• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

  • Home
  • Courses & Webinars
    • How To …
    • The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
    • The Art of the Article
    • Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
    • On Demand Courses
    • Upcoming Live Webinars
    • Free Productivity Webinars
    • Gift Certificates
  • Personalized Job App Help
    • Document Editing
    • Quick Reviews
    • Specials
    • Interview Prep
    • Personal Negotiating Assistance
    • One on One Career Consults
    • Testimonials
    • Interview Testimonials
    • Graduate School Application Assistance
  • The Professor Is /Out/
    • It’s OK to Quit
    • Our Art of Leaving Program
    • Prof Is OUT Services
    • Our Prof Is OUT Team
    • Prof is OUT Client Testimonials
    • Ex-Academics: A TPIO Support Community
  • Workshops
  • Coaching
    • Pre-Tenure Coaching Group
    • Leaving Academia Coaching Group
  • Blog
  • Podcast

Finding Work/Life Balance in Academia

By Karen Kelsky | August 19, 2011

(Friday Post Category:  Yes You Can! Women and Academia)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our post today is a guest post by Rachel Connelly, Bion R. Cram Professor of Economics, and Chair of the Economics Department at Bowdoin College.  Rachel and her Bowdoin colleague Kristen Ghodsee co-wrote the new book Professor Mommy: Finding Work/Life Balance in Academia (Rowman and Littlefield).  I encountered their work in an Inside Higher Ed column, The Value of Self-Promotion which I loved.  The negative comments the column got prompted me to weigh in on their comment stream, and eventually to write this post about it.  In  the process I got to talking to Rachel about the challenges of having kids while on the tenure track, and she kindly agreed to share her words of wisdom with the readers of The Professor Is In. Thank you, Professor Connelly!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Karen wrote recently in this blog about the fray that ensued at Inside Higher Ed after they published an excerpt of my new book, Professor Mommy:  Finding Work/Family Balance in Academia, coauthored with my Bowdoin colleague, Kristen Ghodsee, about the importance of self-promotion.

It really was amazing how nasty some of the comments were, as if Kristen and I had revealed a secret the guys had meant to keep for themselves.  In the correspondence that resulted from Karen’s comment, Karen offered me a guest appearance in her blog to address what she says is the number one question she receives from women, “How to achieve work/family balance?”

In the book we offer faculty women at all stages of their career advice for walking the tightrope of work and family without falling off.  Some of our advice comes from things we did right, a lot comes from things we wish we had done else wise, and still more was contributed by friends and colleagues.

For myself, I decided before I took that Bowdoin job in 1985, the same year I finished my graduate studies, that although I very much wanted to succeed in the field of academic economics, I was only willing to do it if it could be done at the same time I had young children.  That is because for me, the children were not negotiable, but the career path was.

Of course, I had the advantage that there are other things that one can do with a PhD in economics but really my ultimate goal was to teach at a small liberal arts college like Bowdoin.  There I was, right out of graduate school at 28 years of age with my dream job and the first thing I did was purposefully get pregnant.  My mother always says I have to do things the hard way and she is undoubtedly right (Moms always are, or at least that is what I tell my kids.)

When I think about those early days on the tenure track it is a lot like the little engine that could, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. New baby. No sleep, no sleep, no sleep. Move to a new city for a fellowship year with a two year old.  Move back to Bowdoin with a three year old. Lots of disappointments.  Finally another new baby.  Tenure time. “Yes.” I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could.”

What kept me going was that I really had it all! Everything I wanted, just a bit too much of each piece.  I am convinced that every new mother feels this way, regardless of what else she is doing.  I remember when my first baby was just born and he was nursing for 45 minutes every two hours.  I called up my mom and said, “What am I going to do? I can’t get anything done.”  She told me two things, both incredibly useful.  First off she said, “You are doing something” and second she said, “it gets easier,”

She is right on both counts, of course (a consistent theme).  Feeding the baby is work so don’t think you need to do something else at the same time.  But taking care of a baby does get easier as the sleep patterns get to be more consistent, then as others become good substitutes for your time, then as the child gains independent moments etc. One’s work gets easier as well.  The new preps are less often and less onerous, the research and the writing gets easier, the acceptance rate increases.

