Mama, PhD: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life

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“Through the voices of those who have weathered the storm, Mama, PhD provides invaluable lessons for young scholars-both men and women-striving to navigate family and academic careers.”-Robert Drago, author of Striking a Balance: Work, Family, Life “All those sleepless nights and dirty diapers and baby food in your hair-where’s the discursive construction of motherhood when you need it? It’s here, in these smart, funny, poignant essays that struggle to balance mind and body, to balance body and soul.”-Catherine Newman, PhD, author of Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family “I wish I had this book in the late 1970s when I was a young untenured professor trying to teach five sections of composition and raise a new (adopted) baby. The tales in Mama, PhD could have served as a virtual consciousness raising group for me as I toiled away in academia. Happily the book is available today for women trying to balance the pulls of motherhood and career.”-Nan Bauer-Maglin, author of Cut Loose: (Mostly) Older Women Talk about the End of (Mostly) Long-Term Relationships Every year, American universities publish glowing reports stating their commitment to diversity, often showing statistics of female hires as proof of success. Yet, academic life remains overwhelmingly a man’s world and the presence of women, specifically those with children, in the ranks of tenured faculty has not increased in a generation. This anthology explores the continued inequality of the sexes in higher education and suggests changes that could make universities more family-friendly workplaces. Candid, provocative, and sometimes with a wry sense of humor, the essays speak to and offer support for any woman attempting to combine work and family. Elrena Evans received her MFA in creative writing from The Pennsylvania State University. Her work appears in such journals as Literary Mama, Brain, Child, Hip Mama, and the anthology Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers. Caroline Grant is an editor and columnist for Literary Mama. She holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley.