The Pushme-Pullme Pressure of Combining Academic Careers with Family Responsibilities

1. The Pushme-Pullme Pressure of Combining Academic Careers with Family Responsibilities Diane F. Halpern, PhD Texas Tech March 2008

2. Recommendations To Align The World Of Work With The Realities Of Contemporary Family Life • New models of work-life interaction provide returns on investments for employers and work policies that employees can use to manage their work and family obligations without having to choose between the two.

3. 27.3% of families with children under 18 have a single parent 1 in 3 children is born to a single parent More than half of Americans today have been, are, or will be in step-families (Population Reference Bureau, 1996, compiled in Bianchi, S., & Spain, D. Women, Work, and Family in America) Changing Families in the United States

4. Gender Earnings Ratio1955-2007, Full Time Workers Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Fact Sheet, No. C350, August 2008

5. Changing Workforce • In the next decade, it is projected that 85% of the workforce will be working parents • For the first time since we have been keeping records the number of working women has surpassed the number of working men. (Not because of great strides in equality—more men have lost jobs in the bad economy) • However, men are also part of the changing workforce. Approximately one in every six single parents is a father.

7. Study of Women at the top of their profession with children or other care responsibilities • In the U.S. women hold (slightly less than) 50% of all management and professional positions, but only 2% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and almost half of them have no children. • Almost half of all women in the U.S. with salaries greater than $100,000 have no children • The message has been clear— your baby or your briefcase. • Women have most of the family and home care responsibilities. • What can women who made it to the top with families teach the rest of us?

8. Our Sample: • International study of top women leaders in China, Hong Kong, U.S. • 62 interviews (20-21 from each society) • All the women have children or other care- giving responsibilities • They told personal stories about successes and failures—early childhood experiences, mentors, role models, and set-backs

9. Who They Are: • The women in our sample currently or have occupied a range of top-level positions including Chairman of Deloitte and Touche, President of Old Navy/Gap, Managing Director of the China Light & Power, several university presidents, chief of police, Vice President of IBM Asia Pacific, president of a television station, cabinet member, presidential advisor, state legislator, entrepreneurs, Supreme Court justice and deputy chairperson of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress in China, and President of the Legislative Council and head of the civil service in Hong Kong. The American leaders include white, African-American, and Chinese-American women. Several of the women are listed in Forbes Magazine’s (for multiple years) 100 Most Influential Women in the World.

10. For the President of a very large corporation, it was never a question of family or career: I look at my career and my personal life as one. I don’t see them as separate. It’s one complete circle of who I am. Other people say, ‘Now I’m going to put my career on hold so that I can have a family, then once my family’s back on track, I am going to go back into my career.’ I never looked at it that way. I want them both at the same time. I really didn’t want to be a stay-at-home mom because I really like the outside interests. But I didn’t just want to be a career woman without a family. For me, career and family have never been separated. It’s about having both.” She rejected the “take charge or take care” dichotomy.”

11. Life can be harder for women at the top, in part because there are so few of them A former U.S. Secretary of Commerce explained it this way: “Earlier, I was conscious of what it would mean if I do not do well. I would worry that it would make things harder for the next woman to come along. I was the first woman to graduate from Harvard Business School. After that I started work in the corporate world in New York City. I felt the pressure of being unusual. Nobody talked about discrimination, but we were treated in a discriminatory way. One of the things that has changed is that now discrimination against women has become far more subtle. • Psychologists agree—discrimination is more subtle now, but it can be just as damaging. (covert sexism)

12. Redefined “Good Mother” and “Ideal Leader” to make them more compatible • A good mother is highly involved in her children’s lives and activities, but she does not necessarily spend all of her time with them. • These highly successful women also redefined their role as successful leaders, which included work + family. They worked long hours, but they also managed to leave work for family time. They counted performance and outcome rather than the actual hours at work.

13. Mommy Track versus Career Track(your Baby or Your Briefcase) • Ideal worker has “zero drag”– no commitments to interfere with work What does an ideal worker look like?

14. Mommy Track versus Career Track(Your Baby or Your Briefcase) • Ideal Mother— She is entirely dedicated to her children. What image comes to mind?

15. Mommy Track versus Career Track(Your Baby or Your Briefcase) • Ideal Leader—what image comes to mind? • Entirely dedicated to work—take charge “kind of guy” • Incompatible stereotypes, but • Is there a single “ideal” for any role?

16. Redefined “Good Mother” and “Ideal Leader” to make them more compatible • A good mother is highly involved in her children’s lives and activities, but she does not necessarily spend all of her time with them. • These highly successful women also redefined their role as successful leaders, which included work + family. They worked long hours, but they also managed to leave work for family time. They counted performance and outcome rather than the actual hours at work.

17. There are many benefits to multiple roles • Work and family are the two major dimensions of identity and fulfillment • Meaningful work is important to life satisfaction • Close personal relationships, including family, are important for happiness • Why should women have to choose?

18. Academic Careers Despite all of the changes in the work force, in general, there are some constancies for those of us in academic careers. Mason and Goulden study of faculty concluded that (Survey of Doctorate Recipients; NSF) • Women make up almost half of all graduate students, but “The percentage of women among tenured faculty looks very much the same as it did in 1975.” • “The gap between men’s and women’s salaries has actually grown wider in the last 30 years.” • Mason, M. A., & Goulden, M. (2002, November-December). Do Babies Matter? Academe.

