Hello,
I am chairing a roundtable on the topic of Being A Mother in Academe for the
40th anniversary conference of the NeMLA in Boston, Feb 26-March 1, 2009
(abstract of session is below).
If you are interested in being part of the roundtable please send a 250 word
abstract and 50 word bio to Andrea O’Reilly aoreilly@yorku.ca by September 1,
2008.
Thank you,
Andrea O’Reilly
Director, ARM
aoreilly@yorku.ca
www.yorku.ca/arm
—
The Maternal Wall in Academe: Academic Mothers and Strategies of Resistance and
Empowerment
In Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do about It
Joan Williams argues that paid work in Western capitalist societies is
organized by the concept of the “ideal worker”. This ideal worker, Williams
writes, “works full time and overtime and takes little or no time off for
childbearing or rearing” (1). When work is structured this way, Williams
continues, “caregivers often can not perform as ideal workers” (1). The
worker-caregiver dichotomy is, of course, gender codified: “men ‘naturally’
belong in the market because they are competitive and aggressive; women belong
in the home because of their ‘natural’ focus on relationships and an ethic of
care” (1). Over the last three decades as female paid labor participation
increased, women, –at least the 90 plus percent who are mothers– are expected
be perform as “ideal workers” in the workplace while simultaneously fulfilling
the carework responsibilities of the home. With women still doing the bulk of
household management – to include domestic labor, childcare, and the emotional
and organizational work of creating and maintaining home, family and community,
most mothers are unable to put in the extensive overtime hours that are required
for advancement and success in most professions. Mothers thus find themselves
“mommy tracked” making sixty cents for every dollar earned by full-time fathers
(Williams, 2000, 2). Indeed, today the pay gap between mothers and non mothers
under thirty-five years is now larger than the wage gap between young men and
women (Crittenden, 94). And while the “glass ceiling” and the “sticky floor”
are still to be found in the corporate structure, it is the maternal wall, most
scholars argue, that impede and hinder most women’s progress in the workplace
today.
William’s concept of a wall is an apt metaphor to describe the specific
experiences of mothers in the workplace in that many women today, particularly
those that are college educated, middle-class and professional, may not
encounter gender discrimination until they become mothers and hit full throttle
the maternal wall that blocks and blindsides them in their attempts at
advancement. “Many childless women under the age of thirty five”, as Crittenden
writes, “believe that all the feminist battles have been won” (88) But, as
Crittenden continues, “once a woman has a baby, the egalitarian office party is
over” (88).
The aim of this session is to explore the various strategies used by academic
mothers as they encounter the maternal wall in academe.
INFO on NeMLA:
Northeast Modern Language Association 2009 Annual Convention
Boston, Massachusetts — February 26 – March 1, 2009
Celebrating 40 years! A regional MLA, NeMLA offers a vibrant yet more intimate
conference experience. The 2008 Convention in Buffalo features more than 230
panels, covering all aspects of scholarship and teaching in the modern
languages and literatures.
Dr. Andrea O’Reilly,
Associate Professor,
School of Women’s Studies,
Director: Association for Research on Mothering,
Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, Demeter Press,
York University,
Toronto, Ont.,
M3J 1P3
416 736 2100;60366
aoreilly@yorku.ca
www.yorku.ca/arm