From the Guest Editor: Balancing Faculty Careers and Family Work
By John W. Curtis
This issue of Academe is about the difficulties of balancing family care with an academic career. It points to the special burden that balance represents for women who pursue faculty careers, to the point of constraining their ability to achieve equity in faculty status. But going beyond just a description of the problem, the articles in this issue also explore solutions and issue a call for faculty to participate in changing their own work culture for the benefit of all.
Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden published the first "Do Babies Matter?" article in Academe two years ago, and its impact has been far reaching. In this issue, they turn their analytical lens around and examine the effect of a successful career on family formation. They find that successful women have sacrificed having children, and even marriage, in a way that men are not called on to sacrifice.
We're all familiar with the concept of the glass ceiling, the invisible barrier that seems to make it difficult for women to reach the upper ranks of professional careers. Joan Williams argues that such a glass ceiling exists in the academic world as well, but that a more insidious "maternal wall" may exert an even greater force on both women and men who are trying to combine family work with academic work.
In my article, I try to make the case that successful work-family policies will benefit more than just individual faculty members. There are important equity considerations for the faculty as a collective. Can work-family policies do it all? It's a challenge that requires all of our best efforts.
Fortunately, we already have some guidance on the path to developing more effective work-family policies for faculty members. Beth Sullivan, Carol Hollenshead, Gilia Smith, and their colleagues at the University of Michigan have surveyed colleges and universities around the country to find out what measures are already in place and how best to go about making them work.
Kelly Ward and Lisa Wolf-Wendel point out that even the best policy framework won't bring about change if there is not a cultural shift on campus, and that there are roles for everyone in bringing about that change. They've spent countless hours talking to young faculty mothers in different types of institutions, and they share some of their findings here. Kate Quinn and her colleagues at the University of Washington have been reviewing the challenges they have faced in implementing family-friendly policies at a large research university. They argue in their article that commitment to change is most effective when it is supported from the top. Finally, Sharon Lobel shares a personal experience in negotiating a part-time tenured position that has enabled her to spend more time with her family and still maintain a successful career.
The AAUP issued the Statement of Principles on Family Responsibilities and Academic Work in 2001. This theme issue of Academe represents one aspect of our continuing commitment to make family involvement a realistic option for successful faculty—both women and men—to the benefit of all.
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