Pedagogy & Professional / Women's and Gender Studies

Amy L. Friedman (Temple University)

Work-Life Balance? Reports From Academic Moms on Life-Hacking the Ph.D-Career-Kid-Publishing-Conference Matrix. How do you fit a family into an academic career? Are any areas of academia working with us to support us becoming both Dr. and Mom? Have you been met with encouragement and positive mentoring, or have eyes rolled when you shared pregnancy plans or news? Reports from the trenches welcome from solo moms, single/divorced moms, and married moms. Share strategies and perspectives on bringing kids to conferences, or finishing ambitious research and writing projects while raising young people. Has academic life offered benefits from family-friendly resources, or from schedules that make family life work for you? Do you wish you’d done things differently? Did specific administrative policies help or hinder? Have you found a particularly welcoming conference for academic families to attend? Submissions for roundtable talks welcome on any of the above topics, from moms of all backgrounds, orientations, ages, politics, and experiences.

A roundtable discussion on how women with kids manage and thrive in academia. Are women getting support on the road to becoming Dr. and Mom? Or are we ignoring: a chronic lack of mentorship; negative administrative policies; and even outdated, patriarchal, institutionalized expectations of who gets to succeed? Personal experiences good and bad are welcome, as are moms of all backgrounds, ages, and experiences.