Bias Against The Baby Factories

By Kleinheider Posted on July 13, 2009 at 6:13 pm

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

“Here I’m this weird, freaky person because I have four kids,” she says in Houston. “There I can establish rapport and credibility with people because big families are much more common. It’s the only time I feel like it’s a real professional advantage.”

Ms. Richards-Kortum is one of a very small number of academic women with three, four, or more children. In academe, where having even one child can slow down success, trying to manage multiple kids can be a career-stopper.

Women with many children are seen by their peers and supervisors as less than serious about their work in a profession that often expects nothing short of complete devotion. Even administrators who consider themselves supportive of female professors with children may question the wisdom of those with more than one or two.

“Kids aren’t like computer programs that run predictably. With more than two, there is always going to be someone who is sick or needy, and so something at work is going to have to give,” says an associate dean of academic affairs, who asked to remain anonymous because she did not want to be publicly critical of women with children. “If anyone told me they wanted three kids, I would be thinking, What, are you nuts?”

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