Time for Breastfeeding
September 28th, 2007From “Inside Higher Ed:”
“An appeals court in Massachusetts ruled Wednesday that a breast-feeding mother who is a student at Harvard Medical School is entitled to extra time during a licensing exam so she can pump milk for her child, The Boston Globe reported.”
This story marks the first time I’ve been grateful for the format of my all-day, at-home PhD qualifying exams: the exams were, at the very least, very breastfeeding-friendly.
Good News from Rutgers
August 21st, 2007We’re proud to note today that the university associated with our publisher, Rutgers, is making family life easier for their faculty:
Eight weeks paid leave from teaching and service obligations for both faculty and TA/GAs of any gender who become parents (biological or adoptive). For birth mothers, these eight weeks are in addition to the previous contract’s six weeks of paid disability leave, resulting in fourteen weeks—an entire semester—of paid leave.
They’ve negotiated a host of other benefits, too. Read the whole story over at the AAUP website.
MomsRising and the New York Times
February 23rd, 2007Academic mothers aren’t the only working mothers with needs.
The second-most e-mailed article on the New York Times online today is about MomsRising, an advocacy group for mothers. If you stop by the blog on the MomsRising website, you’ll also see an article written by Caroline about screening the MomsRising documentary (her review of the film is here at LiteraryMama). Take a moment and read these articles, and then pop over to the MomsRising homepage to see what you can to do help.
If you’ve arrived here from the MomsRising website and wish to know more about our book, Mama PhD, start with About the Book, and then take a look at our Table of Contents and Submission Guidelines.
20/20 Update
November 14th, 2006Well, give ABC credit for trying, but their 20/20 report on working mothers was not the hard-hitting call for action one would hope for. Elizabeth Vargas hosted a toothless overview of the issues working mothers confront: the need for safe, affordable day care; paid maternity leave; flexible work schedules.
The interview with Joan Blades of MomsRising must have been cut, so the remaining experts included Senator Christopher Dodd (D, Connecticut) who is plain-spoken and compelling, reminding viewers that the government provides more oversight of pets and cars than daycare centers. But his voice was fairly well drowned out by a conservative talk radio host giving airtime to people who think mothers simply shouldn’t work, and the (female) deputy assistant Secretary of Labor, a bootstrap conservative who believes that individuals are responsible for saving their own money as a hedge against times when they cannot work, since the consequences to businesses for offering family benefits would be “dire.”
In fact, the statistics show that the 12% of companies offering paid maternity leave report increased profits and productivity when they do. It’s discouraging that these benefits need to be sold as “good for the company” to be adopted, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll take that as a start. Even the (female) VP of Human Resources at IBM downplayed the company’s apparently excellent benefits, including paid leave, flextime, and on-site daycare: “We don’t do these programs because we’re doing good for society, we do them because they’re good for IBM and good for IBM’s business.” Goodness, no, we wouldn’t want to do good for society!
Change will come, I hope, but it won’t come quickly with outlooks like those expressed on 20/20. The panel of “regular moms” concluded that advocating for corporate and government change is just “asking for help,” and added that women aren’t good at asking for help. “Well,” noted Vargas cheerfully, “that might need to change.” Still, her conclusion was less upbeat, characterizing work for change as just adding one more task to “our endless to-do list.” With that attitude, the U.S. will remain awhile longer in the fine company of Lesthoto, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland, the only other nations in the world without a national maternity leave program.
Motherhood & Work on TV!
November 10th, 2006I don’t foresee a tv show focussed on academic mothers and work anytime soon, but this is a good start: To mark the return from maternity leave of ABC correspondent, Elizabeth Vargas, 20/20 is airing a program about motherhood and work. The show features an interview with Joan Blades, co-founder of MomsRising. Tune in on Friday night, November 10th, at 10 p.m.
Then report back here on what you thought!
Motherhood: The Elephant in the Laboratory
November 1st, 2006In the interest of reading more stories about how women attempt to combine family and work life, I’m posting this call for papers. Please respond to Emily Monosson at the email address below for more information.
I am editing a book about women, science and family, tentatively
titled Motherhood: The Elephant in the Laboratory. I think the time is right for women to speak out about their different experiences, opportunities and personal choices as mothers and as scientists.
I am currently collecting essays. If you are interested in contributing and would like more information please respond to:
emonosson@verizon.net.
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