Four female panelists talked about their experiences pursuing a career while raising a family and shared how they were able to accomplish both.
Every winter semester, as part of BYU’s English Department Symposium, there is a plenary session where a panel is asked to discuss their experiences. This year, the panel consisted of four female professors at BYU who are currently thriving both in their careers in academia and in their roles as mothers.
Drs. Mary Eyring, Amber Jensen, Amy Williams, and Sharon Harris each had unique journeys through their undergraduate, masters, and PhD programs, and they shared the unique challenges they faced and perspectives they gained as women pursuing careers in academia.
Whether they went on to a master’s program right after receiving their undergraduate degree or they waited for a few years to return to school, all four agreed that completing master’s and PhD programs were extremely satisfying and fulfilling. Williams shared, “the most rewarding thing for me about going back to graduate school as a non-traditional student and as a mother of four children was just being a student again.” She advised, “If you love school, go back to school!”
When Eyring was making decisions about her PhD and academic career, it was a matter of balancing her career with her husbands. In response to a question about this kind of give-and-take scenario between spouses, Eyring said that one of the most important things to remember is that “you need support from your spouse and your spouse needs support from you.”
The decision of whether to pursue a PhD came in a different way for each panelist. Harris shared that after teaching for a few years with her undergraduate degree, she felt I spiritually prompted to pursue a PhD. Of this experience, Harris said, “I felt confident making this multi-year, expensive commitment, because I felt the Spirit. Now, maybe not everybody finds that—I can’t promise that for other people—but make the decisions that you feel peace about spiritually and then trust those decisions.”
All of these women felt a call to pursue higher education and then took the necessary steps to get there. Jensen shared how making one decision at a time shaped her experience after she received her undergraduate degree. She noted, “I only could make choices about the options that were currently available to me.” And making those choices led her to teach high school English, complete her PhD, meet her husband, and then return to BYU to teach.
The panelists agreed that completing their PhD programs was one of their most difficult but also one of their most rewarding accomplishments.
—Heather Bergeson (English ’22)