Theme Week Take 2

Here is another response from a colleague who is currently pregnant with her first child while on the tenure-track.

First, I should say if you value your career that I think having a strong, early tenure review is critical to being successful at any institution (either your current or future employer). This means doing quality teaching, research and service. People who have a child, for better or worse, right after they finish their dissertations often never get their research program started quickly enough. They also often aren't able to make the time commitment necessary (for teaching, research and service) to have a stellar first and second year review. So, they often do not get tenure at the first institution that employs them. So, I don't think the issue is whether you are on the tenure-track or not, but rather whether you have adequately developed your line of fertile research such that you can afford to have a relatively more 'fallow' period. I also think that people who have great first and second years, often do not have such a 'fallow' period or are able to avoid going 'off track.' There is also data out there that suggests that people who have a kid within 5 years of their PhD are significantly less likely to earn tenure (at year 6 or 7 I assume) than those who do not. I think this difference roughly is really about whether or not people get their research programs kicked up early and teaching ducks in a row, such that the publication process (critical to tenure at even non-R1s these days) does not stop during and after pregnancy.

Most importantly, I think it is very very important for female assistant profs. and graduate students to have a sense of reality when it comes to our work environments. We know to assume that there are no sick days and substitute teachers for most of us on 9 month contracts; we also need to be mindful of the reality is that when you are sick, disabled, or pregnant there is work that will offload onto others and universities are byzantine structures that will not give departments adequate extra resources to help with such moments. It may be crass, but I think it is truthful to say that your colleagues will be much more likely to smile and offer to help out if you were a valued colleague before the sickness, disability, or pregnancy occurred. And, while it may not matter to you (when you are pregnant you have more to worry about than whether or not your colleague cares about taking your class for a day after you give birth... ), it is a disruption in the workplace (whether you are just not around as much, or there is an adjunct or other faculty member covering your class, or whatever). Most people can understand when an employee has a difficult time that is short-lasting and are eager to cheer when a colleague succeeds after overcoming 'obstacles' that they may or may not have personally experienced. They are also supportive when they are happy to have them as a colleague and know an individual is 'committed' to the institution. However, couple a bad semester with a few less-than mediocre reviews and it is reasonable for your colleagues to wonder whether the department would benefit more from having someone who is more 'zealous' in their pursuit of succeeding at work (and helping to take care of the dept. business at hand).

My personal attitude is that pregnancy is 9 months, and its OK to have a 'bad' or 'less fertile' semester during the probationary period... many people do, whether for childbirth or other reasons (e.g., death in the family, divorce, etc.). One semester is not going to derail someone who was already on a productive track toward tenure. The problem is that some people do have more than one semester like this (e.g., kids get sick, people get pregnant again, another crisis happens), and some people just never get going... so "waiting" until after tenure to have a kid is one way of controlling a variable that can affect some people's ability to make progress toward tenure. For other people, who work hard early, get excellent reviews and seem to thrive under pressure... having a kid on the tenure track is probably not going to affect things one way or another. I think these people in the latter category can succeed in any environment.

One final thing... I think that all university policies on maternity should be ignored when making this decision. You can be at a school that offers a paid leave to pregnant faculty only to hear other faculty bitching in the hallway for having to "cover someone's course or advising" when they are being paid an overload. These faculty do not make happy members of review committees. Other schools might not have such a policy, but will have colleagues pitch in who are generally supportive and with FMLA you can make things work. How an "automatic tenure year" extension works varies from committee to committee and school to school. Put simply, you do not want to put your eggs in any policy basket to 'help' you. It is up to you to make your case for tenure sound, exceed minimum expectations and to get good reviews so that if the unexpected happens... you can find another job... and be happy about your decision to have a child, regardless, as whether or not you earn tenure can be dependent on too many issues beyond your control!