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Married to Their Careers

TENURE FACTORS AT HARVARD:

Sacrifice From Whom?

So just how much personal sacrifice does it require to be an academic married to an academic? To a large degree, the type and the extent of the sacrifice depends on what rung of the career ladder each spouse is on.

Academics generally agree that one of the least difficult situations occurs if both spouses are non-tenured academics. If this is the ease, "the first combination of jobs is not a problem--it's generally not that difficult to find two assistant professorships in the same city," says Professor of Political Economy Richard J. Zeckhauser, whose wife, Sally, is president of Harvard Real Estate, Inc.

"But then, seven years later, when you're at the tenure level, you have a real problem. What if she gets a job at Northwestern, and I get one in California? What do we do? Tenure offers tend to be scarce, and there are very, very few scholars who can get an offer in any city in America," the K-School professor says.

"Other careers are more flexible than academia. Academicians tend to carry a particular specialty, which may not be needed in a wide variety places, so it really limits where they can work. Two lawyers could go anywhere, but for two academicians, it's much more difficult," Herlihy says.

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Zeckhauser says he doubts whether one popular solution, commuter marriages, makes sense for most couples. "If a guy is working at Princeton and his wife is at Harvard, I'd say that the probability is one in three that they'll be divorced in two years."

Many scholars say that it can also be especially trying when one spouse has a tenured apointment and the other does not, since one person has a stable, life-time post, while his or her spouse may only be able to find a job thousands of miles away.

Brandeis Professor Sissela M. Bok, who is married to President Derek C. Bok, says that she and her husband discussed this situation early in their careers.

"My husband said that if I could not find a job around here, he would be willing to find a job somewhere else, too. Knowing this relieved an enormous burden," says the philosophy professor who teaches Moral Reasoning 24 "Moral Choice and Personal Responsibility." But Bok says that since they first came to Cambridge in the mid-1960s, she has not had to take her husband up on the offer.

Couples often find that one scholar in the family is one step ahead of the other in the tenure game. When Sociology Department Chairman Aage B. Sorensen was offerred a senior tenured position here, his wife, Assistant Professor of Sociology Annemette Sorensen, was also offerred a junior faculty post at the same time.

But by accepting Harvard's offer, Annemette Sorensen gave up a job in which she would have had a real shot at a lifetime post. "I left a position at the University of Wisconsin where I had a decent chance of tenure for my position at Harvard where I have almost no chance at all," Sorensen says.

And so, in a few years, she will probably be looking for a tenured position. "In some number of years, I'll be leaving Harvard. That's how you have to look at it," she says.

But Sorensen adds that since this will nothappen for quite a while, she and her husband arenot seriously worrying about imminent moves. Shealso says that Boston is one of the best locationsin the nation to look for an academic job becauseof the large number of colleges in Massachusetts.

But whatever the Sorensens eventually do, itprobably won't be easy. "There's always a lot ofproblems in terms of finding jobs. I'm not surewhether our both being in the same field makes iteasier or harder," she says.

"The biggest problem is that I got my Ph.D.about 10 years after my husband did, so our timingis different. I think in cases like that, theyounger [spouse] carries much of the burden,"Sorensen says. "It's always hard to come in as thesecond person, because there's always thesuspicion that you're not there on your ownmerit," she adds.

Room for Two

Getting tenured positions at the same schoolfor both a husband and a wife requires a mixtureof talent, perseverance, and sheer luck. For sucha dual-placement to work out, exactly the rightsort of slots have to be available at exactly theright times, and the married scholars each have tobe exactly the sort that the school is lookingfor.

It was just such a rare merging of the school'sneeds with the couple's that allowed Brown tooffer tenured positions to both of the Herlihys.One of Brown's medieval historians was retiring,and a Russian historian was taking anadministrative position, which meant that he wouldbe working only half-time, Associate Provost tothe Faculty John J. Quinn says. As David Herlihyis a medieval historian, and Patricia Herlihy is aRussian historian, "we thought it would beattractive to them. It happened to be a happycoincidence," says Quinn

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