Career and/or Children: Do Female Academic Librarians Pay a Price for Motherhood?

Abstract

Although women have made significant progress in traditionally male-dominated occupations such as law, medicine, business, and science, those who have children are unlikely to advance to the top positions in their fields. This study examines academic librarianship, a “feminized profession” in which women represent close to 70 percent of the work force, to determine if women in the highest-level job, the directorship, have been able to both succeed in their careers and become mothers.