motherscholar

Abstract

Having children negatively affects women's careers in higher education, and women in the academy are far less likely to marry and/or have children than women in other demanding professions. For those women that do ascend the academic ranks, they are far more likely to be unmarried or divorced, and childless. In fact, in 2015 only 32.4% of women held full professor positions in the academy. Clearly there are barriers in place that discourage/prohibit women both from becoming mothers and from being promoted from associate to full professor. Since attaining the rank of full professor is often a pathway to leadership in the academy, there also exists a problem of under-representation of women in leadership in higher education. In this chapter, the author explores the challenges and considers the possibilities of motherscholars becoming MotherLeaders in higher education.