Kids in the Trenches: Women as Mothers and Professionals in Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In many STEM and academic settings being a woman with children can be seen as a liability to her progress in her field. While men are praised for being academics and fathers, mothers are routinely penalized in terms of their pay, ability to participate in professional conferences, advancement in the field, and publication rates. We argue that one of the biggest steps we can take in archaeology is to normalize the presence of women with their children in the field. Here we discuss our own personal experiences bringing our children to various archaeological projects, including the highs and lows of that experience, and ultimately what our children learned and gained form that experience and how that has shaped us as archaeologists. By changing the perception of women and mothers in the field, we can reframe the visibility of mothers in a positive light and celebrate their accomplishments as archaeologists, academics, and parents.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 823