Tuesday, July 13, 2010

For working mothers in academia, tenure track is often a tough balancing act

The Washington Post
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 11, 2010

The tenure system of academia is uniquely incompatible with the biological clocks of working women, according to a new study, one of the first to examine the persistent "leak" of talented women from the pipeline that For women intent on becoming both scholars and mothers, the timing of the tenure track could not be worse. The average female doctorate is awarded at 34, an age when many college-educated women are starting families. Tenure, a defining moment in a professor's career, is decided roughly seven years later, just as the parenting window is closing.
Researchers from Barnard College in New York interviewed 21 women, all striving to be supermoms at the most demanding time in their careers. Many of the women portrayed their work and family lives in irreconcilable conflict. One mother described working in "survival mode," just doing "the things that I can to not be kicked out." Another said she was no longer being invited to career-building speaking gigs. A third faced the hard truth that she was "never going to be one of those superstars." produces professors.

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/10/AR2010071002610.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead

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