tenure era as the worst time; after all of the effort she went through to write her new, all-important research paper, it sat on an editor's desk for eighteen months. it seemed like academic success was out of her hands. And so were her fertility desires. Rachel had planned to have children every two or three years (there is that planning thing again), but instead she spent the last three years leading up to tenure trying to get pregnant for a second time, enduring disappointment month after month. Finally, she did get pregnant but had a miscarriage in the middle of a spring semester. Since she hadn't told anyone she was pregnant, she suffered alone, but her student opinion forms that semester sure took a hit.
While it was a very difficult time, not everything was bad. She and her husband had a wonderful little boy and a home full of visitors and friends. Having bought a home big enough for their intended brood, they often had a student or recent graduate staying with them during those years. this provided an extra set of hands and eyes to watch their son and some relief from the other demands of housekeeping. If you are lucky enough to live near family, then be sure to allow other family members to help you during these crunch years. If you don't live near family, create family-like relationships with friends. Find someone who loves your child, and then share your child with him or her. A child's love is not a zero-sum game. If your children also care for a caregiver or an adopted aunt or uncle, there is still plenty of love left for you. Having other people in your children's lives teaches them to enjoy different types of relationships and to celebrate each person's contribution to their lives.
When her son was two, Rachel received a research fellowship to work at the U.S. census Bureau and enjoyed a year's research leave in Washington, dc. During that year, Rachel really learned the importance of attending professional conferences. Rachel identifies going to conferences as a very important part of her ultimate success in attaining tenure. Conferences provide deadlines and give you the opportunity to meet the other players in the field. Conferences are also important for marking your territory—that is, letting the other players in the field know what you are working on. Always try to go to lunch or coffee with the other panelists in your session. (Visit with friends some other time.) These conversations lead to other invitations to give seminars and to collaborate. While Rachel's earliest collaborators were mostly women she knew from graduate school, her more recent collaborators have been drawn from among the men and women she has met through the years at professional conferences. (Networking will be discussed in greater detail in chapter 6.)
Rachel's infertility saga ended happily with another pregnancy during her sixth year at Bowdoin. Her tenure file was due July 1, and the baby was born July 6. Not necessarily the best time to have a baby, but there is never really a good time to have a baby, and once you have suffered through infertility, any time is a welcome time. One positive side effect of the timing was that Rachel didn't have the time or energy to obsess about the tenure process. It was all a sleepless blur, and that is probably just as well. As you already know, Rachel's tenure story ended happily.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Professor Mommy by RACHEL CONNELLY KRISTEN GHODSEE Copyright © 2011 by Rachel Connelly and Kristen Ghodsee. Excerpted by permission of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Contents Chapter 2 Introduction: Why We Decided to Write this Book and Who We Are Anyway Chapter 3 Chapter 1: A Success Story Told with the Hindsight of 20/20 Vision Chapter 4 Chapter 2: The Nefarious Nine or the Not-So-Pretty Truth about Motherhood and Academia Chapter 5 Chapter 3: Know Thyself Part I -Deciding to Become an Academic Chapter 6 Chapter 4: Know Thyself Part II -Deciding How Many Children to Have and When To Have Them Chapter 7 Chapter 5: The Last Year of Graduate School: Heading for the Job Market and Choosing the Institution that is Right for You Chapter 8 Chapter 6: On the Tenure Track Part I - Scholarship and Networking Chapter 9 Chapter 7: On the Tenure Track Part II - Teaching, Service, and Your Family Chapter 10 Chapter 8: The Immediate Post-Tenure Years Chapter 11 Chapter 9: Coming up for Full Professor Chapter 12 Conclusion Chapter 13 Appendix 1: Different Types of Institutions Chapter 14 Appendix 2: The Other Perspective: Words from our Children Chapter 15 Suggested ReadingWhat People are Saying About This
Do read this 'can do' book for mothers who want to pursue an academic career! Yes, you can succeed and this book guides you through every step and pitfall—from choosing the type of institution that is for you to coming up for full professor. It doesn't shy away from the very real obstacles, like exhaustion during the early child-raising years, but offers alternative strategies for climbing the ladder. The sound advice is aimed at mothers—but it could be the handbook for any Ph.D. who is deciding on an academic career. I will recommend it to all my graduate students.
Rachel Connelly and Kristen Ghodsee have written a book that is not just a must-read for anyone contemplating the intricate and as-yet imperfect balance of academic life and family life, but for anyone at all interested in promoting equity in the workplace and more importantly, in the world of ideas. Professor Mommy lays out in stark detail the dismal record and very real statistics of the “maternal wall,” “glass ceiling” and the steep personal costs that women academics often face. But rather than stop there, they offer detailed, practical and user-friendly guidance on how to set your own priorities, draw boundaries and forge a path through this thorny obstacle course. They show it is not easy, but it is indeed possible to be both a successful academic and a loving parent with a rich family life. More, Professor Mommy is a call to action: that lasting change and that longed-for balance will come only when men become aware of the stacked deck against women and when women academics make the hard decision not to opt out, but to opt in, writing, publishing, thinking, promoting their ideas, and by their very presence, change the calcified system from within.
Don't believe the myths—you can conquer the academy while raising children. It isn't easy, but few worthwhile things in life are. Connelly and Ghodsee show, step by step, how smart women win at work and win at home by protecting their time and focusing on what matters most (hint: it's not grading papers or ironing shirts!).