Big degree, big family?
July 14th, 2009Robin Wilson’s recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education asks, Is Having More Than 2 Children an Unspoken Taboo? She interviews Mama, PhD contributors Libby Gruner, Nicole Cooley, Leslie Leyland Fields (mother of six), and others for their opinions and advice about raising a big family along with a career in academe:
“‘Every day I wait for something to fall on my head,’ says Jill Nelson Granger, a professor of chemistry and associate dean of academic affairs at Sweet Briar College, who has four children. ‘I study my calendar the night before like every day is a test.’”
Is it harder to raise a large family within the context of a career in higher education than anywhere else in the US? What do you think?
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July 15th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
I read this article yesterday, and I was completely deflated. Having just been appointed to a new faculty position at a mid-western university after several years at a community college, I assumed that the attitude, support, and opportunity for advancement and recognition wouldn’t have had anything to do with my personal preferences, including having 4 lovely, wonderful boys (and a non-academic husband). However, I started to evaluate the members of my team and department, and realized that none had as many children as I do, or had been married for a significant length of time; married for 20 years and carting an entire “brood” with me, I seem like a small-town, uneducated neophyte, which is hardly the case. Whether my “encumbrances” are a detriment to my career remains to be seen, but I will be hopeful that my promotion and tenure are based on my ability, merit, and research–all reasons why they hired me. I have every intention of completing my doctorate in the next few years; at the community college, I would have been encouraged and supported (albeit little compensation) but at this level, it may be a futile for my professional life. But, for my own personal satisfaction and achievement, I plan on continuing my educational goals, children in tow.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
I don’t know anyone who has 4 kids where I am, most women seem to disappear when they have their 2nd from the program and very few full time professors that I’ve met who have children have 2 let alone more than 2. In fact, it wasn’t until I read someone online that I had ever heard of a woman having more than 2. The fact that in Mama, PhD most the women have 2 or less children who are still in academia is pretty representative of academia if women there have kids at all. Being a “breeder” doesn’t seem to fit well with academia.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Wanted to add, I DO have 4 kids & I am finishing my dissertation (this fall), I also teach/research/write about similar topics related to motherhood in academia (I love the book btw I wish I could have read it sooner in my own journey as an academic). When I had my 3rd and it was announced very far into my pregnancy (near the start of the 3rd trimester) I actually had someone suggest I should consider what it would do to my career to continue. It was rude, obviously my decision was made.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I just don’t understand why academia fosters this environment. Why are reproductive matters anyone’s business but his/her own? We purposely planned our first child during the 4th year of my PhD (i.e., done with comprehensives… just working on my research). I had so many people ask/assume the pregnancy was unplanned. I was 34 years old and had been with my husband for over 10 years at the time.
August 30th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
This article is a bit confusing – the suggestion seems to be that all female academics secretly want to have more than 2 kids, but are threatened with expulsion from the tower if they do. A few brave women go ahead any way and suffer variously. But the 26% of women cited who had fewer children than they’d like had to have been in substantial proportion women who had no kids or one.
Not everybody wants 2+–or even any. For those who do, it’s getting easier, basically because there are more women professors there to stand up for them—and to create family friendly HR policies, whether or not those professors have kids. Those are the folks who went through the anti-kid environment in decades past—including the last decade. Books like Mama PhD are a sign of a change in process, as is the expanding discussion of family and women’s issues in academia generally. There’s a way to go, but the more women trickle up into policy-making roles, the more comfortable it will be for women (and men) to make a diversity of choices around family. True in the wider world as well.
It’s hard to have lots of kids in most full-time salaried jobs without a lot of help, because there’s only so much time to go around. Some people do a great job of it in spite of the difficulty, and some would never think of going that road.
I guess my sense is that this article isn’t wrong so much as it’s looking backward – in a moment when women are getting family issues a new and friendlier hearing in academia and in the world at large. The change factor is getting more women promoted into positions where their issues and desires are suddenly relevant to the group as a whole.
January 20th, 2010 at 7:49 am
Perhaps this is changing with the wide spread acceptance of distance learning courses even at post doctoral level. I am sure it’s a lot easier to manage your time, therefor a large family if you are studying online.