Impacts of family and fieldwork on career/family balance among tenure-track and tenured anthropologists

OBJECTIVES

A common dilemma rarely mentioned during doctoral training is career/family balance-especially the timing of children. This dilemma extends to professional anthropologists and includes questions surrounding the benefits and challenges of taking children to the field. We analyzed survey data from tenure-track and tenured anthropologists to determine if fieldwork in general and fieldwork with or without their children on site impacts career/family balance. We hypothesized that having children and the burden of fieldwork puts more strain on women than on men in anthropology.

METHODS

We compared 297 tenure-track and tenured anthropologists by gender, tenure status, and mean annual time spent conducting fieldwork using survey data collected for the Family and the Field study. Analysis was conducted using a combination of hierarchical multivariate analysis of variance and regression to analyze the differing factors affecting various groups.

RESULTS

The primary differences in career/family balance occurred between tenure-track and tenured anthropologists, not women and men, and that fieldwork requirements do not necessarily make achieving personal balance harder for anthropologists than other academics.

CONCLUSIONS

The need to conduct fieldwork may dissuade some people with or planning to have children from becoming anthropologists. However, upon obtaining tenure-track positions, the burdens impacting "balance" taper off and become less stressful. We offer policy suggestions for buffering stress related to career/family balance that may negatively impact decisions to pursue or continue in anthropology as a career.