Academic babies, pt.2: Quick ramblings

I don't have time to develop much more of my topic from yesterday, so this is going to probably read like a string of disjointed ideas. I'll point out a few points from Mary Ann Mason of Berkeley, whose Do Babies Matter? project I linked to yesterday. The short answers are, for women, yes, and for men, no. Women with children are less likely to get a tenure-track job and then are less likely to get tenure than women without children. Men with children are slightly more likely to get tenure than men without children. Hmm. The gender gap is not that surprising because mothers are still the primary caregivers more often than men. And, of course, there's that whole pregnancy and birth and breastfeeding thing. As for timing, it seems that having a child within five years of earning a Ph.D. has the most impact on a woman's career. Which all goes back to the fact that our whole notion of career advancement is based on a man's biology--men are much more likely to be able to have children in their forties after establishing their careers, and women who want children, of course, take a big risk when they wait that long. Mason has some proposed solutions on her website as part of the University of California's Family Friendly Initiative, including high quality childcare slots, limited part-time options, and re-entry post-doc fellowships for Ph.D.s who have taken time off for family reasons and wish to return.

To look at things from a different perspective, academia seems to be a career that is relatively conducive to family life--moreso than say, my husband's career, restaurant management. As much as we want to share responsibilities, I am the primary caregiver of our daughter because he is at work 50-60 hours per week, and it's not very flexible. Planning for my upcoming conference trip has been--well, it has yet to be successfully planned. If I did not have childcare--really great, really expensive childcare--I would not be able to do this. But that is true of most careers.

From where I sit, the whole grad student parent thing is totally doable--I've been doing it for almost two years, and with our share of ups and downs, things have been good. In a couple of years, when I'm trying to figure out how to go on a job search, I anticipate major problems, especially considering how hard it's been to get to a conference. If I had extended family nearby, that would help tremendously, but one of the difficult facts of academic life is that you don't usually get to live close to family.

As much as trying to get tenure terrifies me, I obviously can't speak to that now and really don't have the space in my mind to worry about it. I wish I had some great point to make with this post, but I have to get on to other matters and don't have time to write anything with any coherence.