Life Beyond Academics

While more women are present on college campuses now than in years past, they are still far from having equal footing in academic careers and their journey to become a professor remains a challenge.

This is a reality Sarah Eyerly, Ph.D. ’04 has lived and been working to address since she was a fellow of Professors for the Future at UC Davis.

Far from equal representation

In the United States, the number of women who make up full-time faculty in higher education is 31 percent. While this is an increase from 5 percent representation that persisted for the past 75 years, it is not equal to males in the profession nor is it representative to the number of women who have enrolled or obtained college degrees, which has more than tripled during the same period.

When it comes to higher ranking faculty, the numbers are even worse. According to the American Association of University Women, among tenured faculty at four-year institutions, just 27 percent were women. Additionally, appointments at the associate professor rank, usually granted with tenure, disproportionately did not go to women.

Thriving in the Ivory Tower

Eyerly first noticed the issue of women in academia needing additional support when she was a graduate student at UC Davis. She felt very supported in her academic pursuits in the close-knit, world-class music department; but, when it came to non-academic elements of her education, she felt something was missing.

She applied to the competitive, yearlong PFTF fellowship because it promised the opportunity to gain professional development skills and other knowledge that was essential for a career in academia. Through the program she learned invaluable skills she was hoping to gain such as how to craft a CV and present your research. She also gained some knowledge she wasn’t expecting to receive, but appreciated perhaps even more—specifically the numerous workshops that were focused on finding work-life balance.

“The program was a very valuable part of my graduate journey. The things I learned, the skills, the ideas, and the people I met through the program, have really made a difference in my career,” she said.

She also executed a project that addressed a need she observed within the graduate community and provided her fellow female grad students with “skills and knowledge that went beyond academics.” The project, which was called “Thriving in the Ivory Tower: A Group Mentoring Series for First Year and Advanced Graduate Women,” was a series of workshops centered on parenting, finding work-life balance, and managing professional and personal relationships as a graduate student. The workshops were focused on addressing issues that are common for grad students who are women, and provided them with knowledge and skill sets that would be advantageous to them going forward in their career.

Looking back on the workshops now, Eyerly said the thing that struck her the most is the large number of people from throughout the university who volunteered their time to be a part of her PFTF workshops.

“It told me that, even at that time, people at Davis wanted to do something about these issues and they were willing to commit that time to help, even though I was just a graduate student asking for their help,” she said.

Little did she know then how much the topics of her workshops would affect her personally as she launched her own career in academia.

Between a hammer and an anvil

Eyerly is now an associate professor of musicology and director of the early music program at Florida State University. She also recently became coordinator of the musicology area. However, her journey to obtain her current position had several setbacks because of her desire to become a mother and a professor at the same time.

When she accepted her first visiting professorship at a university in Southern California, she was pregnant with her first child unbeknownst to her at the time. When her son was born she didn’t qualify for family leave so colleagues pitched in to help cover her classes so she could take two weeks off. After only two weeks off she had to return to the classroom.

Because her post was a visiting professorship, Eyerly also went on several job interviews during this time. She recounts several incidences where hiring managers looked at her visibly pregnant belly rather than her face.

“It’s hard. The academic hiring process happens at a time of your life when so many other things are going on,” she said. “You’re trying to establish your career, you’re trying to establish your own family, and you’re trying to care for older members of your family. It’s like being between a hammer and an anvil.”

She persisted

Eyerly persisted and eventually landed a tenure-track position at a small, private university in the Midwest. She taught there for two years before becoming pregnant with her second child. Soon into the fall quarter, however, Eyerly had to be put on bed rest and quickly exhausted all her leave. The university threatened to end her contract. Although the university eventually relinquished, Eyerly decided she “did not want to spend 30 years working for an institution that would treat employees like that.” She left her tenure-track position.

Eyerly’s need to leave academia is not unique. According to an article from the Brookings Institute, women experienced disproportionately high rates of leaving academia by their second or third semesters.

“In academia in particular, I’ve noticed that people seem really invested in work in a way that it can become their life, but sometimes in quite an unhealthy way. I think that for women in particular that’s a challenge,” she said. “I do think that female faculty feel pulled in so many different directions and it can be hard to feel like you can fulfill all of your responsibilities competently and that you are not failing in all of the different aspects of your life.”

Fortunately, Eyerly’s journey in academia didn’t end there. Eyerly was hired by Florida State University, her current employer.

“I’m very happy at Florida State,” she said. “But I had to start all over again, earning tenure.”

Helping today’s grad students

Eyerly said one reason she is so happy at Florida State is because supporting graduate students is a primary function of her current position as department head. She is starting a two-year professional development mentoring series for graduate students in her department, the ideas for which came directly from her experience in PFTF.

“What I found through my time in Professors for the Future was that I had a particular interest in graduate students and graduate education, especially in the aspects of students’ lives that went beyond just getting a degree or getting a job. I cared about things like having a family and work-life balance,” she said. “I think it’s important to talk about these issue because our careers are embedded in the whole context of a person’s life.”