My advice is to hang in there.  It is worth it to stay in the game.  Your child does not need you 24 hours a day.  Your students don’t need you 24 hours a day.  Your research is not important enough to be done 24 hours a day.  At different stages on your life, the pie chart that is our time allocation per week changes. (See Chap 2 of my book, The Time Use of Mothers in the United States at the Turn of the 21st Century, with Jean Kimmel, W.E. Upjohn Press if you like pie charts.)  But all the pieces are there and continue to be there as your children grow, and as you grow into your teaching and research.

I recently read an article in the New Yorker about Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook (July 11 and 18, 2011, pp. 55-63).  Sheryl talks about the need for women to “lean in” instead of “opting out.”  I like that image.  Lean in, steel yourself against the wind and hang on for a dear life.

Similar Posts:

  • Work-Life Balance? Post 1 of Many
  • The Price You Will Pay for Work-Life Balance
  • The Time Line (A Guest Post on Work-Life Balance)
  • Go Ahead, Lose Your Balance
  • Postpartum Depression: On Motherhood, Academia, and Mental Health (A Guest Post)

Filed Under: Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Tenure--How To Get It, Work/Life Balance in Academia, Yes, You Can: Women in Academia Tagged With: having kids on the tenure track, women and tenure, work life balance with kids

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. The Little Engine That Could | Professor Mommy says:
    August 21, 2011 at 8:54 am

    […] may be interested to read Rachel’s guest blog in The Pearls of Wisdom: Blog of The Professor is […]

    Reply
  2. Advice For Preparing For The Job Market (For Scholars On The Margins) | Conditionally Accepted says:
    August 5, 2013 at 7:01 am

    […] advisor(s) do not come from the same background as you.  Your decision should also be informed by your family’s needs and interests, as well as your […]

    Reply
  3. Parents in Science: Links edition | Erin C. McKiernan says:
    January 26, 2014 at 1:24 pm

    […] Finding Work/Life Balance in Academia: “Your child does not need you 24 hours a day. Your students don’t need you 24 hours a day.  Your research is not important enough to be done 24 hours a day.” […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Buy My Book!

4.8 stars on Amazon!

The_Professor_Is_In.indd

Get Immediate Help

In addition to our blog and book, we have upcoming live webinars, pre-recorded webinars and other programs that you can get started on right away:

The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
The Art of the Article
Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
Quick Reviews
Free Productivity Webinars

Categories

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Academic Job Search
    • How To Choose and Manage Recommenders
    • How to Interview
    • How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters
    • How To Write CVs
    • Landing Your Tenure Track Job
    • Major Job Market Mistakes
    • Negotiating Offers
  • Adjunct Issues
  • Advising Advice
  • Alt-University Critique
  • Black Lives Matter
  • COVID19
  • Dispatches
  • Goodbye Ivory Towers
  • Graduate Student Concerns
    • Bad Advisors and Good Mentors
  • How To Do Conferences
  • How to Get Grants and Fellowships
  • International Perspectives
  • Intersectional Analyses
  • Makeup
  • Marginalized Voices
  • Mental Health and Academia
  • Ph.D. Poverty
  • Podcast
  • Post-Ac Free-Lancing and Small Business
  • Post-Ac Job Search
    • Careers Outside
  • Postdoc Issues
  • Productivity
    • Book Proposals and Contracts
    • Publishing Issues
    • Writing
  • Promote Yourself!
  • Quitting–An Excellent Option
  • Racism in the Academy
  • Rearview Mirror
  • Resumes & Postac Docs
  • Sexual Harassment in the Academy
  • Shame
  • Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student
  • Strategizing Your Success in Academia
  • Teaching and Research Statements
  • Teaching Demos
  • Teaching Portfolios
  • Tenure–How To Get It
    • How To Build Your Tenure File
    • Surviving Assistant Professorhood
  • The Campus Visit
  • Unstuck
  • Webinars
  • What Not To Wear
  • Women of Color in Academia
  • Work/Life Balance in Academia
  • Yes, You Can: Women in Academia
  • Your Second and Third Jobs

Footer

About Us

  • Who Is Dr. Karen?
  • Who Is On the TPII Team?
  • In The News
  • Contact Me
  • FAQs
    • Why Trust Me?
  • Testimonials

Community

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Peer Editing
  • PhD Debt Survey
  • Support Fund
  • I Help With Custody Cases for Academics

Copyright © 2023 The Professor Is In·