Dual Career Couples
In physics, the "two-body problem" describes the gravitational field created by two celestial bodies. In academia, the same term describes the situation encountered when both members of a couple are applying for jobs.
Show credits
HideLisa Lamb, Ayuna Lamb-Hickson, and Tom Hickson. Lisa and Tom are tenured faculty in the geology department at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, MN, and were hired simultaneously there, to fill two existing positions. Photo courtesy of Tom Hickson.
Dual career couples face additional challenges in the job search process: choosing whether, when and how to reveal to prospective employers that your spouse is also looking for a job; deciding whether (and for how long) you and your spouse are willing to live apart for the sake of one or both of your careers; and even choosing how you (as a couple) will make choices. As more and more women earn PhD's in science, the number of dual career academic couples in science is growing. The resources below illustrate some of the (successful!) choices and strategies available to dual career couples.
Jump down to- General resources
- Case studies: geoscience dual career couples
- Articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education
General Resources
- The Dual-Science-Career-Couple Page contains a wealth of resources, including links to sample policies and contracts for shared/split positions, links to institutional spousal hiring programs, and a report of the results of a web-based survey of academic couples in science.
- Solving the Two-Body Problem, by Anurag Agrawal and Jennifer Thaler, is a thoughtful description of the advantages and disadvantages of revealing the presence of your academic spouse at each stage of the job search process, and includes helpful tips about how to do so, based on the experiences of the authors and other dual career academic couples they know.
- Stephanie Weirich's job search resources page includes detailed advice for dual career job searches, based on her (and her husband's) recent, successful search.
- Part-time Working Mothers (Acrobat (PDF) 80kB Nov20 06) is an article from Gaea, published by the Association for Women Geoscientists. It's about the struggles of balancing family (or more generally a personal life) with a career in science. Many readers contributed their experiences with this challenge, and added their advice to young scientists.
- The Academic Job Search Handbook, by Mary Morris Heiberger and Julia Miller Vick, includes a chapter of advice for anyone whose job search may be atypical, including members of dual career couples. The list of suggestions at the end of the chapter may be particularly useful.
MentorNet
- MentorNet homepage: "MentorNet is the award-winning nonprofit e-mentoring network that addresses the retention and success of those in engineering, science and mathematics, particularly but not exclusively women and other underrepresented groups." Graduate students and untenured faculty members are eligible for one-on-one email-based mentoring by tenured faculty.
- The MentorNet E-Forum: ask this web-based discussion group for advice on your situation, or read what others have done in similar situations.
Case Studies: Geoscience Dual Career Couples
Here are several examples of dual career couples in the geosciences. While every couple is different, these case studies may give you some ideas about how other couples have handled situations that you are facing or may face in the near future.- Tom Hickson and Lisa Lamb are professors in the Geology Department at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, MN. Tom and Lisa were hired simultaneously, to fill two tenure-track positions; when they were hired, they were a two-person department.
- Linda Reinen and Eric Grosfils are professors in the Department of Geology at Pomona College, in Claremont, CA. They were hired to share a tenure-track position. Six years later, the college expanded their single position to two full-time positions.
- Karen Havholm is a professor in the Geology Department at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. Her husband, Glenn, is a CPA, currently working as a business manager. Having followed Karen to Eau Claire, Glenn is now working to rebuild his career in that new location.
- Marc Hirschmann and Donna Whitney are professors in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. Marc and Donna were hired simultaneously, at 3/4 time each, after they both applied for a (single) tenure-track petrology position. Both positions were expanded to full time after their first year.
- Molly and Calvin Miller are professors in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Vanderbilt University. They applied to share a single, tenure-track position, so that they could share both their work and their family responsibilities equally. They continued to share one position until their children were 9 and 7; then both became full-time faculty members.
- Jane Selverstone and Dave Gutzler are professors in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico. They were both hired, with tenure, after Jane applied for a position in metamorphic petrology.
- Laura Guertin and Dan King are professors of Earth Science and Chemistry, respectively, at two different institutions (half an hour apart) in Pennsylvania. Both are tenure track.
- Neal Driscoll and Cheryl Peach both work in San Diego, CA: Neal is on the faculty at UCSD, and Cheryl is the Academic Coordinator at Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Birch Aquarium. Throughout their employment history, they have found ways to work near each other.
- Estella and Eliot Atekwana are currently at the University of Missouri - Rolla, but will begin new faculty positions at Oklahoma State University in the fall of 2006. They taught at separate institutions for many years before getting two tenure-track positions at UM-R. More recently, Oklahoma State has offered them both tenured positions.
- "Making it Work Together: Spouses on the Tenure Track," by Carol and Andrew deWet, describes their shared, tenure track position at Franklin and Marshall College, which they proposed when they applied for the position. (Both Carol and Andrew are now tenured.)
Articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education
- Career Talk: What to do About the Two-Body Problem, by Mary Morris Heiberger and Julia Miller Vick. Advice about what to discuss with your spouse before you begin applying for jobs, and about when to reveal that you are part of a dual career couple.
- How to Cope on the Market as an Academic Couple, by Ellen Ostrow. Advice for deciding what to do if you are both offered jobs, but in different places; for coping with post-decision emotions; and for dealing with separation if you decide to live apart.
- A Couple of Worries, by Tamatha Barbeau and Gregory Pryor. One couple's experience of the ups and downs of a dual career job search, and Two Can Make It, Too, their success story.
- The Secrets of Our Success? by Jane Cook. Jane describes her and her husband's both getting tenure at the same institution as more the result of serendipity than of strategy.
- The Endless Trade-offs of an Academic Marriage, by Elizabeth Athelstand. Elizabeth details the pros and cons of her (postdoc) choices for the coming year (factoring in her husband's location) and describes how she decided amongst them.
- Job Sharing on the Tenure Track, by Julie Nicklin Rubley. A description of one couple's successful bid to share a tenure track job.
- Was It a Mistake to Apply as a Couple? by Mary Dillon Johnson. Things to consider if two of you are applying for positions as a couple, and a discussion of the possible advantages and difficulties.
- Whose Career Should Be No. 2?; advice from Ms. Mentor. Ms. Mentor analyzes the dynamics of being a trailing spouse, and suggests one possible solution.
- The Trailing Spouse Track, by Vera Taz, describes some of the difficulties inherent in being a trailing spouse.
- Flying Lovers and Ugly Glasses, by Vera Taz. A disenchanted trailing spouse sings the blues.
