The relationship between family and employment outcomes

Abstract

The representation of women among the nation's college and university faculty has been increasing since the 1960s (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). Despite this progress, gender inequities remain in various aspects of faculty life, including such employment outcomes as salaries, academic rank, and tenure status, as well as in such family outcomes as marriage and children. While certainly not all women and men desire marriage or children, or both, persistent differences in the shares of women and men faculty who are married or have children, or both, suggest that the nature of faculty employment has disparate impacts on the family decisions and lives of women and men faculty.The magnitude of the difficulties that are associated with managing work and family demands is demonstrated at least in part by the frequency of related discussions in trade publications that are targeted to college and university faculty and administrators. A few recent titles from the Chronicle of Higher Education indicate the nature of the concerns: "How Babies Alter

The Effect of Time Use in Explaining Male–Female Productivity Differences Among Economists

“…Besides finding gender differences in the outcomes of interest, there are also some notable gender differences in the control variables. Consistent with the work of Perna (), women are less likely to be employed at research institutions, and this difference is marginally significant ( p ‐value < 0.15). The disparity in men's and women's institutional affiliation could explain a large part of the gender difference in both measures of time use (time allocation and time concentration) and research productivity.…”

“…Identifying the effect of time concentration on quantity of research produced is important because there are likely systematic gender differences in how time is distributed throughout the calendar year. First, female faculty members are more likely to be employed at colleges that focus on teaching or have teaching positions at research universities (Perna ), whereby their teaching load may preclude research progress during the academic year. Besides differences in work responsibilities, female faculty members may differ from males in their non‐work responsibilities as well.…”

Factors that contribute to overall job satisfaction among faculty at a large public land-grant university in the Midwest

“…In comparison, collegial and institutional perceptions of engaged faculty fathers conflict. Some researchers refer to a "daddy privilege" in which fathers are praised as good parents when family commitments encroach on work demands (Perna, 2005a;Williams, 2000), whereas others describe the strong resistance that fathers face when requesting family accommodations (Rhode & Kellerman, 2008). Although some researchers predict that future generations of fathers will take on greater dependent care responsibilities and expect institutions to accommodate their family engagement (S. Acker & Armenti, 2004;Williams, 2000), women faculty members tend to be disproportionately affected "by conflicts between the ideal academic career trajectory and family needs" (Hollenshead, Sullivan, Smith, August, & Hamilton, 2005, p. 42).…”

“…Also, women with children under the age of 6 and married women are less likely than are women without children and single women to hold tenure-track positions (Perna, 2005a).…”

Work-Life Balance in Higher Education for Women: Perspectives of Athletic Training Faculty

“…Among tenured faculty, 70% of men are married with children, whereas only 44% of women are married with children. 22 54,55 there was a consensus that having children confounded the success of each role, and that sacrifices often occur to balance it all.…”