Work Priorities
Many women are faced with the difficult decision of what to do with their lives- to focus solely on work, dedicate time to their families and children, or take on the challenge of balancing both.
This fear of having an unbalanced relationship between work and personal life seems to affect a wide range of people, including college students. In "College Students’ Views of Work-Life Balance in STEM Research Careers: Addressing Negative Preconceptions," Anna Tan-Wilson and Nancy Stamp allow audiences to learn about college students' concerns when it comes to balancing work and family life: “In career discussions, female undergraduates said that if they were to attend graduate school in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and were to follow a career based on their research training, they would have to give up having a family” (Tan-Wilson, Anna, et al.).
However, as daunting as the challenge may sound, moms Amy McMullen Sibul, Kirtly Jones, and Cynthia Burrows have all managed to find their own versions of work-life balance. Because work-life balance does not have one exact definition for everyone, these three women represent various perspectives of work-life balance
Amy Sibul, M.S.
“There's a historical unrealistic expectation of academia, where you have to live and breathe this role as a professor- not have hobbies, not be present in your children's lives, and everything is just high pressure with a complete lack of work-life balance. And I know that some of the newer hires in our faculty are rebelling against that, regardless of gender.”
Work life balance for Amy Sibul, M.S. is strongly dependent on her maternal instincts.
"I always knew I wanted to be a mother. For the five years that I was a stay at home mom, I was engaged with what I called 'Developemntal Primatologist Signs of Development", because it was fascinating to me to watch humans grow from birth through these incredible phases."
Amy's career track differs for most, as she did not initally go into academia. Despite her maternal instincts, she was able to attain an immense amount of success, and more importantly, she does wahat makes her happy. Yet, that does not mean work and family are easy to balance with one another.
"I am going to say yes more often to my family than I am going to say yes to work. That is a hard balance."
Kirtly Parker Jones, PhD
Kirtly Parker Jones's work-life balance is centered around her work. While Jones may embody the fears of some college students, she does exemplify how one can reachy immense success within their career while also having a family. Though Kirtly did not necessarily give up on having a family, she did make the decision to focus more of her time on work.
"My son would tell you, that my work came first"
Page researched and written by Micaela Olivares.
Later edited by Pamalatera C. Fenn