I am a graduate of a women’s college. I returned to college to get my undergrad as an impoverished mother of three. The youngest was not yet old enough for school. What I remember most outside of the academics is how my professors pulled together to help https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/06/30/florida-state-bars-parenting-during-remote-work

with my daughter while I took classes full time. As a result, I became not only the first mother to graduate from their honors program, but the first to enter it and stay in it. I am presently at the tail end of my MA at @SewaneeLetters , with a 4.0.

I am preparing to publish with @broadviewpress . My daughter has grown up with history and philosophy and literature. She is an avid reader who is comfortable sharing her ideas with adults and loves school.

Policies like this are blatantly sexist; we live in a society that still expects mothers that shoulder the bulk of childcare and shame them for pursuing a career while parenting.

When we fail to support academics in their very human lives, we narrow academia itself. We restrict what voices are heard.

I never would have been able to succeed without professors who cared about me as a whole person and who didn’t see the presence of a small child as a barrier or an annoyance. We need to support them in the same way.