Productivity, Professionalism, and Parenting in Academia

Drawing on time use diary analysis, this unique and detailed study fills in the larger narrative about what it takes, hour by hour, to navigate academic motherhood with a rhetoric and composition career.

Looking specifically at the intersections between parenting and writing for publication in order to find out how and when writing for career-advancing tasks such as publication occur, but also through the lens of disciplinary time constraints including heavy grading and administrative workloads, the book examines support systems noted within diary entries that make combining motherhood and a career in rhetoric and composition possible. Using both quantitative analysis of hours and qualitative coding of time use diaries from rhet comp moms, this book answers questions about publishing, professionalism, and parenting.

This book will interest scholars and graduate students working in the discipline of rhetoric, writing, and composition, particularly those working on labor and professional issues, on gender and equality within the discipline, and anyone working in all fields looking for ways to foster a better work–life balance.