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One of the posters on the original thread asked if it was possible to raise children and get tenure with both parents working. Answer is yes, but not easy. If
by kkylin 7y ago
One of the posters on the original thread asked if it was possible to raise children and get tenure with both parents working. Answer is yes, but not easy. If you are lucky to get an academic position near family who can help, that is a tremendous boost. Othewrise, even though many (most?) US universities have some kind of parental leave for either gender, it's generally not as much time off as one would like -- and everyone I know continues doing research while on parental leave; they just don't teach.
In our case, we had kids after I got tenure. (Didn't plan it that way, and wouldn't recommend it for everyone.) That made some things easier, though still not easy. Helps that we can afford good help, and even then it's hard to maintain the two careers.
- samth 7y agoI got tenure (last year) after having a kid (two years ago). We do have family in town, which as you say is a big help. We both took leave, and I basically did not do any research during my 12-week leave. I did meet occasionally with my students (they don't go on leave, after all). So it is possible, and I strongly encourage men (or anyone who isn't the birth parent) who are on leave to do this -- the birth parent is much more constrained and this difference has been shown to lead to measurable difference in outcomes in the future for their careers.