I Was Not Really Imagining Myself in Terms of Becoming a Big Scholar or Academic...' Academic Mothers: Power and Powerlessness in Academia and in Homes

Power and powerlessness are two poles of the continuum of life that Academic mothers inhabit by virtue of simply playing these roles in convergence with each other.

Their's is a double edged problem. Traditionally women are denied the thinking and reflecting acumen and are seen as substandard contributors to the academic discourse. Interestingly,mothering is defined in many cultures as a full time responsibility and one that is the most treasured attribute of women. One the one hand, thinking and emotionality are seen as opposed traits that logically imply academic mothers to be lacking in the basic requisite of mothering, on the other,women’s intuitive emotionality is seen as coming in the way of a scientific approach required of women as Academics.

This study seeks to understand women's experiences, positive and negative in terms of transgressing these straight jacketed boundaries and combining the role of mothers and academics in India, Brazil and South Africa and seeks to explore how strong traditions of family values in these cultures influence and impact women in the Academia . Some of the questions it seeks to address are as follows:

In what ways do women live these roles which are very demanding and challenging, also satisfying and fulfilling? What are women's obstacles, what are their strengths? How do academic mothers do a different kind of academics, maybe or a different kind of mothering, so as to satisfy their aspirations from these two roles, two lives? What are their tensions, how do they resolve them, what kind of adaptations do women make? What kind of a philosophy on life and work do they evolve from living these different responsibilities simultaneously? The paper is based on in depth qualitative data that is deeply reflexive and drawn from 15 women Academicians in India.