{"666886":{"#nid":"666886","#data":{"type":"news","title":"It\u2019s Tough Being a Mom in Academia, New Research Confirms ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn one of the largest academic studies to date evaluating the impact of parenthood on scholarly productivity, a team of researchers, including School of Public Policy Chair Cassidy R. Sugimoto, has found that many moms in academia continue to take a bigger career hit than their male counterparts.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe study found that single mothers with academic careers are 15.3% less productive in terms of publishing output when compared with women who reported they equally share parenting roles with a non-academic partner. Men in such relationships were 5.6% more productive, while women who reported being secondary caregivers were 8.9% more productive. Parenting engagement also led to fewer citations in future years.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe findings come despite responses from men and women in academia in which both partners say they are doing roughly equal amounts of work caring for children, says Sugimoto, the School\u2019s Tom and Marie Patton Chair.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen we asked which of these tasks you are in charge of when you\u2019re sharing responsibilities, we found that women were more likely to be leading all of the tasks and activities except for dropping children off at school and coaching sporting events,\u201d Sugimoto said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESugimoto was a co-author of the paper published in December 2022 in \u003Cem\u003EScientific Reports\u003C\/em\u003E. Gemma E. Derrick of the University of Bristol was the lead author. Other co-authors were Pei-Ying Chen, Thed van Leeuwen, and Vincent Larivi\u00e8re.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp lang=\u0022EN-US\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESurvey Insights on Academic Caregiving\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe results are based on an analysis of 10,445 survey responses from published academics worldwide. The researchers found that women academics were nearly eight times as likely \u2014 30.6% to 3.9% \u2014 to report serving as primary caregivers. However, 57.1% of men in academics and 52% of women reported parenting roles were equally divided. But the researchers\u2019 analysis of time and task reporting showed that even women in self-described dual parenting relationships or who described themselves as secondary caregivers still turned out to be handling the majority of caregiving duties.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese asymmetries between labor and credit show that even in the perception of equality between parents, women carry a higher burden of labor,\u201d the researchers wrote.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe research also found discrepancies in the impact of parental leave. Men who took leave after the birth of a child were more likely to take shorter amounts of leave, but because they often perform fewer childcare tasks, they ended up being more productive at work. On the other hand, women took longer leaves but were often recovering from childbirth and consumed with even more childcare tasks, further reducing the time available to catch up on research work. She said they also miss out on other crucial aspects of their job.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s not just not having time in the lab to produce knowledge. It\u2019s also not having opportunities to be on the circuit to disseminate and amplify your knowledge,\u201d Sugimoto said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESugimoto, a mother herself, said she benefitted from a highly engaged partner when her children were young.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAnd I see that across the board for highly successful women in academics, that they typically have a partner who is disproportionately engaged relative to the population. And I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a success story.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShe said that success in an academic career \u201cshould not depend on who you have children with,\u201d she said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp lang=\u0022EN-US\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPolicy Changes to Support Women Researchers\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe research suggests a variety of policies that could be changed or implemented to better support the needs of women researchers, Sugimoto said. They include:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cul\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cp\u003EReimagining the ideal worker to allow for more seamless integration between work and family life.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\t\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\u003C\/ul\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cul\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cp\u003EProviding resources to support scholar parents, such as lactation rooms, on-campus childcare, childcare subsidies, and travel accommodations for scholars traveling with children.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\t\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cp\u003EChanging policies that grant equal amounts of parental leave to men and women, or a single allotment of leave that couples must share; because of disparate attention to childcare, such policies tend to favor men over women.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\t\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\u003C\/ul\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen I was a new Ph.D. and putting myself on the market, people told me to hide it, don\u2019t tell anyone you have babies because it will be seen as a liability,\u201d Sugimoto said. \u201cI was explicit that I didn\u2019t want to go to an institution that didn\u2019t recognize me as a mother, and I hope through this research, we can begin to build a fair and equitable system that recognizes, supports, and respects the contributions of women who are both scholars and mothers.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe paper, \u201cThe Relationship Between Parenting Engagement and Academic Performance\u201d was published in Scientific Reports in December 2022. It is available at https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41598-022-26258-z\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EParenthood impacts moms\u0027 academic careers more than dads\u0027, a large-scale scholarly study co-authored by School of Public Policy Chair Cassidy R. Sugimoto finds.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Parenthood impacts moms\u0027 academic careers more than dads\u0027, reveals large-scale scholarly study."}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2023-03-29 22:07:44","changed_gmt":"2023-03-29 22:19:37","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-03-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-03-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"670352":{"id":"670352","type":"image","title":"Working mothers in academia face challenges balancing parenting and research, the new study finds.","body":null,"created":"1680128035","gmt_created":"2023-03-29 22:13:55","changed":"1680128035","gmt_changed":"2023-03-29 22:13:55","alt":"A woman with a baby on her lap poses for a photo in an office.","file":{"fid":"253180","name":"working-mother-with-baby-on-her-lap-sitting-in-of-2022-12-16-22-07-48-utc 160090072.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/03\/29\/working-mother-with-baby-on-her-lap-sitting-in-of-2022-12-16-22-07-48-utc%20160090072.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/03\/29\/working-mother-with-baby-on-her-lap-sitting-in-of-2022-12-16-22-07-48-utc%20160090072.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":937142,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/03\/29\/working-mother-with-baby-on-her-lap-sitting-in-of-2022-12-16-22-07-48-utc%20160090072.jpg?itok=rVjc70LP"}},"642976":{"id":"642976","type":"image","title":"Cassidy Sugimoto","body":null,"created":"1610722802","gmt_created":"2021-01-15 15:00:02","changed":"1630593644","gmt_changed":"2021-09-02 14:40:44","alt":"Cassidy Sugimoto","file":{"fid":"246829","name":"RS784_Cassidy Sugimoto Public Policy DSC_0503.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/RS784_Cassidy%20Sugimoto%20Public%20Policy%20DSC_0503.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/RS784_Cassidy%20Sugimoto%20Public%20Policy%20DSC_0503.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":282903,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/RS784_Cassidy%20Sugimoto%20Public%20Policy%20DSC_0503.jpg?itok=V_wR2jDj"}}},"media_ids":["670352","642976"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1289","name":"School of Public Policy"}],"categories":[{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMichael Pearson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}