Academic Motherhood for Counselor Educators: Navigating Through the Academic Pipeline

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that children are a hindrance for female faculty members in making tenure, due partially to reproduction and the quest for tenure timelines being incompatible (Mason and Goulden 2004;Young and Wright 2001). This article presents an emerging profile of 70 counselor educator mothers as they navigate their way through the academic pipeline towards tenure. Results indicate a significant difference between non-tenured and tenured faculty's perceptions of balance between work and family life. Implications for educators and future research are presented.

Counselor Educator Mothers: A Quantitative Analysis of Job Satisfaction

“…Our findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating that having children under the age of 6 in the home creates work–life balance challenges for academic mothers (Stinchfield & Trepal, ; Wolfinger et al, ; Wolf‐Wendel & Ward, ). This particular finding is problematic because it may encourage women counselor educators to postpone or forgo motherhood plans or decide to leave the tenure track to better manage those demands.…”

“…This particular finding is problematic because it may encourage women counselor educators to postpone or forgo motherhood plans or decide to leave the tenure track to better manage those demands. This phenomenon relates to the literature on women's underrepresentation in the tenure track (Morrison et al, 2011;Wolfinger et al, 2008) and to research findings that women academics delayed their career to have children and had fewer children than they wanted (Stinchfield & Trepal, 2010).…”

“…Mothers of young children do not move into tenure‐track positions at the same rate as other faculty (Morrison et al, ; Wolfinger et al, ); motherhood has been identified as a significant factor in women not earning tenure as often as their male colleagues (Connelly & Ghodsee, ; Ecklund & Lincoln, ). Scholars have identified some of the barriers mothers experience in academia (Morrison et al, ; Wolfinger et al, ; Wolf‐Wendel & Ward, ), including those faced by counselor educator mothers (Hermann, Ziomek‐Daigle, & Dockery, ; Stinchfield & Trepal, ; Trepal & Stinchfield, ). In addition to describing barriers, researchers have highlighted benefits of academic motherhood (Connelly & Ghodsee, ; Hermann et al, ; Trepal & Stinchfield, ; Ward & Wolf‐Wendel, ).…”

The Intersectionality of African American Mothers in Counselor Education: A Phenomenological Examination

“…Furthermore, these findings parallel other researchers' findings related to how racial marginalization can affect professional productivity and cause professional neglect (Boehm et al, ; Griffin et al, ; Kern & Grandey, ; Mason & Goulden, ; Philipsen & Bostic, ). The findings also converge with research on counselor educator mothers in the recognition that the work environment influences personal and professional wellness (Hermann et al, ; Stinchfield & Trepal, ; Trepal & Stinchfield, ).…”

Women in Distance Doctoral Programs: How They Negotiate Their Identities As Mothers, Professionals, and Academics In Order to Persist

“…The concept of the motherhood penalty in higher education is well documented in the literature on faculty as researchers have examined faculty with children teaching in tenure-track positions and found disparity between men and women (M. Baker, 2012Baker, , 2016Craft & Maseberg-Tomlinson, 2015;Cummins, 2012;Jakubiec, 2015;McCutcheon & Morrison, 2016;Seher, & Iverson, 2015;Stinchfield, & Trepal, 2010;Summers, & Clarke, 2015;Ward, 2014;Wolf-Wendel & Ward, 2015;Sallee, Ward, and Wolf-Wendel, (2016) purported that academic mothers experience greater responsibility related to household tasks and childcare than academic fathers. Moreover, male faculty publish as single authors more than women faculty, and women with children are significantly underrepresented in tenure track positions (Hart, 2006).…”