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  • Mothering at Mid-Career: The pseudonymous parent

    By Libby Gruner August 25, 2008 10:18 pm

    I read a piece in the Chronicle last week about being a parent and an adjunct. Maybe you saw it: "It's All in the Bag," by Corinne Bennet. You see, her nice, professional-looking handbag also works as a diaper bag, but she's in fact unable to bring together her dual lives as parent and part-time professor quite so neatly. The writer is thoughtful and articulate about why adjuncting works for her at this stage in her life; the piece is far from a celebration of the adjunct life, though the writer has come to terms with her current situation. Although she acknowledges that the money and the benefits don't come close to measuring up to a tenure-track position, she's happy to have more time at home with her young child, and the trade-off, so far, seems to be working. Far be it from me to dismiss flexible part-time work as a good option for new (or not-so-new) parents--if you can afford it, and the work still engages you, I think working part-time in the academy can be a great option for parents.

    But there's a bigger downside than the writer is willing to acknowledge, I think. The piece was published pseudonymously, suggesting that "Corinne Bennet" still expects to go on the job market for a tenure-track job, and doesn't want to be googleable as a parent. While she cites Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women to bolster her unarguable claim that parenting is a significant social role, she's unwilling to claim that role in public.

    I can't blame "Corinne." After all, as numerous studies continue to indicate, parenting--particularly mothering -- can be seriously detrimental to one's career. We need look no further than reports right here at Inside Higher Ed. There's the recent report from the social sciences, for example, that notes the unequal advancement of men and women in the field, and suggests that parental and family status may be part of the issue; there's also the Stanford University study on dual-career hiring that notes the difficulties many partnered academics have in negotiating dual careers -- something that, again, will often affect women's parenting decisions. At the moment I'm less interested in the reports themselves -- interesting though they were, they weren't particularly surprising to me -- than in the comments, especially on the former article, which demonstrate a surprising hostility, it seems to me, to professors who "go public" about the difficulties of combining their personal and professional roles.

    Do we really need to say this again? Children are not simply a "lifestyle choice." They are a fundamental human right, an evolutionary necessity, our own future students. When Wollstonecraft wrote The Vindication, she expected that granting women more rights would change the structure of society, would alter workplaces and governments so that children would not simply be a burden but an opportunity. And, of course, to some extent she was right: some countries and even some domestic employers have indeed developed flexible working conditions for parents, paid parental leave, and other practices and policies that acknowledge parenting as simply a part of life, one that need not torpedo a career. But when "Corinne Bennet" has to hide her status as parent, she reminds us that the academy has still not accommodated to the changing workplace, that Wollstonecraft's work is not yet done.

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Comments on Mothering at Mid-Career: The pseudonymous parent

  • Posted by Jean on August 26, 2008 at 9:00am EDT

  • I think that issue is really bigger than having children - and we need to start working on HOW we talk about this - this is really about changing "the structure of society. . . [and] alter[ing] workplaces and governments," so that we can have a society where we have a life outside of work - the only reason why people assume that a TT faculty position has to 60 hours a week is because that is the way it has generally been, the only reason we assume that we have to structure tenure and our institutions that way we do is because that is the way it has always been . . .

  • This is just sad.
  • Posted by Ann M. Little , Associate Professor, History, at Colorado State University on August 26, 2008 at 11:05am EDT

  • Libby, I agree with you entirely--it's sad and outrageous that the author (reasonably) believes that she must conceal her true identity. It's a great example of the contortions that women scholars feel they must perform in order to have a job in their chosen profession and a life.

    But, as you say, unfortunately this is not shocking or surprising. Everything about women--as graduate students, job candidates, and faculty members--is held up for scrutiny, whereas men have the liberty to lead their lives without suffering constant judgment. You and your readers may be interested in the post linked to today in "Around the Web" on gender and the professoriate at Crooked Timber.

  • Part-time labor = exploitation
  • Posted by Aeron on August 26, 2008 at 11:20am EDT

  • I'm glad you posted about this essay, Libby! On one hand, "Corinne" is right -- for many of us, teaching part time would be an ideal situation for raising a small child.

    However, her understanding that adjunct work helps her keep a "foot in the door" of academia is naive. While some teaching experience is valuable when applying for future teaching positions, adjunct work can easily ghetto-ize you. Institutions still want to hire "stars" fresh out of grad. school, who have publications, and haven't taken time out to raise children.

    And, of course, not everyone has a partner making enough money to offset the shameful adjunct salary (and lack of benefits).

    What is needed are part-time jobs with decent salaries and benefits.

  • It's a fine balance
  • Posted by C on August 27, 2008 at 9:20am EDT

  • As a mother who works on the balance between family (3 kids, deployed military-reserve-husband) and the flexible but not-highly-profitable world of part-time adjuncting, I walk a fine line. On the one hand, I am delighted to be a mother, thrilled to have the opportunity to practice my profession (even if I make less than my childcare provider!), and grateful to be part of a generation that has options: education, family, flexible work. And I am purposefully open with my co-workers and students about my family, because I want them to see that they, too, have options. But I do want to be taken seriously as a professional. So I work very hard, and I don't sleep very much, but I keep reminding myself that my mother did not have what I have: options.

    (For us, the trade-off between flexibility and financial gain is a no-brainer. For our family, we are all better off for having less "style" and more "life"!)

  • Posted by Caroline , Co-editor, Mama, PhD at independent on August 27, 2008 at 3:40pm EDT

  • It's really a shame the Chronicle author felt she had to write under a pseudonym (and it makes me all the more proud that all of the Mama, PhD contributors published under their own names). Of course I agree with you and your responders -- we can't blame her; this is more than an institutional issue but a social issue. Nothing is going to change until people can speak out publicly about the academy's shortcomings, and can claim the vital importance of parenting.

  • Best of Both Worlds/ Worst of both worlds
  • Posted by Laura DeLuca on September 2, 2008 at 5:00am EDT

  • Thank you for making me aware of Corinne Bennet's article; her struggles for balance are very familiar to me. As a part-time adjunct and mother I often say I have the best of both worlds and the worst of both worlds.

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