Antecedents and consequences of faculty women's academic-parental role balancing

This paper examines antecedents and consequences of faculty women's academic-parental role balancing, defined as the process of experiencing greater interrole facilitation/enhancement than interrole conflict/depletion. It is posited that childcare responsibilities affect the career-family challenges academic women face, i.e., dueling tenure and biological clocks, reduced mobility for faculty women with children, and the illusion that a flexible academic schedule permits one to perform all the responsibilities of a full-time academic and a full-time parent. The paper presents a theoretical model of factors that serve either to contribute to or complicate academic-parental role balancing. Propositions about the relationships between these antecedents and role balancing, and between role balancing and its consequences, are identified. Practical implications of academic-parental role balancing are also considered.