Academic Motherhood in a Post-Second Wave Context: Challenges, Strategies and Possibilities

Navigating the Dual Roles of Academic and Mother

Academic Motherhood in a Post-Second Wave Context explores the complex intersection of career and family for women in higher education. Contributors detail what it means to be an academic mother and to think about academic motherhood, while also exploring both the personal and specific institutional challenges academic women face, the multifaceted strategies different academic women are implementing to manage those challenges, and investigating different theoretical possibilities for how we think about academic motherhood.

This insightful collection is for academic mothers, feminist scholars, and higher education professionals interested in understanding the realities and possibilities for women balancing motherhood and academic careers. It offers a framework for exploring challenges, strategies, and possibilities in a post-second wave context, providing a valuable resource for navigating the complexities of academic life and motherhood.

Dr. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein is Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Boston University and the author of White Feminists and Contemporary Maternity: Purging Matrophobia and Bikini-Ready Moms Celebrity Profiles, Motherhood, and the Body. Andrea O’Reilly is a Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York University and is founder and director of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (mirci). She is the author and editor of eighteen books on motherhood and the editor of the first Encyclopedia of Motherhood.