19. Why Have Women Made so Little Progress in Academia? • The academic career path is a traditional male career model—designed for a “Leave it to Beaver” family type that does not apply to the majority of American families—single earner, dual parent family • Academic institutes are greedy—the work is endless, laboratory research eats faculty time • Faculty with family responsibilities—child care, elder care, disabled siblings, self care—many are men, but women still have primary caring responsibilities

20. Percentage of Women in US Academic Workforce Schiebinger, L., Henderson, A. D., & Gilmartin, S. K. (2008). Dual Career Academic Couples. Stanford University

21. Men-to-women odds ratio of being a first versus a second hire

22. A Tough Question: “Why do men privilege their careers” • This question was asked in a 2008 study on Dual-Career Academic Couples • The responses they received related to earning more money, but when they looked at salary data they concluded that “higher-earning men in academic couples more often privilege their careers whereas higher-earning women more often assign equal value to both careers” (p. 38) Schiebinger, L., Henderson, A. D., & Gilmartin, S. K. (2008). Dual Career Academic Couples. Stanford University

23. Academic Careers are NOT family-friendly • 2009 survey of doctoral students in University of California system • Neither men nor women consider research-intensive universities as family-friendly career choices • Men 46%; Women 29% • With attitudes even stronger among women and men who are parents

24. Effect of Early and Late Babieson Academic Careers “Early babies”—born within 5 years after receiving their doctorate—a time of greatest job insecurity and prime years to show if the candidate is “worthy” of tenure Men with “early babies” achieved tenure at slightly higher rates than men without babies; Women with “early babies” were 20 to 24% less likely to achieve tenure 12 to 14 years after their doctorate than men or women without children. Women with “late babies” and women without children were equally likely to achieve tenure and both were more likely to achieve tenure than women with early babies. Fifty-nine percent of married women with children indicated they were considering leaving academia. Overall, women who attain tenure across the disciplines are unlikely to have children Tenured women in science are twice as likely as tenured men to be single.

25. Married with children • For men in academia it is a formula for success • For women in academia it is a status that creates a serious baby gap in their achievement (when babies are early in their career)

26. Your baby or your academic career Study of all tenure track faculty in University of California system, Mason & Gould, 2004

27. Tenure Clocks and Biological Clocks Run in the Same Time Zone • Marriage and children have negative effects on the research productivity of women in academia and positive effects for men • Age for tenure is 36 (if everything goes smoothly) • Greater sacrifices for women who have majority of “care” responsibilities • More likely and proximal cause for under-representation of women in academic science (lab hours in addition to other academic requirements)

28. 2009 Survey of Graduate Students • Mason, M. M., Goulden, M. &Frasch, K. Academe; • Jan/Feb2009, 95, 11-16.

29. Work-Family Conflict for Women with Care Responsibilities and High Pressure Careers • Like Dr. Doolittle’s mythical animal the Pushme-Pullme, career progress can come to a stand-still when you are pulled in two directions at once

30. Rhetoric and Policy Choice rhetoric—Are these personal choices or responses to a work environment that does not support employees with family responsibilities? Is it a choice if women and men with family responsibilities can see no other option?

32. The UC Faculty Family-Friendly Edge • Up to one semester reduced duties (ASMD active service-modified duties) for new parents with substantial care-giving responsibilities. • Stopping the tenure clock to allow time for care of a newborn or newly adopted child under five. • A flexible part-time option for ladder-rank faculty with substantial familial caregiving responsibilities. • Parental leave (unpaid) for up to one year to care for a child (including a child of either spouse or domestic partner). • One year unpaid leave to care for self or a sick family member, including domestic partner. Up to 12 weeks fully paid leave with Chancellor's approval. • An institutional commitment to both current and future expansion of high-quality infant and child care. • Housing assistance and a new program for Partners and Spouses job search. http://ucfamilyedge.berkeley.edu/

33. Joint Statement by the Nine Presidents on Gender Equity in Higher Education December 6, 2005 • Our goal as research universities is to create conditions in which all faculty are capable of the highest level of academic achievement. Continuing to develop academic personnel policies, institutional resources, and a culture that supports family commitments is therefore essential for maximizing the productivity of our faculty. • The future excellence of our institutions depends on our ability to provide equitable and productive career paths for all faculty. • David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology • Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University • Susan Hockfield, Massachusetts Institute of Technology • Shirley M. Tilghman, Princeton University • John Hennessy, Stanford University • Robert Birgeneau, University of California, Berkeley • Mary Sue Coleman, University of Michigan • Amy Gutmann, University of Pennsylvania • Richard C. Levin, Yale University

34. How to Combine Work and Family in Academia • Change cultural assumptions that caring for others in primarily women’s work • Negotiate—women in general rarely do—for better work schedules, compensation to help with child care expenses, additional time to tenure, and other policies. • Use the rights and benefits that are available—biased avoidance is term for not using family friendly policies because of fear that you will seem to be uncommitted to your work. Remove the stigma of having children

35. How to Combine Work and Family in Academia • As psychologists educate ourselves and others about the effects of stereotyping—mothers are perceived as “nice, but dumb.”—hitting the maternal wall • Advocate for family-friendly policies • Enlist help from professional organizations, including accrediting bodies, to assure an equitable workplace for faculty with care responsibilities—applies to men with care responsibilities, so not a “women’s issue”