Qualitative analysis reveals the negative impacts of motherhood on publication, citations, and promotions among academic mothers, suggesting urgent reform is needed.
In a profession designed for men with housewives, academic mothers continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden. Motherhood penalties in academia are well-documented, with research consistently showing negative impacts on mothers’ publication rates (Di Leo et al. n.d.; Lutter and Schröder 2020; Morgan et al. 2021), citations (Lawson et al. 2021), and promotion trajectories (Antecol et al. 2018; Finkel and Olswang 1996; Mason et al. 2019) — effects not observed among fathers. In recent years, both institutional frameworks and grassroots movements have sought to address these inequities, yet their strategies and impacts differ significantly.
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Infanger et al. (2026) studied this question.
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