But delaying fertility until after tenure, or until some other expected work let-up period, might also hold risks. Among UC faculty after the age of likely fertility, 40 to 60, women were much more likely to indicate that they had fewer children than they wanted. Overall, women were twice as likely as men to state that they had fewer children than they wanted (40% vs. 20%). Among women faculty who had one child, almost two-thirds agreed with the statement that they had wished they had more children. Perhaps they never found a good time to have a second child, or perhaps age-related fertility issues came into play. The overall situation is rather discouraging, however, and suggests that for women ladder-rank faculty the current structures of academia work against family formation and may result in a
sense of familial loss over time. Robert M. Gray, September 12, 2004
