Universities need to plan for a dark future if academics prefer their own Plan B

The sentiments expressed here resonate very much with a short piece I wrote in September 2001: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/marine-craft-finds-bilge-pump-useful/164689.article

I am at a department consisting of natural and social scientists, where most of the voluntary departures have been women, and on the social sciences side. A couple of them I met recently are very happy doing other things. 2-3 have completely foresaken all intellectual work for more practical activities. None were in danger of being fired, and all had permanent jobs - most have stayed living locally. The increased bureaucracy was a factor; and the insidious shift from needing to publish, now to 'needing to get grants and also to publish', seems to have been a second major driver. The solution is obvious - trust the workforce more, and reduce 'grant pressures'. We do not all need them anyway. The early childhood phase is also important - parenting duties often force a reconsideration of priorities in those years.

I envy those who have the ability to leave. Women are often in a more privileged position to do so than men, but I'm the family breadwinner. I would love to know how many women are in my situation. I was working on average 60 hours a week during term time - and spending another 30-40 hours running the household, cooking, childcare, etc. My institution keeps forcing us to increase student enrolment in my discipline without adequately increasing staff, and the bureaucratisation is never-ending. We are entitled to all of one research day a week, but that is always occupied with teaching prep and bureaucracy. The only time I found I could squeeze in any of my own research (much of which requires travel to a foreign country - and so is increasingly impossible to do) was after my child's bedtime, and I would work until 12-2 am 5 or so nights a week after being up and on the go non-stop since around 6. Not surprisingly, I became very ill. As I'm the family breadwinner I can't quit, but I also know that I simply can't keep this up. This is not a normal life - it isn't really any kind of life. Universities seem to think, dismayingly, that the problem in maintaining a home/life balance for people with children is to ensure that they have adequate childcare - hence it's ok to ask me to do Saturday open days or, increasingly, evening teaching/events, as long as childcare is provided. The fact that I may actually want to spend time with my child rather than palming him off to others to care for doesn't seem to enter into it. I meet so many academic women who have avoided having kids because they can't imagine juggling life and work. What we seriously need is survey of how academia is affecting the life choices of academic women, and how they cope with those.

In my field of academia, it’s so incredibly competitive that having children (& any period away from work) equates to being left behind. For the women who make it in this field, the majority of us have opted not to make that life choice.

My daughter to me: 'Having academic parents is so different to the parents my friends have' Me, puzzled 'How ?' Daughter 'Well their parents do things like have hobbies, Dad' She is applying to university for 2018. Would I like her to become an academic eventually ?