Childfree in the Academy
Class and Motherhood in the Professoriate
Keywords:
academic labour, childless faculty, faculty who are first-generation university students, working-class faculty, gender discrimination in academe, classism in academeAbstract
Employing a survey of English faculty across Canada and data from Statistics Canada, the first one-third of this article examines the intersection of gender and parental educational level in relation to faculty members’ likelihood of having children. Although among the men reproduction was not associated with parental educational level, women whose parents possessed graduate degrees were more likely to have children than women with lower parental educational levels. The bulk of the article discusses some of the implications of these disparities. Not all women struggle equally to balance academic careers with childrearing: class privilege can compensate for some gendered disadvantages. Given their increased chances of being childfree, given their gender, and given their class backgrounds, women faculty with lower parental educational levels can end up with heavier workloads than their colleagues. With the government and universities alike failing to provide adequate childcare, university administrators routinely shift the responsibility for accommodating parents’ schedules onto childfree women and LGBTQ+ faculty. Because (heterosexual) men typically spend more of their work time than their women colleagues on research, because of gendered assumptions about service and about the pastoral care of students, and because of the time constraints of faculty mothers, a disproportionate amount of service and care work is performed by childfree women and their LGBTQ+ colleagues, hindering their ability to publish.
References
Acker, Joan. 1990. “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations.” Gender & Society 4(2): 139–58.
Arner, Lynn. 2021. “Degrees of Separation: Hiring Patterns and First-Generation University Students with English Doctorates in Canada.” The Minnesota Review 96: 101–34.
_____. 2024. “How to Choose an English Doctoral Program: A Guide for Women, First-Generation University Students, and their Mentors.” The Journal of Canadian Studies 58.1: 97–128.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 2011. “The Forms of Capital.” In Cultural Theory: An Anthology, edited by Imre Szeman and Timothy Kaposy. Wiley-Blackwell.
Bracken, Susan J., Jeanie K. Allen, and Diane R. Dean, eds. 2006. The Balancing Act: Gendered Perspectives in Faculty Roles and Work Lives. Sterling: Stylus.
Brim, Matt. 2020. Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University. Duke University Press.
Carnevale, Anthony P., and Stephen J. Rose. 2004. “Socioeconomic Status, Race/Ethnicity, and Selective College Admissions.” In America’s Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education, edited by Richard D. Kahlenberg. Century Foundation Press.
Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession. 2009. Standing Still: The Associate Professor Survey. Modern Language Association. April 27. www.mla.org/content/download/3120/file/cswp_final042909.pdf.
Connelly, Rachel, and Kristen Ghodsee. 2011. Professor Mommy: Finding Work-Family Balance in Academia. Rowman & Littlefield.
Copland, Rachelann Lopp. 2019. “Requiem for Meritocracy: The Academic Female Precariat in the Margins.” In The Female Precariat: Gender and Contingency in the Professional Work Force, by Margie Burns, Rachelann Lopp Copland, and Tamara Ionkova Hammond. Universitas Press.
Crawford, Kerry F., and Leah C. Windsor. 2021. The PhD Parenthood Trap: Caught Between Work and Family In Academia. Georgetown University Press.
Cummins, Helene A. 2005. “Mommy Tracking Single Women in Academia When They are Not Mommies.” Women’s Studies International Forum 28 (2-3): 222–31. doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2005.04.009.
Desjardins, Louise. 2012. Profile and Labour Market Outcomes of Doctoral Graduates from Ontario Universities. (Catalogue no. 81-595-M, no. 098.) Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics. Statistics Canada. publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.573978/publication.html.
Fortin, Pierre. 2018. “Quebec’s Childcare Program at 20.” Inroads: The Canadian Journal of Opinion 42 (Winter/Spring). inroadsjournal.ca/quebecs-childcare-program-20-2/.
Franꞔa, Thais. 2022. “‘No Less of a Woman’: Examining the (Invisible) Life of Childfree Women Academics During the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Gender Studies 31(8): 956–68. doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2022.2125863.
Fry, Richard, Carolina Aragão, Kiley Hurst, and Kim Parker. 2023. “In a Growing Share of U.S. Marriages, Husbands and Wives Earn About the Same.” Pew Research Center. April 13. www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/04/Breadwinner-wives-full-report-FINAL.pdf.
Government of Canada. 2023. “Parental Leave—1PG-014.” 9 January. www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/laws-regulations/labor/interpretations-policies/parental-leave.html.
_____. 2024. “Toward $10-a-day: Early Learning and Child Care.” 17 May. www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/campaigns/child-care.html.
Grimes, Michael D., and Joan M. Morris. 1997. Caught in the Middle: Contradictions in the Lives of Sociologists from Working-Class Backgrounds. Praeger.
Guarino, Cassandra M., and Victor M. H. Borden. 2017. “Faculty Service Loads and Gender: Are Women Taking Care of the Academic Family?” Research in Higher Education 58(6): 672–94. link-springer-com.proxy.library.brocku.ca/article/10.1007/s11162-017-9454-2.
Gutiérrez y Muhs, Gabriella, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González, and Angela P. Harris, eds. 2012. Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia. University Press of Colorado.
