ABSTRACT
Perhaps the most common question asked by women who pursue an academic career is: Should I have children, and if so, when? One of our colleagues decided to have a child while writing her dissertation, in a year in which she was supported by a fellowship. She was fortunate and had her baby right on time, during a moment in her career when she could focus only on writing and taking care of her new infant-her grandmother also moved in to help her. She and her husband decided to wait until she was tenured and promoted to try for a second child, but their lives were so busy that eventually they gave up. They had no time to take care of another infant. The window of opportunity for securing tenure and having children occurs simultaneously for most women who attend graduate school in their 20s and 30s. Because higher education is still dominated by men whose wives either don’t work or compromise their careers for the family, women faculty feel the pressure to postpone childbearing or to forgo having a family altogether.
