Berkeley Undergraduate Journal

Balancing the demands of an academic career and those of a family are a great challenge, especially for women. Women pursuing a tenure-track position, or while on the tenure-track, often find themselves in a position of choosing between advancing their academic careers or having children; as a result, women, more so than men, leak out of the academic pipeline. The primary focus of this study is to explore, using secondary data from the "UC Berkeley Doctoral Career and Life Survey," and interviews with doctoral students, how family formation affects the life and career paths of men, and particularly women, while they are in graduate school. Secondly, recommendations are made for university sponsored policies, programs, and services for doctoral students with children.