Comments on: Mama PhD: Review

By: Mama, PhD » Archivio » The MotherTalk Mama, PhD Blog Tour Wrap-Up

Mama, PhD » Archivio » The MotherTalk Mama, PhD Blog Tour Wrap-Up — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:54:13 +0000

[...] The MotherTalk bloggers have wrapped up their reviews of Mama, PhD, and I want to thank all of them for reading the book and spreading the word! Here are excerpts from the reviews; follow the links to read the complete post. “Mama, PhD is not just a shoulder to cry on for readers grappling with what they may have thought were unique troubles in juggling academia and motherhood, it is also a call to arms for women and men in academia to make change happen, to make academia a place consistent with the lives of both men and women. Evans and Grant, the editors of the book, understand that there is a power in speaking out, that when women hear many other women are struggling in exactly the same fashion we suddenly see our experiences not as personal incompetence but as a larger injustice.” –blue milk [...]

By: Down Under Feminist Carnival: September 08 Edition « blue milk

Down Under Feminist Carnival: September 08 Edition « blue milk — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:42:25 +0000

[...] stay-at-home mothers. Real Mummy notes that mother work comes without sick leave entitlements. blue milk reviews Mama PhD and discovers that sexism is alive and well in academia and squeezing the life out [...]

By: Martha

Martha — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:18:31 +0000

Thanks so much for the review — it was great fun writing for this amazing book. I certainly hope it doesn’t put anyone off babies! Or the academy, really. Best hope would be that it helps women to recognize with no denial the hurdles involved in pursuing these two lovely, but sometimes difficult to reconcile, goals. And that the book gives all of us a sense of community, whether we stay in or leave the academy.

By: Docwitch

Docwitch — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:23:45 +0000

Maybe I’ll read this book, (wish it had been around years ago), but I do wonder like others if it would only leave me feeling (more) angry and depressed about it all than I currently am. It could be a case of picking at the ‘open sores’ (sorry if that sounds a mite melodramatic).

It’s all very familiar. I’m a mother to one child, and being in academia has certainly discouraged me from having any more babies. Even though the university where I’m employed (on a short-term contract) has good policies, it’s also a matter of backing them up. There is still an underlying ethos that is still very much reinforcing/underlining the Body-Mind dialectic.

The majority (not all) of my male colleagues who are parents do not experience the same difficulties. They just don’t.
And the expectations upon ‘young’ academics are often a source of enormous stress. For instance: needing to deliver a scheduled seminar paper when your child is suddenly violently ill with gastro, and colleagues think you are too busy being ‘mummy’ to be a serious contender…
Over it all? Me? I’m planning on leaving academia as soon as I can. Sorry to litter your comments box with my bile.
Anyway, love your review, and will check the book out for sure.

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:11:07 +0000

I am an academic and when I was 9 months pregnant with my first child and already had a year’s maternity leave approved, my Head of School pulled a business plan out (of his you-know-what) that would make both me and my husband redundant. We both had tenure. Even though this is actually illegal, Human Resources backed him all the way. The only way we got the university to back down was to take it to the press and create a huge hullabaloo. So don’t think that having tenure makes you safe either. 5 years on and the ramifications to our family have been pretty traumatic.

I think this book would make me angry and sad and depressed all over again. But I’d still like to read it…. at least, I think so.

By: Mama, PhD » Archivio » The MotherTalk Blog Tour!

Mama, PhD » Archivio » The MotherTalk Blog Tour! — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:32:45 +0000

[...] We’re thrilled to announce that the MotherTalk blog tour for Mama, PhD has begun with a great post from blue milk: [...]

By: Cristy

Cristy — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:16:47 +0000

I should probably get a copy of this book, but it may just make me sad.

I naively thought that combining mothering with my PhD would be a great idea. It hasn’t been. PhDs only allow you to take 12 months leave total during your candidature and they are remarkably inflexible about this. This means that someone without children (or a male who will never be pregnant) can take 12 months to, say, travel, while that same 12 months became my maternity leave and now I have virtually no flexibility in taking any more leave, ever.

Since Lily was not remotely ready for childcare at 11 months (and since I am still finding it virtually impossible to get her a place now that she may be ready) this has made completing my PhD incredibly difficult. It doesn’t help that one of my supervisors appears to think that writing my PhD while (i.e. at the very same time) as caring for a toddler should be totally achievable.

And this issue doesn’t even begin to cover the fact that all of my life priorities have completely changed since getting pregnant…

By: MotherTalk » Blog Archive » “Mama PhD” by Elrena Evans and Caroline Grant

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:18:08 +0000

[...] Bluemilk says, “By the time you finish Mama PhD you will know one thing with absolute certainty, the patriarchy is an extraordinarily wasteful way of organising society! Because what country, and certainly what university can afford to squander human capital in such a fashion – to obstruct, deny, and ultimately chase highly educated and talented women from out of its ranks?” [...]

By: Brigindo

Brigindo — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:21:20 +0000

I have just finished reading this book and have also recently sent it to one of my best friends who is a new mom in academia. We are at the same stage in our academic careers (getting ready to put our tenure packets together) but I’m sending my Boy off to college this week. So we have approached the whole academic motherhood thing completely differently yet really it is the same story. I enjoyed the book and it made me feel better. I don’t think it would have stopped me (from motherhood or academia) if I had read it way back then. However it has really brought home the reason why I only have the one child.

By: Elrena

Elrena — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:25:28 +0000

In response to innercitygarden, I’ve been asked several times if I would have done things differently had this book existed before I was making my own academia/offspring choices. I don’t think I would have been put off the idea of children…but I might have been put off the idea of the academy!

In truth, I think reading this book would have (hopefully) empowered me to stand up for my pregnant grad student self better…because it’s exactly like blue milk said: “when women hear many other women are struggling in exactly the same fashion we suddenly see our experiences not as personal incompetence but as a larger injustice.”

Thank you so much for such a fabulous review!