Grad Student Want Family-Friendly Universities

Mary Ann Mason and colleagues at University of California, Berkeley are continuing their good work on family-friendly issues in higher education. Insidehighered.com reported on new findings which illustrate the importance of work-life balance for doctoral students. The article states:

The survey — of more than 8,300 doctoral students at University of California campuses — finds that they increasingly care about finding careers at “family friendly” campuses. And the survey finds that they doubt seriously that they can build such careers at a research university. Both men and women have these attitudes although they are more pronounced in women.

There is a tension here between reality and desire. I realize that the current reality of higher education is such that obtaining tenure and having a family at a research university is difficult, if not impossible in some cases. Yet, I don't want to discourage my doctoral students from considering research universities. I desire for them to have access to research universities and to have the option of raising a family without committing career suicide. How do we move from desire to a new reality? I know that efforts toward making all universities more family-friendly is essential and must include marketing efforts to show graduate students that they can be an academic parent and get tenure at a research university. Change is slow.