Mary Ann Mason cited in Inside Higher Ed, April 4, 2012
A study conducted by Mary Ann Mason of the University of California at Berkeley documented that of the 61 members of the Association of American Universities (the top elite research institutions), only 23 percent guaranteed a minimum of six weeks paid leave for postdocs and only 13 percent promised the same to graduate students.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 13, 2012 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Next-Step-for-Female/130717/
A mass of bureaucratic and regulatory blockages must be pushed through in order to achieve a flexible workplace in which having both a family and a career is possible. A critical block is that while federal agencies largely finance the graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members who create new scientific breakthroughs, it is universities that determine personnel issues.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 14, 2011 by Robin Wilson
http://chronicle.com/article/Scholar-Who-Left-a-Tenured/128969/
Mary Ann Mason, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law who does similar research, said she didn’t believe the charges against Mr. Drago would stop him from doing work in the field. “He has been a very effective scholar and could continue to be so,” she said.
The New York Times, September 9, 2011 by Gerry Shih
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/us/09bccampaign.html
Mr. Ekmen and his wife, Mary Ann Mason, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, attributed the dynamic among the candidates to ranked-choice voting. “They were kind to each other,” Ms. Mason said after the debate. “It’s very hard to figure out the differences if you didn’t know them before.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 9, 2011 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Pyramid-Problem/126614/
Put simply: There are far fewer women than men at the top of the academic hierarchy; those women are paid somewhat less than men, and they are much less likely then men to have had children. At the bottom of the academic hierarchy—in the adjunct and part-time positions—there are far more women than men, and they are disproportionately women with children. Women in adjunct jobs have children at the same rate as men but receive the lowest wages in academe.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 13, 2011 by Rachel Newcomb
http://chronicle.com/article/Fieldwork-in-Morocco-With/126309/
Mary Ann Mason, a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, has found that women with children are less likely to get tenure than men. In the sciences, mothers are 27 percent less likely to receive tenure, and Mason’s 2002 study found that women who have babies within five years of receiving their Ph.D. in the humanities or social sciences are 20 percent less likely than men in a similar situation to receive tenure.
-The New York Times, January 5, 2011 by Steven Greenhouse
http://nyti.ms/eNm0Xg
Thanks in large part to such policies, Professor Mason said, 64 percent of assistant professors in the University of California system have children, up from 27 percent in 2003. “It shows that you can change the workplace culture,” she said.
-The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 12, 2011 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Change-Workplace/125894/
At Berkeley we have tried to break the cycle of low participation and fatherhood avoidance with several initiatives that expand family-responsive policies…. Culture does not change easily, but there are early signs of improvement here.
Science Magazine, Careers, August 6, 2010 by Vijaysree Venkatraman
http://bit.ly/cXX5mU
It’s a peer-group problem, she says: “If some young fathers take that leave and demonstrate themselves as equal caregivers, others will as well.” Mason says she has seen this happen at her workplace. But as long as most men are resistant, others may feel that they can’t take the chance. Once women scientists sought role models in laboratories; perhaps it’s men who require role models now: male scientists who embrace domesticity.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 20, 2010 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/E-Mail-the-Third-Shift/66312/
Many academics have a love-hate relationship with e-mail. We know it has made communicating … far easier. But we are also aware that e-mail is devouring a great deal of our time.… Shouldn’t it be routine university policy to promote clear guidelines about the use of e-mail between faculty members and students? That would benefit not only parents, of course, but, particularly for mothers, limiting the third shift may make the difference between academic survival and burnout.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 17, 2010 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/Women-Tenurethe-Law/64646/
Since the 90s, a plaintiff has had to prove not only that the tenure judgment against her was untrue, but also that the real reason for the denial was sex discrimination. If discrimination can’t be proved, even if the department is found to be intentionally lying about substandard work, other reasons for the denial, such as a faculty member’s lack of collegiality, can be upheld.
