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Rating: 
Summary: An essential read for all in the academy
Review: Highly relevant, stimulating reading recommended for anyone (and everyone) involved in higher education. The Family Track articulates many unspoken concerns of American academics through autobiographical pieces, interviews, and critical essays. From eldercare to parental leave, commuter marriages to children with special needs, the topics are as pertinent as they are undiscussed among faculties. Challenging and engaging, with practical strategies for developing family-friendly campuses.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, poignant and engrossing
Review: I bought this book at the suggestion of Ms. Mentor (a.k.a. Emily Toth) who touted it in one of her wise and witty columns in "The Chronicle of Higher Education". As usual, Ms. Mentor provided "Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia".
Graduate students thinking about making careers as professors should read this book carefully, especially if they have or would like to have children. Each author in the edited volume describes her valiant attempt to have a family life and an academic job at the same time. It's not a pretty picture. The narratives are personal and powerful. Several are horror stories about the inhumane treatment of new professors who are also new mothers.Although this book is most relevant as a cautionary tale for women entering academia, it is also a "must read" for anyone interested in the history of feminism. The memoirs of some of the senior female academics, pioneers in their fields, reveal awesome courage. This is the printed mentor that I've seen other books purport to be.
My one concern is that the book's bleak honesty may discourage some graduate students, or create the impression that it is better to wait until after tenure to start a family. I'm a clinical psychologist whose specialty is counseling doctoral students and junior faculty, and I don't condone waiting until after the tenure review to begin living. The average path from grad student to tenured associate prof now takes more than 17 years (gulp). Putting essential goals on hold for that long shrivels the ovaries. If you want both the baby and the job, go for it!
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, poignant and engrossing
Review: I bought this book at the suggestion of Ms. Mentor (a.k.a. Emily Toth) who touted it in one of her wise and witty columns in "The Chronicle of Higher Education". As usual, Ms. Mentor provided "Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia".
Graduate students thinking about making careers as professors should read this book carefully, especially if they have or would like to have children. Each author in the edited volume describes her valiant attempt to have a family life and an academic job at the same time. It's not a pretty picture. The narratives are personal and powerful. Several are horror stories about the inhumane treatment of new professors who are also new mothers. Although this book is most relevant as a cautionary tale for women entering academia, it is also a "must read" for anyone interested in the history of feminism. The memoirs of some of the senior female academics, pioneers in their fields, reveal awesome courage. This is the printed mentor that I've seen other books purport to be.
My one concern is that the book's bleak honesty may discourage some graduate students, or create the impression that it is better to wait until after tenure to start a family. I'm a clinical psychologist whose specialty is counseling doctoral students and junior faculty, and I don't condone waiting until after the tenure review to begin living. The average path from grad student to tenured associate prof now takes more than 17 years (gulp). Putting essential goals on hold for that long shrivels the ovaries. If you want both the baby and the job, go for it!
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