Working at a Family-Friendly University
By Eve Riskin, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Associate Dean of Organizational Infrstructure, College of Engineering, University of Washington

The academy is widely recognized as an unfriendly place for women who wish to have a family, particularly for women in science and engineering. However, as Professor of Electrical Engineering and Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Washington, and the mother of two young sons, I have found that things here in academia are not that bad. In fact, at my institution they're often pretty good.

My university is a very welcoming place to bring children. Whenever we walk through campus, my boys get lots of smiles from students, both men and women. They love to eat at the Faculty Club, and have attended faculty meetings, research meetings, and receptions. (Threatening to leave a reception before the cake is served almost always guarantees good behavior.) Beyond this, if one of them gets sick, I am able to reschedule my meetings. I work at home while they sleep. I leave work early to attend my children's soccer, basketball, and baseball practices and games. I have the option to control my workload as much as I can by thinking twice before agreeing to do anything that is not important to me, or required. Not many professions allow this much flexibility.

Thanks in part to the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program, things are getting better for women faculty, particularly at ADVANCE institutions. ADVANCE was created to increase the participation and advancement of women in academic careers in science, engineering, and mathematics. In 2001-2002, nine institutions, including the University of Washington, received large Institutional Transformation awards to address their practices and implement programs and policies to improve women's professional lives. Ten additional universities were funded in 2003.

Since 2002, I have been Director of the ADVANCE program at UW. In my ADVANCE work, I have met many wonderful women faculty in science and engineering, over half of whom have children. A woman in my own department is leading a large National Institutes of Health Center. She finished the proposal for it one week after the Cesarean birth of her second child. Another friend of mine is the mother of four boys and supervises ten graduate students. (I don't know how she does it either.) Other women have taken leaves to deal with caring for a child with cancer or because of bed-rest for high-risk pregnancies, and have returned to their careers afterwards. I am also noticing that younger women are confidently having their babies before tenure, something I never imagined.

The list of these talented women, who have successful academic careers and are hands-on mothers, goes on and on. My sense is that the majority of them have spouses or partners who participate heavily in parenting, as I do. We unanimously agree on the importance of good childcare. We find travel away from our families to be stressful (but secretly appreciate the time to ourselves). Most of us do not work 80 hours per week, but neither do our male colleagues with children.

I have intentionally left out the horror stories, and yes, there are plenty, particularly for the generation of women academics who preceded me. There were many times during graduate school and my first years as an assistant professor when I was ready to quit. But with programs such as ADVANCE and an ongoing dialogue about the discrimination that women face, I am hopeful that colleges and universities everywhere can become more welcoming to the next generation of women scientists and engineers. I know, for instance, that the Playboy Bunny tie my then-department chair wore in 1990 would offend even my male colleagues today.

To young women considering academia, I encourage you to pay attention to the climate in the departments in which you interview. Be attentive to whether the women faculty members you meet seem happy or bitter. Beware that not meeting any women during an interview could be a red flag. If having children is important to you, look for baby pictures and prominently displayed child artwork in faculty offices. Find women academics with children, both locally and remotely, and ask them to mentor you. Share your successes with them and be sure to thank them.

To science and engineering faculty members, be on the lookout for talented young women, beginning at the undergraduate level, and encourage them to consider an academic career. Trust me, your encouragement means much more than you realize. As an example, in 1987 I gave a substitute lecture for a graduate course on Statistical Signal Processing. The next week, a professor told me he had seen my lecture. He said, "I want you to promise me something. I want you to think about teaching." Almost nineteen years later, I still remember that conversation.

The best part of academia is that you get to work on what you truly enjoy doing. My job never feels like a job. And when my boys grow up, I don't think either of them will ever believe that girls can't do math.