GroshLink

An InterVarsity Faculty Ministry discussion board has been wrestling with Inside Higher Ed's piece Does Academe Hinder Parenthood? Here’s one short summary from the article and a comment [posted by an on-line respondent] with which a colleague of mine kicked off the conversation:

Controlling for such factors as age, weekly hours worked, and race or ethnicity, male faculty members are 21 percent less likely than male physicians to have recently had a birth in their households. Controlling the same factors for women, those who are academics are 41 percent less likely than physicians to have recently had children. When controlling for marital status, the gap between female faculty members and physicians narrows, but the study finds that female faculty members are the most likely of the three job categories to be separated, divorced or widowed.

Here is an interesting comment from, well, the comments:

Parenting does not seem to be positively perceived in academia. Not once in non-academic circles have I ever heard mothers referred to as “breeders”—but I hear it from academics all the time. (I find the usage of that word to be offensive, and I wonder if such proudly snide people would refer to their own mothers that way.) Obviously, those who have such contempt for parents should not be parents themselves.

Several other colleagues shared difficulties faced by faculty with whom they were familiar. But I've had a much different experience. As a student at Grove City College (undergrad) and Geneva College (grad), I found tight faculty families. It was a joy to have a number of faculty kids in my classes at Grove City College AND to see another side of my professors when I visited their homes with their kids for various activities. Furthermore, I’m still in touch with almost all of my faculty mentors and the faculty kids with whom I went to college.

Although I commuted to Geneva College, I still had opportunities with faculty families in their home . . . several of them were Grove City College alum. I wonder if they embraced a model which they had experienced, one which viewed the calling of a faculty to be a “whole life mentor” in a more relaxed era which didn’t view the collegiate experience as a “professional degree mill?” This is no doubt an example of small Christian liberal arts colleges w/a different vision of higher education and the value of family.

At secular campuses and fading Christian colleges, I’ve seen followers of Christ on faculty receive familial support from small campus prayer/discussion groups, children’s ministry at local congregations, and Christian schooling. Yes, God calls us to something different than the world, the flesh, and the devil. AND we need to pay prayerful attention as there are practical implications at almost every turn. ... Pray for discernment as I pray for and meet with followers of Christ serving as faculty facing a variety of challenges, including decisions regarding the relationship of work and family. Pray for God's grace to continue to extend to Grove City College and Geneva College that they might be models for campus life.