The Daily Californian, January 22, 2010 by Mary Ann Mason
http://www.dailycal.org/article/107911/a_look_at_the_phd_problem
Not surprisingly, perceived unfriendliness to one’s family concerns within a research-intensive university—and especially the difficulty in childrearing with a successful scientific career—was shown to be a major factor for female doctoral students to “leak out” of the scientific pipeline.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 13, 2010 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/Still-Earning-Less/63482/
Education does lead to higher incomes for women, but female breadwinners will continue to take home less than their male counterparts until educational segregation is eliminated and workplaces adopt flexible policies.
-Science Progress, November 10, 2009 by Andrew Plemmons Pratt
http://www.scienceprogress.org/2009/11/women-and-sciences/
“The leak is almost entirely, or least due primarily to family formation,” said Mason.
-The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 10, 2009 by Audrey Williams June
http://chronicle.com/article/CollegesFederal-Agencies/49101/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
“This is really a wake up call that we’re losing our women scientists,” said Mary Ann Mason, a Chronicle contributor who is an author of the report and a professor and co-director of the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security. “But there are some things that we can do about that right now,” she said.
-The Scientist, November 11, 2009 by Edyta Zielinska
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/56144/
Universities have responded to the call for better support of scientists who want to start families with policies such as stopping the tenure clock and offering paid parental leave. However, “there is a huge variation” in how these policies are administered, said Mary Ann Mason…. Often “researchers don’t know what [these policies] are” and how they work. Also, few of these programs are offered to early career scientists, who need them the most, she said.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 21, 2009 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-So-Few-Doctoral-Student/48872/
Why do so few people use the graduate-school years to start a family? After all, it’s a period when students have more flexible schedules and the possibility of a community with which to share the experience of parenting. These years offer many benefits for young parents.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 16, 2009 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/How-the-Snow-Woman-Effect/48377/
Often subtle discrimination is rooted in gender stereotypes—especially when it comes to the “leadership issue.” Female candidates are purportedly passed up for promotions based on a conscious or unconscious belief that women do not have what it takes to lead men.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 31, 2009 by Marc Goulden, Angelica Stacy, and Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/article/Assessment-Denied-the/48233/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
It is moving in the right direction by including nursing, public health, communications, and emerging, cutting-edge fields such as biotechnology, nanoscience, and race, ethnicity, and postcolonial studies. But the exclusion of other fields that produce large numbers of research doctorates seems insular and retrograde. We urge the NRC and others to consider those issues and to design future assessments that are truly comprehensive and reflective of the diversity of academe.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 22, 2009 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/04/2009042201c.htm
Certainly the timing of tenure is terrible for women. Today, the average age at which women can expect to receive a Ph.D. is 34. That puts the five to seven years of racing the tenure clock squarely at the end of the normal reproductive cycle. Those are the “make or break” years for female academicsֽ in terms of both career and childbearingֽ not to mention the demands of raising young children. Difficult choices must be made.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 25, 2009 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/03/2009032501c.htm
Role models, particularly ones with children, can make the difference in whether a female graduate student takes the next big step along the tenure track. While undergraduates are influenced simply by seeing a female faculty member, graduate students need to see that she is able to have children as well as a career.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 2009 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/printable.cgi?article=http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/02/2009022401c.htm
If we want fathers to become equal participants in child raising, we must encourage them to do so. Family-friendly policies must include fathers as well as mothers. Cultural change occurs with participation; only then will the strongly held gender stereotypes against men as committed caregivers dissipate.
San Francisco Chronicle, February 20, 2009 by Mary Ann Mason
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/20/EDVQ160QUV.DTL
As the only female dean at UC Berkeley for several years, I sat in on countless meetings where men held the floor. One day a female colleague made a presentation to a meeting of the deans and received a cursory, bordering on rude, response. Afterward, she asked me how she could have been more effective. “Speak lowly and slowly, but smile frequently,” I replied.