Chiharu Ito ASA002 A004 Week8

In “Mother is Liberation: Giving Birth to Alagaan Pedagogy (Pedagogy of Care)”, the author claims that being a mother is not a limitation to work in academia and the experiences as a mother are useful for the work in academia. People often have an image that being a good mother and working in academia is the opposite, and it is impossible to be compatible with both. However, she claims that the image which is socially created is incorrect, and also, that pressures female worker by saying that being is not qualified as a good worker. She believes that the skills gained from the experiences in family and community can support to be a great worker in academia and the opposite image of mother and academia should be changed.

I also believe that being a mother and working in academia are compatible, but in the actual society, the claim cannot be always true. In a news article, “Scientist Mothers Face Extra Challenges in the Face of COVID-19”, the authors reported that the stay-at-home orders and remote works decreased the job efficiency of female scientists, especially mothers, compared with the job efficiency of male scientists. That is because females are often demanded a larger portion of housework so they are busier than usual if they stay at home for remote work. The social images request the female workers to do house works and too many things to do decrease the job efficiency. The experiences as a mother can help to work in academia, but the things to do for being a good mother is often too many to be a good worker. The social image improvement and equal roles in family, community, and jobs between females and males are required for mother to be liberation.

References 

Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. 2020. “Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars’ resistance and renewal in the academy”. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

500 Women Scientists. 2020. “Scientist Mothers Face Extra Challenges in the Face of COVID-19”, Scientific American. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/scientist-mothers-face-extra-challenges-in-the-face-of-covid-19/