Mom the Chemistry Professor: Personal Accounts and Advice from Chemistry Professors who are Mothers

210 Pages·2014·4.48 MB·English

by  Renée Cole, Cecilia Marzabadi, Gail Webster, Kimberly Woznack (eds.)

Renée Cole
Cecilia Marzabadi
Gail Webster
Kimberly Woznack
Mom the Editors
Chemistry Professor
Personal Accounts and
Advice from Chemistry Professors
who are Mothers
Mom the Chemistry Professor
ThiS is a FM Blank Page
Rene´e Cole • Cecilia Marzabadi •
Gail Webster • Kimberly Woznack
Editors
Mom the Chemistry
Professor
Personal Accounts and Advice from
Chemistry Professors who are Mothers
Editors
Rene´e Cole Cecilia Marzabadi
Department of Chemistry Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
The University of Iowa Seton Hall University
Iowa City, Iowa South Orange, New Jersey
USA USA
Gail Webster Kimberly Woznack
Department of Chemistry Department of Chemistry & Physics
Guilford College California University of Pennsylvania
Greensboro, North Carolina California, Pennsylvania
USA USA
Inspired by the German language book “Professorin und Mutter – wie geht das?”
Published by Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 2011.
ISBN 978-3-319-06043-9 ISBN 978-3-319-06044-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-06044-6
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014942373
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
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Foreword
“I have frequently been questioned, especially by women, of how I could reconcile family
life with a scientific career. Well, it has not been easy.”
—Marie Curie, two-time Nobel Prize winner and mother of a daughter,
Ire`ne Joliot-Curie, who also won the Nobel Prize
While it may not have been easy being an outstanding scientist and mother, Marie
Curie did both. The question of reconciling family life with a scientific career is still
one that is asked today. Many women have combined successful careers as chemists
in academia with motherhood; a few of them have shared their stories in this volume.
While significant progress in increasing the number of professors who are women has
been made, some significant challenges for all academic women chemists remain.
For example, a 2006 National Science Foundation (NSF) report indicated that
female doctoral science and engineering faculty are less likely than their male
colleagues (67 % vs. 84 %) to be married and also were less likely to have children
living with them (42% vs. 50%) [1]. That report also indicates that the percentage of
promotions to full professors of unmarried women and women without children
from 1973 to 2006 was greater than the percentage of promotions to full professors
of married women or women with children.
A 2010 article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Amy
Kittelstrom, “The Academic-Motherhood Handicap,” discusses the fact that aca-
demic mothers have different experiences than academic fathers, and that these
differences are most significant during the intense years of childbearing and early
caregiving—the years that matter most for academic careers [2]. Professor Mary
Ann Mason from the University of California at Berkeley comments that if a
woman wants to get hired as an assistant professor, she is much less likely to
succeed if she is a mother. However, fathers are much more likely to land a position
and achieve tenure, even more likely than childless men [3].
In the article “When Scientists Choose Motherhood,” published in the American
Scientist in March 2012 [4], one figure explains that the path to becoming a
successful scientist looks much the same for women without children and for
men with or without children: a straightforward, if long and arduous, track from
v
vi Foreword
undergraduate degree through postdoctoral and tenure-track positions. For women
who have children, or even just plans to have them, the road is fraught with
obstacles. Women who choose to have a first child are usually in the thick of the
most difficult parts of their career. Even after the early, physically intensive months
of childbirth and childrearing, women typically do more of the work of childcare
and household management than do male partners, at the cost of productivity at
work. As a result, they may choose to take industry or non-tenure-track jobs with
less demanding hours, or they may leave the workforce entirely.
These reports tend to be the focus of most stories about combining academic
careers and motherhood. Although the data and trends may paint a less than ideal
picture for academic mothers, the Women Chemists Committee of the American
Chemical Society (WCC ACS) enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity to pro-
vide inspiration, advocacy, and potential strategies for young women entering an
academic career. We are very excited to be a part of this inspirational collection of
stories from women chemistry professors with successful careers who are also
mothers. This project fits very nicely into our committee’s mission within the ACS.
The mission of the WCC is to be leaders in attracting, developing, promoting,
and advocating for women in the chemical sciences in order to positively impact
society and the profession. There are four goals designed to fulfill the mission
statement:
1. Increase participation and retention of women in the chemical sciences and
related disciplines
2. Take an advocacy position within the ACS on issues of importance to women in
the chemical sciences
3. Provide leadership for career development opportunities for women in the
chemical sciences and related disciplines
4. Promote and recognize the professional accomplishments of women in the
chemical sciences and related disciplines
The WCC anticipates that this inspiring collection of heartfelt and real stories
will increase the participation and retention of women who plan to become or who
already are, “Mom the Chemistry Professor.” While blending motherhood and
professorship brings unique challenges, it is a rewarding path as evidenced by the
stories in this volume.
References
1. Burrelli J (2008) Thirty-three years of women in S&E faculty positions: InfoBrief; NSF 08-308.
National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. http://
www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08308/nsf08308.pdf. Accessed 2 June 2014
2. Kittelstrom A (2010) The academic-motherhood handicap. The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Manage Your Career. http://chronicle.com/article/The-Academic-Motherhood/64073/.
Accessed 2 June 2014
Foreword vii
3. Mason MA (2013) In the ivory tower: men only: for men, having children is a career advantage.
For women, it’s a career killer. Slate: Doublex. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/
2013/06/female_academics_pay_a_heavy_baby_penalty.html. Accessed 2 June 2014
4. Williams WM, Ceci SJ (2012) When scientists choose motherhood. Am Sci 100: 138.
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2012/2/when-scientists-choose-motherhood/1.
Accessed 2 June 2014
Madison, NJ, USA Amber Charlebois
2014
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Contents
Part I Personal Accounts and Advice
Equilibrium and Stress: Balancing One Marriage, a “Two-Body
Problem,” and Three Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Stacey Lowery Bretz
If at First You Don’t Succeed, Don’t Give Up on Your Dreams . . . . . . . 19
Pamela Ann McElroy Brown
My Circus: Please Note That I Have No Formal Training in Juggling . . . . 29
Amber Flynn Charlebois
Planned Serendipity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Rene´e Cole
Mother and Community College Professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Elizabeth Dorland
Chemistry in the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Cheryl B. Frech
Upward Bound to a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Judith Iriarte-Gross
The Window of Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Nancy E. Levinger
Wanting It All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Cecilia H. Marzabadi
Taking an Unconventional Route? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Janet R. Morrow
From the Periodic Table to the Dinner Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Danielle Tullman-Ercek
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