In the comments section of Johnny Brennan's entry in our Grad School Survival Guide, "Caring for a Newborn in Grad School", 'anon fem grad student' writes:
I'd be very, very curious to know whether there are any female grad students for whom this post will be relevant. I've wracked my brain and can only come up with examples of male colleagues who have been able to have children while in graduate school. That's not to say that this post isn't great; in fact, I'm all for more public discussions of balancing parenting with our professional demands. But it seems nevertheless worth pointing out that a "having kids in grad school" post will almost exclusively target men.
Another commentator writing under the handle 'pregnant grad student' then added:
As a currently pregnant grad student in philosophy, I, like anon fem grad student, would be curious if there were any mothers who were pregnant/had infant children during their time in graduate school who might be able to offer a companion post to this one. The post explicitly notes that it might not be very helpful for mothers…
I worry that a post about "Having Kids in Grad School" that is only from a non-pregnant-person perspective makes it sound like having kids in grad school is a more welcoming place for parenthood than it might be for all kinds of possible parents.
Because these are excellent concerns, I would like to invite any current or former women grad students who are willing to share their perspective (either publicly or anonymously) to do so either in the comments section below or in a companion guest-post (if you are interested in contributing a post, please do email me at marvan@ut.edu)!
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