SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 28) means they must make their mark in their professions during those years. When presented with the choice between children and career, they drop out of the pipeline. When women want to return, they have difficulty getting back on the typical “linear career trajectory,” according to the “Agenda for Excellence” report. A major obstacle is the requirement to publish as an indication of career progress. “Given that the average age for granting a Ph.D. is 33, this means that the rate of publication is expected to speed up during the years when [childbearing and childrearing] responsibilities are the heaviest,” stated the report. Peggy Layne, P.E., director of the ADVANCE program at Virginia Tech, added that getting external funding for research, which is highly competitive, is also a major impediment to leaving and re-entering an academic career. “When you are evaluated for tenure, you have five to seven years. It is an extremely stressful time period in which to develop research that coincides with childbearing years,” she said. Major lapses in research in a time frame that demands fast and intense work will not generate the necessary track record to get funds. If academia is going to keep women in its ranks, it must make changes Fortunately, academia has recognized the need to adopt more suitable work/life policies, and the changes have built steadily among many academic institutions. Some of the changes have come from individuals. For example, during Dr. Mason’s first year as graduate dean at the University of California, Berkeley, she investigated the work/life policies of her institution and subsequently instigated changes in how the tenure track affected faculty. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has been instrumental in funding many of the reports and studies that demonstrate academia must adopt work/life balance programs and give researchers the opportunity to develop programs. A major impetus was a grant in 2003 awarded to the University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women (CEW) from the Sloan Foundation to analyze existing policies by surveying 255 four-year universities and colleges. Another report, “Designing and Implementing Family- “Our survey showed that being married with children was a formula for success for men, but the opposite was true for women. We learned that 70 percent of tenured male professors, compared to only 44 percent of tenured female professors, were married with children. And only one in three women who postponed motherhood to take a fast-track university job ever had children.” Mary Ann Mason, Ph.D., “Do Babies Matter,” The Parent Rap, University of California, Berkeley, Web site 28 SWE SPRING 2008
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