The Mommy Track in Academia

I was just reading a post on Jezebel about a lawsuit brought against Goldman by a woman who claimed she was fired after taking maternity leave twice and working a flexible schedule offered by Goldman after her first maternity leave. People raised questions about whether she chose her own fate by accepting the reduced hours, and about whether it's possible/fair to expect to continue in such a fast-paced, competitive work environment if your number one priority is something other than your job.

That got me thinking about how motherhood works in academia, and I realized, with some surprise, that there are no role models at Temple in that regard. Of the three younger full-time female faculty members, none have children, and I think two of them aren't married. Several of the older professors have grown children, but since they are from a totally different generation, I suspect that their experiences are not likely to mirror what happens now. There are also at least two older female faculty members who have no children.

This is admittedly a very small sample, and I don't know how other departments at Temple or at other universities compare, but it definitely raised some questions for me. Did the decision of the two older faculty members not to have children have anything to do with their career, or was it entirely personal? Is the push for tenure a factor for the younger teachers who don't have children?

And how does it work if you do decide to have a child while you're in a tenure-track position? It must be do-able. I know that at Fairfield, at least, Dr. Rose had two children while on a tenure track (in fact, I think she is up for tenure this year or next). I can only imagine how much pressure that adds, though--not only are you rushing to catch up and be productive enough to earn tenure, but you have the added worry that if you don't get it, you might have to uproot your kids.