Summary  

Our essay is a call for recognition of the physical and emotional toll of motherhood on women in academia. Drawing on our experiences as Mothers–Professors–Researchers, we demonstrate how maternal bodies are experienced as being out of place in academic environments, existing in spaces where the rules of the game are made for bodies that do not look like our own. We offer some solutions to make academic spaces more inclusive and equitable for all. 

An impossible combination: being a good mom while being a successful academic 

Motherhood has marked a turning point in our adult lives. Our joys now come from watching our sons learn to walk or excel at school or in sports. Our sorrows now come from sitting anxiously in hospital emergency rooms waiting for test results when our sons were sick. Our love and energy is poured into helping our boys thrive. 

We are now academic mothers. This means that we’re chasing publications, writing grant applications and trying to innovate in the classroom while trying to raise confident, capable humans. In our article recently published in the Journal of Management Studies, we draw on our experience as Mothers–Professors–Researchers, the tripartite identity we have come to assume, to call for recognition of the physical and emotional toll of motherhood on women in academia. We demonstrate how maternal bodies are experienced as being out of place in academic environments, existing in spaces where the rules of the game are made for bodies that do not look like our own. 

Trying to do it all 

An important theme in our essay is the feeling of being expected to do it all and not succeeding. Being a Mother-Professor-Researcher means doing eight hours of academic work bookended by eight hours of mothering. Rarely is the separation so clean: Erica is often recalled by a former classmate that she worked on invitations for her son’s birthday party during one of their PhD seminars! The intermingling of academic mothering is more than just making doctor’s appointments during working hours or taking calls while driving our sons to school: it’s about the ways our minds are constantly turning. The compulsive scheduling and extensive planning which have become embedded in the modern expectations of the perfect mom (particularly in the upper-middle-class circles in which we find ourselves) have seeped into our academic lives. At the same time, academia has instilled in us a desire to be the best versions of ourselves. We leverage our mothering practices in service of our academic careers, like using our extended workday to get more done and satisfy increasingly demanding tenure requirements, trying to excel both at work and at home.  

But we don’t feel like we’re getting ahead. As moms, we feel like we can’t measure up at work or at home. We cannot ignore the reality that the rules of academic life were not made for folks like us. In the essay, we examine how our attempts at resistance have been met with discipline. We’re constantly trying to do more with less – and not succeeding. 

Maternal bodies out of place  

The feeling that maternal bodies don’t belong in academia is compounded by the undeniable biological reality of occupying a maternal body. For one, pregnant bodies are rarely seen on university campuses. Post-partum bodies are probably more common but easier to conceal in “professional” attire. However, post-partum bodies are notoriously leaky and difficult to control. In our essay, we address our own attempts at trying (and failing) to wrangle our leaky bodies and the horror of not succeeding when they overflow.  

Call To Action: Toward A New Experience For Mothers 

Given our experience as mothers in academia, we are adamant that things need to change. Below, we outline our three-pillar suite of proposals to make academic spaces more inclusive and equitable toward mothers. 

Pillar #1: It Takes a Village. Enlist Allies and Resist Negative Attitudes about Motherhood  

In writing this essay, we’ve become increasingly aware that we can’t bring about change alone. We need to enlist allies in university administration and amongst non-mothers in positions of power to advocate on our behalf. When this doesn’t work, we need to enlist a league of allies outside the school to build the village we need. As a single mother living on a different continent that her family and her son’s father, Soraya has cultivated a network or friends and neighbours to help care for her son when she is unavailable. This type of support is essential if we’re going to be effective Mother-Professor-Researchers.  

Pillar #2: Recognize the Physical Toll of Mothering and Normalize Maternal Bodies 

For all the ways we try to be superwomen, our bodies are not invincible. Caring for others can be physically exhausting, and we have experienced our fair share of physical ailments due to using our bodies beyond what they can handle. We call for the normalization of maternal bodies. This means recognizing our bodies’ limits but also creating spaces that maternal bodies need. Soraya recalls the intense pain of engorged breasts arising from not having a place to pump when she was breastfeeding. This is just one example but it illustrates how when our biological functions are not recognized, it’s not hard to feel like we don’t belong.   

Pillar #3 – Recognize the Emotional Cost of Mothering 

We see parenting as more than a biological imperative or a logistical challenge; it is an opportunity to have a hand in shaping the heart and mind of a new life. The emotional burden of parenting, like taking the time to imbue a child with the right values and helping guide them to make good decisions, is what is most taxing about being a parent. Recognizing the emotional cost of parenting could mean re-designing performance evaluation systems to more appropriately recognize the time and energy necessary to satisfy the pastoral role mothers – and parents more generally – occupy. This means considering mothering responsibilities in service allocations or extending tenure clocks for mothers. More needs to be done to consider the emotional impact of mothering on our academic performance.  

Takeaway  

By enlisting allies and resisting attitudes about motherhood, normalizing maternal bodies, and recognizing the emotional cost of mothering, we can support mothers in having a more inclusive and equitable experience in academia than the one we’ve had thus far. We hope our essay will empower mothers in academia to demand conditions that are more supportive and, where possible, help create them for others as well.