Academic mothers as ideal workers in the USA and Finland

• Published date: 20 May 2019
• Date: 20 May 2019
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-02-2018-0027
• Pages: 417-429
• Author: Marjukka Ollilainen
• Subject Matter: Hr & organizational behaviour

Academic mothers as ideal

workers in the USA and Finland

Marjukka Ollilainen

Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Weber State University,

Ogden, Utah, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore how women academics experience academic motherhood

in the USA and Finland, how they time their pregnancy in an academic career, and the ways in which the

different policy environments and academic opportunity structures in each country shape the managementof

academic work and care work during maternity leave.

Design/methodology/ap proach –Data collection inv olved a snowball, conveni ence sample of

semi-structured, long interviews with 67 academic mothers, 33 in Finland and 34 in the USA. Recorded

interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed for emerging themes.

Findings –In both countries, women academics made fertility decisions by carefully deliberating their

access to maternity leave, age-related concerns and the perception of job security. In Finland, the insecurity of

fixed-term contracts and intensification of the ideal worker norm shaped fertility decisions and leave activities

despite generous work-family policies. The US mothers’timing of pregnancy was influenced by concerns of

age-related infertility more than career risks. Women in both countries felt pressure to maintain presence at

work even while they were on leave.

Originality/value –The paper addresses a paucity of comparative studies about motherhood (and

parenthood) in the academe, an increasingly central question for today’s academic workforce.

Keywords Academia, Motherhood, Maternity leave

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

“Academic motherhood”is an experience that has emerged in the past two decades with the

increase of women working as university professors. Faculty women experience academic

motherhood as a contradiction because they work in a profession that for centuries operated

according to the modelof male life course and career trajectory (Dragoet al., 2006; Finkel and

Olswang, 1996). This study compares women’s experience of academic motherhood in two

policy environments –Finland and the USA –with different work-family policies and

academic labor markets. Finland has one of the most generous family leave policies in the

world and is a recognized leader in the well-beingof children and mothers (Save the Children,

2013). The USA has yet to pass a federal, paid maternity leave policy, although American

universitieshave recently adopted parentalleave policies (Ahmad 2017; Lundquistet al., 2012;

Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2012). Two particular academic motherhood experiences are at the

center of analysis here: a woman’s decision to start a family in an academic career and the

management of childcare and academic work during maternity leave. The study draws from

semi-structured interviews of 33 Finnish and 34 US academic mothers and analyzes their

narrativesof getting pregnant or adopting ababy and taking maternity leave,both behaviors

that deviate from the “ideal worker”norm –the expectation that an academic should be

completelydevoted to work and have no family commitments or career interruptions (Ahmad,

2017; Williams, 2000). It sheds light onto how mothersin these different policy environments

reconcile the conflicting demands of work and family and the factors that constrain them.

Questions about academic women’sfertilitydecisionsandleaveexperiences in cross-cultural

settings have not received much attention in the growing body of research on academic

motherhood. Comparative studies of family policy have focused on intra-European variation in

leave arrangements (Crompton et al., 2007), but not on academic women particularly. Although

recent studies on mothers in academia provide valuable insights into their experi ences

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 38 No. 4, 2019

pp. 417-429

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-02-2018-0027

Received 7 February 2018

Revised 23 May 2018

26 August 2018

Accepted 19 September 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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Academic

mothers as

ideal workers