Haney, Timothy J. 2016. “‘We’re All Middle-Class Here’: Privilege and the Denial of Class Inequality in the Canadian Professoriate.” In Working in Class: Recognizing How Social Class Shapes our Academic Work, edited by Allison L. Hurst and Sandi Kawecka Nenga. Rowman & Littlefield.
Henry, Frances, Enakshi Dua, Carl E. James, et al. 2017. The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities. UBC Press.
Kmec, Julie A., Shanyuan Foo, and Amy S. Wharton. 2015. “The Influence of Departmental Culture on Academic Parents’ Pro-Work Behaviors.” In Disrupting the Culture of Silence: Confronting Gender Inequality and Making Change in Higher Education, edited by Kristine De Welde and Andi Stepnick. Stylus Publishing.
Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Everett C. Ladd, Jr. 1979. “The Changing Social Origins of American Academics.” In Qualitative and Quantitative Social Research: Papers in Honor of Paul F. Lazarsfeld, edited by Robert K. Merton, James S. Coleman, and Peter H. Rossi. The Free Press.
Mason, Mary Ann, and Marc Goulden. 2004. “Marriage and Baby Blues: Redefining Gender Equity in the Academy.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 596: 86–103.
Mason, Mary Ann, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Marc Goulden. 2013. Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower. Rutgers University Press.
Massé, Michelle A., and Katie J. Hogan. 2010. Over Ten Million Served: Gendered Service in Language and Literature Workplaces. State University of New York Press.
Misra, Joya, Jennifer Hicks Lundquist, Elissa Holmes, and Stephanie Agiomavritis. 2011. “The Ivory Ceiling of Service Work.” Academe Online. American Association of University Professors. www.aaup.org/academe/issues/2011-issues/ivory-ceiling-srvice-work
Mosier-Puentes, Miranda. 2023. “Invisible Laborers: A Storied Love Letter to Other Working-Class Mothers in Academia.” Journal of Working-Class Studies 8(1): 136–48. journals.uwyo.edu/index.php/workingclassstudies/article/view/8053.
O’Meara, KerryAnn, Alexandra Kuvaeva, Gudrun Nyunt, Chelsea Waugaman, and Rose Jackson. 2017. “Asked More Often: Gender Differences in Faculty Workload in Research Universities and the Work Interactions that Shape Them.” American Educational Journal 54(6): 1154–86.
Oldfield, Kenneth, and Richard F. Conant. 2001. “Professors, Social Class, and Affirmative Action: A Pilot Study.” Journal of Public Affairs Education 7(3): 171–85.
Ramsay, Karen, and Gayle Letherby. 2006. “The Experience of Academic Childfree Women in the Gendered University.” Gender, Work & Organization 13(1): 25–44. doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2006.00294.x.
Roscigno, Vincent J., Elizabeth M. Lee, Allison L. Hurst, et al. 2023. “Mobility and Inequality in the Professoriate: How and Why First-Generation and Working-Class Backgrounds Matter.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 9. doi.org/10.1177/23780231231181859.
Statistics Canada. 2002. New Graduate Survey, 2000. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2005. Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2003/2004. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2007a. New Graduate Survey, 2005. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2007b. Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2004/2005. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2008a. Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2005/2006. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2008b. Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2006/2007. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2009. Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2007/2008. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2013. New Graduate Survey, 2010. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2018. New Graduate Survey, 2015. Data accessed via the Research Data Centre, at McMaster University.
_____. 2020. Time Use of Postsecondary Faculty and Researchers. Table 37-10-0168-01. 22 September. www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710016801.
_____. 2022. Gender Diversity Status of Couple Family, Type of Union and Presence of Children: Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations. Table 98-10-0136-01. 13 July. www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810013601.
Turnbull, Beth, Melissa Graham, and Ann Taket. 2018. “Understanding the Employment Experiences of Women with No Children.” In Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness: The Joys of Otherhood? edited by Natalie Sappleton. Emerald Publishing.
Verniers, Catherine. 2020. “Behind the Maternal Wall: The Hidden Backlash Toward Childfree Working Women.” Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology 4(3): 107–24. doi.org/10.1002/jts5.65.
Wilkinson, Eleanor. 2020. “Never After? Queer Temporalities and the Politics of Non-Reproduction.” Gender, Place & Culture 27(5): 660–76.
Yang, Chih-Ian Winnie, Nicole Denier, Xavier St-Denis, and Sean Waite. 2025. “Studying Individuals in Same-Sex Couples Using Longitudinal Administrative Data from Canadian Tax Records: Opportunities and Challenges.” Demographic Research 52: 25-70. www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/52/2.
Yang, Chih-Ian Winnie, Xavier St-Denis, Nicole Denier, and Gaëlle Simard-Duplain. 2022. “Unpacking the Gendered Dimensions of Social Mobility in Canada Using an Intersectional Approach: Study 2, Social Mobility, Assortative Mating and Gender Disparities Among Sexual Minorities.” Report submitted to the Canadian Research Data Centres Network (CRDCN) and Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE). Unpublished manuscript.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Lynn Arner
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are aware that articles published in Atlantis are indexed and made available through various scholarly and professional search tools, including but not limited to Erudit.
3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to preprint their work, that is, post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process. This can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Read more on preprints here.
