Academic Motherhood: How Faculty Manage Work and Family at Early and Mid-Career Kelly Ward Washington State University Lisa Wolf-Wendel University of Kansas Work and Family Researchers Network Conference New York, New York June 13, 2012

Goals for the Session The importance of work/family policies Early and mid-career perspectives Promotion & retention – focus on needs of academics with children Work/family policies

Why Institutions are Becoming “Family Friendly” To recruit, promote and retain best faculty To address concerns about representation To raise morale and increase productivity To create more equitable work places Pressure from external sources

Representation of Women in Higher Education Approximately 41% of faculty are women Underrepresented in administrative and in highest academic ranks Women are underrepresented in many fields—STEM fields of particular concern Underrepresented at most prestigious institutions Reliance on pipeline to remedy underrepresentation

Academic Motherhood Work and family—either/or proposition Ideal worker norms—married to the job Tenure clocks ticks simultaneously with biological clock Can wait to have children Opt for less prestigious position Decide not to pursue academia

Conceptual lenses and assumptions Socialization—a very traditional view of career development Life course perspectives—a synergistic and integrated view of life Feminist perspectives—women and work have long histories of exclusion and either/or propositions Started out with a view on the career socialization perspective from graduate school to assistant professor to associate to full to administration. A pipeline view. Drops from the pipeline are bad and women are leaks and deficit. A life course perspective—out of the human development and life span perspective adopted by Phyllis Moen and colleagues assumes multiple points, cycling in the career, what happens in one sphere shapes other spheres—for women this means family shapes careers and careers shape families. A more suitable perspective to look at careers. Academics are consuming BUT they are not the only thing going on and a traditional career socialization view assumes a monolithic view. A feminist perspective helps us to see that power, privilege and diffference shape all that goes on. The academic career and the structures that surround it are based on male models So if we take all this together, what do we see?

What to do? Can women have it all ? How do women manage work and family?

The Study Qualitative study Interviews with 120 women Research universities, comprehensive colleges, liberal arts, community colleges All with young children, all tenure track Variety of fields Interviewed early career (less than five years) and mid career (7 years later) Case studies of departments Reviewed institutional policies

Early Career Findings The joy of professional and personal roles Passion for careers and families This “joy” is absent from literature about pre-tenure faculty It is not easy, but it can be done Perspective making I can only do so much in a day. Having a family helps me be more efficient with my time and also gives me much needed perspective. If I get tenure, great. If not, there is a lot more to my life than just my job. Most literature about female faculty is negative. We leave. We get paid less. We leak out of pipelines. Deficit models. We have some good news in our findings.

Early Career Findings Buffering—work-family; family-work Succeed without much support Significance of supportive culture Mentoring Graduate school socialization dies hard The second shift is alive and well The tenure track is consuming I feel like I need a breather after working so hard to get tenure. Academic work never ends.

Early Career Concerns “Timing” motherhood—Is there are good time to have a baby? Pressure of tenure makes decisions about family and careers intense Academic work is flexible, but unending Fear of using policies

Mid Career Findings Most were successful and thriving Earned tenure Life was “better” More flexible, less work stress Easier to prioritize Parental concerns shift Changing diapers to arranging car pools Not wanting to deal with politics Hesitant to go up for promotion and move into administration

Mid Career Findings Burnout Need for self care Mentoring and support Assuming mentor roles for new junior faculty and graduate students – path makers Helped to create institutional policies Lack of mentoring You get tenure and you never hear another thing about promotion. There is no schedule any more. Can I go up? Do I ask? Do they ask me? How does it all work?

Mid-career concerns Lack of mentoring and support Not a very systematic view about careers once past tenure Individual drive shapes perspective on promotion and administration More options, yet also limited once get established

Institutional Type… Each place has a pinch point… Liberal arts colleges—service, small departments, face time, no hiding Community colleges—service, few full time faculty, teaching/advising Research universities—variable expectations and levels of support, grants Regional universities—conflicting expectations, research? teaching ? Service?

Disciplines… Humanities—archives, travel Clinical settings (vet schools, hospitals)—balancing rotations with other responsibilities Technical fields—keeping up with new advances English—grading!!!

Disciplines… Sciences Laboratory setting (plus and minus) Place bound research (field or lab) need to be there Pressure to maintain grants to support labs Collaborative settings (colleagues and students) (plus and minus) More options beyond academe and tenure track (plus and minus)

Policy dilemmas… Tenure and biological clocks click simultaneously FMLA is not enough Not just a women’s problem Women are agents of action, not campuses

Policies Day care – affordable and accessible Tenure clock stop policies at campus level with education to chairs Move away from “making deals” Flexibility re: tenure clock timing Engage in work and family issues proactively Review of benefit policies (repeat often)

Policies Family leave policies (paid/unpaid) Modified duty policies One size may not fit all Creating a culture of use related to work and family policies Professional development for mid-career faculty Dual career couple policies

The Fear Factor Not enough to just have policies Monitor policy usage Looking at policy environment using multiple perspectives Feminist perspectives can help examine underlying concerns

Book forthcoming Summer 2012

Questions/Discussion Institutional type Disciplines Dilemmas Policies Questions? Kelly Ward kaward@wsu.edu Lisa Wolf-Wendel lwolf@ku.edu