Walking a Tightrope: Juggling Competing Demands as a PhD Student and a Mother

Abstract

This chapter explores the experiences and challenges of being both a doctoral student and a mother. The author highlights the conditions that can be faced by a mother studying her doctoral degree and discusses how to deal with the competing demands of doctoral training and parental responsibility in relation to decision-making, stress, cultural adaptation, and workload management. In this chapter, the author argues that the PhD journey provides mothers with opportunities to actualise their potential as well as express their passion for academic life.