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Disparate Burden

This probably won’t shock many women, but female professors with children spend much more time on family care duties than do their male counterparts — even among young professors who grew up with the idea of gender equality.

University of California researchers surveyed thousands of faculty members throughout the system’s campuses on the number of hours they spent providing care of any sort for their families. They previously released general data confirming conventional wisdom: that women have more care burdens than men.

But additional data presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Higher Education compared hours spent on care by male and female faculty members of the same age groups, and with the same status of being a parent or not being one.

The following table shows that while gaps are minimal between men and women without children, they are significant for men and women with children:

Hours Spent on Family Care, by Age

Demographic group

Under 34

34-38

38-42

42-46

Women with children

37

43

38

34

Men with children

25

21

23

19

Women without children

6

10

7

8

Men without children

8

7

7

10

Marc Goulden, a researcher for the University of California, said that the data pointed to a shortcoming of many policies adopted by colleges to help parents. The policies tend to focus on the time demands on new parents, but ignore the reality that time demands are as great or greater when kids start to grow up as when they are babies.

“Policies that look only at babies are missing the care load of later years,” Goulden said.

As faculty members age, family care hours spent by male and female professors converge, but parity for professors with children does not come until they are about 60 years old, the California data suggest.

Goulden reviewed data showing that while males no longer dominate the pool of new Ph.D.’s. In 1978, 68 percent of new Ph.D.’s were white men, but by 2003, only 40 percent were.

In that environment, he said, “family friendly policies are essential to the health of a university.”

Another researcher at the same session at the AAHE meeting discussed problems facing women when they have babies. Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel, of the University of Kansas, said that she has been conducting in-depth interviews with female professors with children under the age of 5. The professors come from a wide range of institutions.

Among her findings:

  • Female professors preparing for family leave feel they must take the initiative and propose not only their leave, but arrangements for covering their courses. “They had to negotiate the deal.”
  • Many women have little knowledge of institutional policies that may exist to help them, and many hesitate to use those policies for fear of offending colleagues who may later vote on their tenure or promotion.
  • The role of the department chair is key to these women working out successful leaves.

Scott Jaschik

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Comments

Efficiency

Women pick men who make more money. They do it so they have the choice of staying home or working ... or at least so the responsibility of financially supporting the family falls first on Dad and only then on Mom.

Men have no choice but to invest more in our careers. If we do not, our wives can leave, take our children, cut off contact with them, and STILL make us keep earning money — only it is then termed “child support".

Young man, do not get married. And if yo do get married, do not have children. And if you do get married and have children, do NOT hire servants. And if you do hire servants, at least do not hire a nanny.

If you do, the courts may place that burden on you for the rest of your life.

Dr. Mike, at 8:00 pm EST on March 21, 2005

Objection

Dr. Mike writes “Women pick men who make more money.”

This is a very limited comment that suggests all women are seeking a wallet rather than a mate and love. While this may be true for some, it is certainly not for all. Research shows that “the highest earning men are increasingly married to the highest earning women, and the lowest earning men to the lowest earning women."Journal of Marriage & the Family, Nov2004, Vol. 66 Issue 4, p1034

Chilton, at 2:39 pm EST on March 25, 2005

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