| | | Conclusions |
The rewards of an academic life are many: the job is intellectually
 |
From the point of view of having children, the rewards of being a professor and Mom are also numerous. The work week and work day are flexible, so you can go to school performances and sports events and parent-teacher conferences, without having to punch a time clock, and in fact without having to notify anyone that you are leaving, and without having to account for your time to anyone. The children are exposed to all sorts of fascinating intellectual topics from an early age; they learn to appreciate the questions and the approach to answers that a mind devoted to the pursuit of new knowledge produces. Also the children of engineering faculty Moms do not grow up with some of the stereotypical notions of women that other segments of the population may have, e.g., that girls can't do math, and that a woman's place is in the home.
Prof. Cosman said that her boys love math and science, and they consider it a treat when she teaches them some topic in electrical engineering. When the boys talk about sending secret coded messages to their friends at school, they know whereof they speak (ciphers, error control coding, encryption, etc.) Prof. Wadia-Fascetti gave her opinion on academia as "Let it all bounce off because it's the best job in the world and it's worth it!" And Prof. Hunt's youngest daughter wrote a Mother's Day card in which she described the things her Mom does: "Mom works, reads, swims, makes lasagna, drinks Diet Coke, and loves me & my family."
| | | Conclusions |