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Featured Guest Blogger May 12th, 2008

As a 4th-year doctoral student, my colleagues in the program and I are faced with one looming question: “Are you going to pursue a tenure-track position?”  Once one begins considering that question, others quickly follow: “How will you balance your family and career?,” “Will the demands for publishing and teaching push back your family calendar?,” and “How can you turn down a faculty position after all of this hard work!?” 

The work-family balance can be particularly cumbersome for certain professions.  Hospital workers, for example, often work an amazing number of hours in one shift without any flexibility during that time.  Academics, on the other hand, tend to have a more flexible schedule, but one that has its own stressors – publishing, teaching, funding, and publishing some more – before the tenure clock runs out. 

Research findings have suggested that:

-          academics are generally less happy with their work-family balance than other staffers from the same university, 

-          female academics may put off having children longer than male academics, and

-          university policies meant to assist young faculty members in their work-life juggle may not be making the difference that administrators would hope. 

The National Clearinghouse on Academic Work Life has a wealth of information of this topic, as does a project funded by our very own Alfred P. Sloan Foundation through the University of Virginia, the Family, Gender, and Tenure Project. 

We have multiple resources on this topic in our literature database – try searching ‘tenure’ for a nice list that includes both books and journal articles on the subject. 

There must be new academics (or seasoned!) on this blog who can relate…feel free to share your experiences or thoughts. 

• Organizations , Overwork , Uncategorized