Mary Ann Mason

Do Babies Matter? The Effect of Family Formation on the Lifelong Careers of Academic Men and Women.

When I first became the Dean of the Graduate Division at Berkeley last year, I had an extraordinary experience. Fifty-one percent of the 2,500 new graduate students whom I welcomed were women. Thirty-five years ago that number would have been closer to 10%. The students I welcomed included not only doctoral students, but also graduate students seeking professional degrees in law, public health, social welfare, optometry, etc. On the Berkeley campus there is no medical school, but if there were, women would be close to the majority in that profession as well.

Marriage and Baby Blues: Redefining Gender Equity in the Academy

Traditionally, gender equity in the academy is evaluated in terms of women’s professional success as compared to men’s. This study examines gender equity not only in terms of professional outcomes but also in terms of familial outcomes, such as childbirth, marriage, and divorce. Using data from the Survey of Doctorate Recipients as well as data from a 2002 to 2003 survey of the work and family issues facing ladder-rank faculty in the nine campuses of the University of California system, the authors followed more than thirty thousand Ph.D.s in all disciplines across their life course and surveyed more than eighty-five hundred active University of California faculty. Results indicate that gender equity in terms of familial gains is as elusive as gender equity in terms of professional employment, raising the fundamental issue of what gender equity means in a university setting or in any fast-track employment setting.

Keeping Women in the Science Pipeline

Premier science largely depends on the quality of the pool of future scientists. Women now represent a large part of the talent pool in the United States, but many data sources indicate that they are more likely than men to “leak” out of the science pipeline before obtaining tenure at a college or university. The authors’ research examines this issue in detail, drawing on multiple sources, including the Survey of Doctorate Recipients and several original surveys. Their findings show that family formation—most important marriage and childbirth—accounts for the largest leaks in the pipeline from graduate school to the acquisition of tenure for women in the sciences. The authors also find that researchers receive limited benefits when it comes to family responsive policies, such as paid maternity and parental leave, and that young scientists receive the least. Together, federal agencies and universities can make headway in solving this systemic problem.

Stepparents De Facto Parents or Legal Strangers

In most states, stepparents have little or no legal decision-making authority. Stepchildren do not receive the legal recognition as dependents that triggers a safety net in the event of death or divorce, nor do former stepparents have the legal right to visitation or custody. However, the lack of legal recognition of the stepparent role may not reflect the reality of contemporary stepfamilies. This article examines stepfamily functioning with the aim of creating a new policy orientation. We draw on both the National Survey of Families and Households and an in-depth study of 27 stepfamilies to investigate the everyday functioning of stepparents with regard to caregiving tasks, discipline, distribution of economic resources, attitudes toward legal status, and perception of parental roles. The findings support a new policy initiative that would legally recognize stepparents as de facto parents for a variety of purposes.In most states, stepparents have little or no legal decision-making authority. Stepchildren do not receive the legal recognition as dependents that triggers a safety net in the event of death or divorce, nor do former stepparents have the legal right to visitation or custody. However, the lack of legal recognition of the stepparent role may not reflect the reality of contemporary stepfamilies. This article examines stepfamily functioning with the aim of creating a new policy orientation. We draw on both the National Survey of Families and Households and an in-depth study of 27 stepfamilies to investigate the everyday functioning of stepparents with regard to caregiving tasks, discipline, distribution of economic resources, attitudes toward legal status, and perception of parental roles. The findings support a new policy initiative that would legally recognize stepparents as de facto parents for a variety of purposes.

Family Law in the New Millennium For Whose Families

In this article, the authors review changes in family law over the past 30 years in the following areas: marriage, divorce, child custody, remarriage and stepfamilies, unwed fathers, third-party visitation, nontraditional partnerships, assisted reproduction, and adoption. The authors also discuss the role that the social sciences have had in the family law revolution. Finally, the authors speculate about future changes in family law and the role that the social sciences will play in these legal reforms.

Stepparents on Stepparenting

Abstract Stepparents vary widely in the extent to which they are involved in parenting their stepchildren. This paper reports results from a qualitative study of stepparenting approaches. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 stepparents and their spouses. These stepparents described four distinct approaches related to handling discipline, spending time with their children, and defining themselves as a parent figure. Each approach was constructed in response to needs of the spouse, children, and stepparent, and the involvement of the non-residential parent. Although stepparenting approaches were associated with different levels of involvement in parenting, in each approach stepparents were filling a gap in the family created by divorce.

A Judicial Dilemma: Expert Witness Testimony in Child Sex Abuse Cases

This study first analyzes the content of 122 appellate court decisions in which expert witness testimony on the characteristics of sexually abused children is challenged. The nature of the testimony, the identity of experts, and the patterns of judicial response to this testimony are both quantitatively and qualitatively examined. The study then reviews the concerns raised by the clinical/scientific community about the validity of this behavioral syndrome testimony and the role of the therapist as expert. The gulf between the judicial community and the clinical/scientific community is addressed. Alternative forms of expert testimony that more closely meet the criteria of both communities are suggested.

Alone in the Ivory Tower

The authors use data from the 2000 Census Public Use Microdata Sample to examine the likelihood of a birth event, defined as the household presence of a child younger than 2 years, for male and female professionals. Physicians have the highest rate of birth events, followed in order by attorneys and academics. Within each profession men have more birth events than women. For men, occupational variation in birth events can be explained by marital status, income, and spousal employment. These factors only partially account for occupational differences in birth events for women.

The U.S. and the International Children's Rights Crusade: Leader or Laggard?

This article examines the global impact of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and questions why the US has not been a signatory. The ambivalent history of childrens rights in the United States is reviewed with special attention to the unique situation of child slavery and other legal forms of child servitude for the first two hundred years. The recent legal controversies over childrens participatory rights and privacy are also examined within the context of the Convention.