Balancing the tenure track and family without going crazy – more than just a dream?

I ended my last post musing about the idea of a part-time tenure track position. This week, the topic came up during a workshop I attended addressing the prospect of starting a family while a graduate student or post-doc. One of the panelists was a tenured professor who had successfully managed to have two kids as a grad student, and then land a tenure track position when her youngest child was two. During her presentation she mentioned that, while still pre-tenure, she decided to home school her children and work part-time. I was amazed! At the end of her presentation I asked her how she did it. Apparently, she read through her contract and determined that it was within her rights to work part-time (even though she wasn't yet tenured). She went to her Chair, and although the Chair hadn't heard of anyone doing it before her, she was granted her request. She also told me that it is also within ones rights to negotiate to work part-time during the hiring process. Of course this type of a situation remains rare and many people are not aware that they have the option. Furthermore, as Dawn Lehman discusses here, such positions come with pros and cons for both the assistant professor and their department. I'm not making any decisions yet, I still have a post-doc to do, and papers to publish, before a job offer, or any subsequent negotiations, become an option. Still, knowing that many assistant professors work about 60 hours a week, I can't help thinking that the tenure track doesn't leave much time for family. I am not adverse to working long hours. Research is a labor of love and most researchers, myself included, work long hours because they want to. However, with a young family, or an elderly parent to care for (or any number of other good reasons) working such long hours might not be the ideal situation. A half time position would work out to 30 hours a week, which seems much more feasible in terms of balancing work with family life. I would like to invest optimally in both work and family, since both are very important to me, thus it heartens me to know that while rare, a part-time tenure track position may be an option.

I have a life and I’d like to keep it

I’m still alive. I’ve just been ignoring my blog. It isn’t that I have nothing to say or no time to say it. Nope, for the past few months, while settling into working full time again, I’ve just been feeling private. But today I read FIA’s blog commenting on Gaby Hinsliff’s article in the Observer, entitled "I had it all, but I didn't have a life". That struck a chord so I’ve decided to weigh in. In the article Hinscliff describes her busy life as a journalist and mother, and how she decided to resign because she wants to spend more time with her toddler. I think FIA and others raise very good points about father’s roles in child minding and raising kids, and about the fact that it is often a necessity, not a choice, for the mother to work (one must feed one’s children). But when I read Hinscliff, I could relate to her inner struggle and how part of her was lost as she struggled to have it all. I have always been one of those people who prided herself in working long hours. I often worked late and worked weekends before child. I liked it, even thrived on it … but isn’t fine anymore. Now I want to work normal hours and have time at home. At the moment I have that life. I like my job as a post-doc and I especially like that I can choose my own hours and that it is entirely possible for me to work 40 hours a week (not 60 or 80). I take time to spend with my family, to take walks in the park, to exercise, and even to spend some much needed time alone. I have a life both in and out of work, and I like it. However, even in this ideal situation I still feel the pressure to work more, to put in hours on weekends (like I did regularly before child). No one pressures me about this, the pressure comes from inside. So I worry about the future and about how much stronger the urge to work more would be if I were in a tenure track position where the stakes were high and there was much more pressure. Again I doubt anyone would overtly put pressure on me to work more hours a week or to give up time with my family. But I would put pressure on myself. This would be true even if my husband decided to pick up the slack and take care of the housework and our child so that I could work more. I am lucky enough to have a guy who would do this, but I would not want him to. In fact I sometimes feel pity when I talk to men at conferences that have young kids and a “stay at home wife” who takes care of everything for them. Sure they’ll have more publications and beat me in a job search, but what are they trading off? I like it that my husband and I share equally and I’d like to keep it that way. Maybe that’s why I sometimes wonder sometimes whether or not I want to start applying for tenure track positions sooner rather than later. It is a tough choice since a tenure track position would bring much needed financial security, health benefits and many other things that help when one as a family. I also think I’d like the job and that I’d do a good job. I hope when the time comes I’ll be able to find peace within myself, so as not to feel that I am trading off family for work or work for family. What I’d really love would be a part-time faculty position. In her article Hinscliff mentions the Dutch model – where parents are encouraged to do "one and a half jobs" between them, with both sexes reducing their hours. I lived in the Dutch system for awhile – before child. Then I thought that model was somewhat strange. But now the tables are turned and I think they’ve got it right. I’d love a part-time tenure track position. The trade-off would be less pay and a longer wait for tenure, but the benefit would be, for me at least, peace of mind. I think that would be lovely - for both sexes.