The Choice to Have Children in Graduate School: Opportunities and Challenges

• In Event: Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Division J Section 4 Poster Session 1

Abstract

Despite increased participation in doctoral education, women have not become tenured professors in expected rates. Likely a contributing factor, the literature reveals that academic women have difficulty deciding when to have children. While many female faculty base family planning decisions on their age and career stage, little is known about the factors that guide women’s choices to have children in graduate school. Using a poststructuralist view of choice, this study interviewed 16 graduate student mothers to understand their decisions to combine mothering with graduate school. Participant age and the flexibility of graduate school shaped the decision-making of the mothers. Key supports of spouses, childcare, and advising leveraged the flexibility of graduate school in ways that promoted or discouraged academic careers.

Author

• Catherine J. Mutti-Driscoll, University of Washington