<p>This is a burning issue in my mind that I've discussed with many of my advisers and have googled just about every keyword combination I could think of. I have gotten many good answers, but I still have not seemed to gotten further than I started.</p>
<p>When is a good time for a woman in academia to have a baby?</p>
<p>I'm not thinking of having one anytime soon. I'm not even engaged. But I know I want a family eventually and that it means more to me than the world to do so. I don't want to be standing at my tenure celebration party realizing that I've lost my chance to have the most miraculous experience in the world.</p>
<p>It just seems like everyone in this industry is gogogo, and many successful women are single. It seems that the unspoken rule is that if you were to take a few years off without publications, you'd kiss goodbye to your career and your chances of tenure. Also the US maternity leave regulations seem to really suck.</p>
<p>Have any women in this forum thought about this?</p>
<p>Thats a q I hv been meaning to ask for a while too. My GF thinks the time when she is writing up her PhD thesis would be good for her, bcos then she ll hv time off from active lab work..but I ll like to know wht the others feel abt the issue.</p>
<p>The grad students (in English Literature) I've spoken to have planned to have a baby in the time between finishing their exams and finishing their thesis. The one professor I know well who has children must have had them about at that time as well, considering their ages and her time in the field.</p>
<p>Overall, graduate school is not a terrible time to have a baby -- hours are super-flexible, and if you take a few extra months to complete your PhD, nobody is likely to even notice.</p>
<p>With that said, though, it doesn't sound all that appealing to me, although I've thought about it (since I'm recently married). I mean, dear lord, I'm tired enough as it is. </p>
<p>Right now I have this plan to take a few months off between graduate school and a postdoc, and have a baby then. We'll see if it works out that perfectly. :)</p>
<p>quite a few postdocs in my lab had babies during grad school-- between their exams and thesis. it seemed to work out well for all of them.
i thought a lot about this too, and i'm glad someone asked. :)</p>
<p>lol, I think the answer is, just as many people who find future partners in highschool, or in college.</p>
<p>People meet people not through one medium only. In college, you meet people through clubs, sports, friends, etc. I don't think it changes much in grad school. If you're planning on confining yourself to your lab for the next 5 years and being a total outcast to everyone outside that environment, then maybe your chances of finding someone is slim.</p>
<p>so in that respect, I didn't know that "finding someone" became such an issue, just because you're in grad school! Those phd comics aren't completely non-fiction you know....;)</p>
<p>I know some students who are working on their PhD's who had babies last year...
There was also someone else I knew who had a baby one month prior to receiving her PhD.
A majority of the professors I've taken classes from were married and had kids. I don't think it really caused any great problems for them with their jobs in academia. Of course I don't know all the details about how they managed it. They probably had good time managing skills, for one thing.</p>
<p>Definitely time management. One of my professors who has two young children always seemed so constrained by time, no matter how much she tries to schedule things . You'll see stuff pile and pile in her mailbox over the course of the semester... but somehow she does come through.</p>
<p>I had a baby the second year I was employed. I had completed my PhD. I had been divorced several years earlier because my ex-H didn't want children. I put that energy into completing my dissertation and becoming employed. I was lucky enough to be hired into a very supportive department (an English Dept.) that had many female faculty members.</p>
<p>The women in my department encouraged me to have a baby (without a husband!) and promised support.</p>
<p>As I pursued this (my doctor told me it was now or never because of fibroids) I eventually acquired a daughter, a husband, a son and tenure in that order.</p>
<p>It was difficult to raise tiny children and support a career. I did take some contract guaranteed time off (without pay) and came back and earned tenure.</p>
<p>How much contract guaranteed time did you get? How much could one potentially get, and still be considered for tenure?</p>
<p>Also, are the rules for such things (maternity leave, leave without pay) the same in all states, universities, or departments? I understand that the "environment" and attitude of a department is most important in terms of whether a woman's "having a baby" is supported or viewed as negative. However, what is the situation in a department that is supportive?</p>
<p>Official leave policy does not vary from dept. to dept. My dept. however, assured me they would fight for my tenure if needed when the time came.</p>
<p>My school's policy was two years of unpaid leave per child, however, a birdie in my dept. told me that a stretch of four years would not be viewed well. I came back for a year while pregnant with my second child.</p>
<p>So here was my scenario:</p>
<p>Yr. one: Hired and worked.
Yr. two: Hired, worked, pregnant.
Yr. three: Half time, one semester. Didn't like it. Off next semester.
Yr. four: Off
Yr. five: Back half time and pregnant
Yr. six: Off
Yr. seven: Off
Yr. eight: Back full time and forever. Sigh.</p>
<p>The Board of Trustees had to approve the leaves and they did. </p>
<p>I have no idea. I am not at a competitive or prestigious institution although my thesis won a major award.</p>
<p>I am glad of it because I have had a wonderful balance of professional and family life.</p>
<p>I would think that every dept. at my school would have to abide by these rules -- contract mandated. However, they might not be as supportive in the tenure decision.</p>
<p>In fact, I have been seeing new hires afraid to the take the risk I did and working throughout. </p>
<p>Probably, this is sadly a rare case scenario. However, Out of the 23 years I have been employed there, I have worked 19 and plan to work 13 more so I am giving full service to my institution.</p>
<p>Indeed, I have read online comments from many women who did what you did and lost tenure, or even had to switch careers, because they could not recuperate from the effects.</p>
<p>I'm happy for you that your situation worked out. However, before everything was "happily ever after", did you have a "plan B"? Were you considering options outside of academia if your school shut you out and would not give you tenure? Or were you willing to just accept your fate whatever it was?</p>
<p>Also, do you think the "effects" are directly related to the time you take off (in those schools that are less supportive), or can you "make up" for it if you publish more cutting edge stuff or are more productive during the times while you are at work?</p>