academic mothers

Sandwich generations (Miller, 1981) have long been established in the extant literature as people who care for young children while simultaneously providing support to aging parents. Contemporary patterns have given way to a new group that not only balances caring for younger and older family members, but they do so alongside employment obligations. Burke (2017) deems this new group the working sandwich generation. Even though more American families have become increasingly dependent on women’s salaries (Glynn, 2016), modern-day women continue to manage the lion’s share of familial caregiving duties even when these women work outside of the home and earn comparable salaries to men (Schoppe-Sullivan & Fagan, 2020). Complexifying this situation is the realization that many women navigate these demands in the absence of robust family-friendly policies in the workplace. Using experiential knowledge and the extant literature, and grounded in feminist theory and social exchange theory, this project reflects on the complexities among contemporary working women who are caring for young children and dying parents. Given the broader scope of American demography, the authors anticipate that the experiences shared here may resonate with many others and will hopefully work toward informing workplace culture and policies in ways that support women’s successes.