Mother knows best: her skills serve academia.(IN HER OWN WORDS)

What interested me most about this year's Academy Awards show wasn't Charlize Theron's gown or the choice for best picture. What I found intriguing was the theme that evolved as the winners spoke: the role of mother.

Not only did there seem to be a greater-than-usual number of tributes to Mom (who is often described as looking down on her triumphant progeny from heaven, like a good self-sacrificing mother from a 1930s woman's film), but there was a new motif as well--the working mother. It was best expressed by the woman who accepted her statue on behalf of all women who combine work and raising children.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

There it was: Hollywood addressing the last taboo.

Downplaying motherhood

When I returned to teaching with my resume carefully crafted to downplay my eight-year absence from the podium, my colleagues and I rarely mentioned the subject of motherhood. One notable exception was the female professor who observed, "Well, you have too--I mean so--many children."

I have three children. And I knew it was risky business--first, to leave college teaching, which I had spent nearly a decade preparing for, and second, to attempt to re-enter the academic zone. I do wish to note several points upfront. Taking time off may (or should be) easier for those in humanities than for members of the sciences, at least in part because humanities faculty have already had so much practice in practicing on the margins as adjuncts.