New Book Explores the Impact of Children on Academic Careers

Three scholars have published a new book examining the impact children have on the careers of academic men and women. The book examines how children affect the careers of men and women in the academic world at every level from graduate students to those facing retirement. And the bottom line is that children have a more negative impact on the academic careers of women than is the case for men. For instances, the research found that a women’s income decreases 1 percent for every child they have while men’s incomes are not impacted by their number of children.

The authors explore the family sacrifices women often have to make to get ahead in academia and consider how gender and family interact to affect promotion to full professor, salaries, and retirement. In addition to documenting the problem, the authors offer strategies to transform the university into a family-friendly environment at every career stage.

The book, Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower (Rutgers University Press), is authored by Mary Ann Mason, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, Nicholas Wolfinger, associate professor of sociology at the University of Utah, and Marc Goulden, the director of date initiatives at Berkeley.