From Dialogue to Action: Consciousness-Raising with Academic Mothers

Abstract

In this article, the authors argue that facilitated dialogues with academic mothers can provide space for consciousness-raising, validation, co-mentoring, and taking action. Stemming from the authors’ experiences of negotiating motherhood in the academy, and their facilitation of a book discussion about academic motherhood through a faculty professional development opportunity, the authors chronicle their experience and describe how dialogue evolved into a site for validation of academic mothers’ feelings and frustrations, for making visible the multiple roles academic mothers are balancing, and for the need to create advocacy and support for academic mothers.