Cumulative Disadvantage

Abstract

Female faculty may experience disproportionate caregiving-type responsibilities in the academy and at home. A web-based survey inquired about the impact of childcare responsibilities on researchrelated travel. A convenience sample of full-time faculty participated (n ¼ 127). From the overwhelmingly female faculty respondents (81.3%), results show that childcare issues impact their ability to plan research travel, submit to professional conferences, and travel to give an invited talk. Faculty rank, discipline, and whether their partner was employed at the same university negatively impacted their ability to travel. Work/life travel policies may reduce barriers to travel, hence reducing a type of cumulative disadvantage.

Making it Work

“…These barriers can include juggling multiple roles (Castelló et al, 2017;McAlpine & Norton, 2006), childcare needs (Brown & Watson, 2010), a system that provides few supports for doctoral student mothers (Springer et al, 2009), a gendered academic culture which propagates gender inequities (Drago et al, 2006;Mason et al, 2013), and guilt or lack of desire to sacrifice family to balance school and family needs (McAlpine & Norton, 2006). Most importantly, the gendered nature of academia (Tower & Latimer, 2016) creates a disincentive for women to openly discuss the challenges of parenting (Armenti, 2004;Drago et al, 2006). Due to caregiver bias, women who openly discuss parenting, share stories of their families, or otherwise make their families more visible (Armenti, 2004;Drago et al, 2006) may experience negative consequences such as assumptions that they are not fully committed to their work or are less serious about their teaching and scholarship, which have a deleterious effect on their careers (Drago et al, 2005).…”

“…These barriers include the balance of multiple roles and responsibilities (Castelló, Pardo, Sala-Bubaré,, & Suñe-Soler, 2017;Dickerson et al, 2014;McAlpine & Norton, 2006;Smith, Maroney, Nelson, Abel, & Abel, 2006), childcare needs (Brown & Watson, 2010;Spaulding & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2012), financial challenges (Spaulding & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2012;Wao & Onwuegbuzie, 2011), and a lack of systemic supports for doctoral student parents (Springer, Parker, & Leviten-Reid, 2009). In addition, Tower and Latimer (2016) describe the disadvantage that women face within the academy, saying "gender plays a role in the type of work that women conduct in the academy as well as how it is devalued, invisible, or unrewarded" (p. 319). Implicit biases against women caregivers are present in many academic programs (Drago et al, 2006), leading to different challenges for mothers than for other students (Carter, Blumenstein, & Cook, 2013).…”

Caregiving and Conferencing: Supporting Faculty Participation in Conference Travel

“…Professional travel is also experienced as more stressful by female faculty with children, for example, compared to their male counterparts (Mason and Goulden, 2004). As a result, faculty women often report not submitting a conference proposal, declining an invitation to be a speaker, or forgoing field research (Tower and Latimer, 2016;Schroeder et al, 2013). However, this gendered and racialized problem is only beginning to be recognized by universities and few universities offer support to reduce it (Tower, Faul, Hamilton-Mason, Collins, and Gibson, 2015;Calisi and Working Group of Mothers in Science, 2018).…”

“…Not surprisingly, caregiving responsibilities can be important impediments to travel, particularly for female faculty (Tower and Latimer, 2016;Bos et al, 2017). Childcare responsibilities impact faculty women's ability to plan research travel, submit to professional conferences, and travel to give an invited talk (Tower and Latimer).…”

“…Another possible explanation for low demand of eldercare support requested may be the norm of faculty needing to relocate for a tenure-track job (NSF, 2018). When faculty relocate to a university located in a rural area, faculty may not have family located within a distance where they might assist daily with caregiving (Tower and Latimer, 2016). Research is needed to understand at what rates grandparents or other extended family follow an adult faculty child to their new town and if there are differences based on faculty members race, national origin, or both.…”