Baby Gap-not just a store

An excellent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Mary Ann Mason, which I encourage you to read here, talks about the real gender gap in academia and how, basically, it's not being measured properly.  Some of the statistics they have are staggering.  Here are a few nuggets:

We found that, across all disciplines, women with children were 38 percent less likely than men with children to achieve tenure. Most women do not even enter a tenure-track position. Instead, they are twice as likely as men with children to work in part-time or nontenure-track positions.

And

Among tenured professors, only 44 percent of women are married with children, compared with 77 percent of men.

Ok, fine.  Maybe most women in academia don't want kids.  But then there's this one, which kills me:

Thirty-eight percent of the faculty women we surveyed (compared with 11 percent of men) reported that they regretted not having more children.

Maybe I should have prefaced this post by saying I don't have kids and have not made a decision one way or another about whether or not to have them.  So, I can't really say that I'm biased one way or another on this.  But I think this is sad, that these women probably felt they couldn't have kids and have the career they wanted, and then once they're probably no longer able to have their own biological kids, they realize they maybe made the wrong decision.  However, the obviously lacking piece of data in this study is what percentage of the population at large also says they regret not having kids?  Or at least people in other professional careers?

I think this article discusses some of the things that people are starting to really consider when talking about gender inequality, that it's not so much that we (females) don't get the degrees, or don't get hired in tenure track positions (although, I think that does still happen...), it's that we are choosing not to go that direction at all.  And many people rightfully argue that it is OUR CHOICE. 

But, perhaps if TT (or equally difficult professional career) were more friendly to women/men/people who wanted families it wouldn't have to be a choice between kids or TT.  And the fact is that the data supports the idea that women still do the majority of the care giving, whether they're professionals or not.  So, if jobs aren't supportive or conducive to family life, who suffers more?  Women. 

Many women have thought about all this much more than me and have written about it more eloquently than me, so maybe it's best if I stick to what I know in my own experience.  I'm pretty sure know that my husband never once considered whether or not he could have the career he wanted AND have kids.  Never once.  He didn't even consider whether I could have the career I wanted and have kids.  But I have graciously enlightened him to the situation I face, were we to go that direction.  ;-)  And my husband is very supportive of my career, but I also think he's more the norm.  Guys just don't think about it the same way women do.  But that's another topic altogether.

Anyway, I find it promising that people are starting to ask different questions about gender equality.  They're starting to look at more nuanced issues than simply pay or hiring discrimination.  And I think for women to truly be on equal footing with men in any profession, these are the types of questions that need to be asked.  So, bravo to everyone studying this aspect of social science.  Keep up the good work!