Academic Mamas Foundation

Empowering Academic Mamas by awarding grants supporting the pursuit of an academic career while raising children.

Across the world the number of women in PhD programs does not reflect the number of women with tenured faculty positions.

A key factor contributing to the lack of women in positions of academic power is that the tenure clock coincides with the family clock. Trying to write a stellar grant is much more complicated when chasing after a teething toddler! And, despite continuing social change, it is often the mother who is mainly responsible for raising young children, even as she works a full-time job. This is evidenced by the common perception that for a male having a family is a boost to his career, but for a female having a family is a bar to her career.  As a consequence work/family balance is often cited as a reason young females leave academia.

So, at the Academic Mama Foundation, we recognize you: the intelligent, resourceful (exhausted) mothers struggling to have an academic career despite the out-dated Baby Penalty. We are you. We believe that supporting Academic Mamas is a crucial step to improving retention of female academics. Thus our mission is to provide supportive scholarships to women endeavoring to be both successful academics and successful mamas. Because we believe that you can be both. 


Many of the hurdles we face as academic mamas can be lowered with financial support. These grants aim to do just that. We have funded a variety of requests from individuals needing childcare support because they are writing/doing fieldwork/at a conference/etc. to groups who are offering support to mamas by having conference childcare available. We do as much as we can to help mamas stay in academia.