Mothers in the Academy: How to Do It All*
Heather Cox Richardson Well, first you need a good household staff. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. OK, now that we’ve got the hilarity out of the way, how really can mothers take on teaching, research and writing, and children—three incredibly labor-intensive jobs—at the same time? Let’s start with teaching. Here are a few things I picked up along the way, largely by the seat of my pants as I jumped into a job when my first child (of three) was just shy of three months old. Nothing I learned was intentional, but some of it has stood me in good stead. The key concept for enabling mothers to survive in the academy is efficiency. And here are some things that helped me to achieve it: Teach big courses with a wide scope. That sounds counterintuitive, I know. Most people think it takes less energy for junior scholars—and most people with small children will be junior scholars—to teach smaller classes in their specialty. The problem with such specific classes is that they tend to be under enrolled, wh...