Fifth Anniversary Updates: Amy Hudock
December 13th, 2013I’d have to say that much has changed for me in relation to academia and motherhood. Mainly, in moving from working at 4 year colleges to a 2 year college, I’ve noticed that the number of women in leadership positions is much higher. The culture about parenting, thus, is more open. Faculty sometimes bring children to campus, and no one comments on it. Both male and female faculty have no problem explaining that they cannot do that meeting at 3:00 because they have to pick up children. Taking a day off to care for a sick child is not frowned upon. And when we set up our teaching and office hour schedules, we are allowed to do so around our child care duties. The research supports what I see in the 2 year college – the more elite a college, the fewer women in higher level positions. Community and technical colleges, on the other hand, don’t rank high on the scale. They don’t have a research requirement, and their main mission is teaching. They work in the care taking area of academia, which is less prestigious. Thus, more women and men who are primary caretakers work at them.