This session explores the
idea of a “parenting professor penalty,” the panoply of barriers, harms, and
challenges that pregnant and parenting people, as well as those who are
presumed to be probable to be pregnant or parenting in the future, face in
entering and being successful within the legal academy. The “parenting
professor penalty” builds upon the work of Meera Deo and other scholars, who
have established how the race and gender of legal academics impact not only
their individual and collective experience, but also legal education more
broadly. This session engages participants to raise and highlight the contours
of the parenting professor penalty. Ultimately, participants and facilitators
plan to co-generate ideas and mechanisms to address these challenges.