Faculty Fathers by Sallee Margaret W.;

Author:Sallee, Margaret W.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Professional Schools

Kenneth is a first-year assistant professor in a basic science department located in a medical school. He and his wife, a research assistant professor in the same department, have an infant son. Kenneth’s days start at 6:30 A.M. when he gets up with the dog and makes coffee for his wife. He tries to spend at least 30 minutes with their son in the morning before leaving for work. He tends to arrive in his lab between 8:00 and 8:30 A.M., and he spends time setting up experiments and supervising his small but growing staff. His wife arrives in the lab a few hours after he does; the two of them work together until 5:00 P.M. when Kenneth leaves to pick up their son from daycare. His wife stays a bit later. These staggered schedules allow them both to get work done. They spend time together as a family in the evenings. After putting their son to bed around 8:30 P.M., the two professors pull out their laptops and work for a couple of hours. Both he and his wife tend to go into the lab at least an hour each day Saturday and Sunday. As Kenneth explained, “the lab’s still small enough now that I usually go in for at least an hour each day over the weekend, just to check things out, make sure nothing’s exploded, the freezers are still running, stuff like that.” He and his wife often bring their son with them on the weekends and switch off watching him while the other person works. While both of them work a lot, Kenneth reports that they work far fewer hours than they did as postdoctoral researchers. Nonetheless, he, along with other faculty in the department, feel the pressure from the dean of the medical school to focus on “funding, funding, funding.”

Kenneth is very positive about the department, labeling it “subjectively very positive.” He mentioned that many other assistant professors in the department—both male and female—have young children and senior faculty have older children. As a result, he said “everyone knows what it’s like to be in that position.” Children are frequently invited to department parties and they often bring their son to department seminars. They have occasionally had to juggle childcare demands for department events, such as graduate student recruitment, at night and on weekends. Sometimes, he and his wife bring their son with them and experience no repercussions for their decisions. Despite the family-friendliness, Kenneth is unaware that the institution provides policies such as tenure-clock extensions if they decide to have a second child.

George is an associate professor in a school of business. He and his wife, who is a stay-at-home mom and active volunteer in the schools, have two sons in elementary and middle school. Like many of his colleagues across the professional schools, he could be working in industry and making significantly more money but has chosen a career in academia to spend more time with his children. Nonetheless, he maintains an exhausting schedule.

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