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This introduction sets forth the main themes of the volume, reviews the methods employed by the contributors, and demonstrates the relationships among the chapters.

Each of the chapters demonstrates the gendered nature of the academy and some of the ways in which women, especially women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, are disadvantaged. None of them provides complete catalogues of the issues confronting women and none reach definitive conclusions regarding the ways and means of transforming the academy. Additional research and experimentation will be required.

The gender transformation of the academy holds the promise of more opportunities for women, especially but not only in STEM disciplines and higher administration, and greater probability of balance between work and personal life for all.

The chapter serves as an overall introduction to the volume and the subject matter more generally.

This chapter identifies the challenges that faculty with children experience as they engage in international research. We explore how these faculty members manage the competing demands of international research work and parenthood.

Data includes qualitative interviews with 42 faculty members who are parents, in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields from 23 Research 1 universities.

The globalizing nature of research poses insufficiently recognized tensions between international travel and caregiving. Faculty reported three main strategies that enable them to manage work-family conflicts when work takes them abroad. These include: (1) opting out of international research; (2) modifying international travel; and (3) merging international research with caregiving.

Work-family conflicts identified at the national level are amplified for international research.

Interview data are self-reports of what faculty members recalled and elected to share; actual behaviors may differ somewhat.

This chapter provides insights that academic institutions might use to support faculty engaged in international research.

A failure to understand and support the unique needs of parents in international research settings may compromise active parenthood for faculty, while reinscribing and reinforcing existing gendered disparities in academia. The internationalization of STEM fields, when coupled with a lack of institutional support for parents, presents a mechanism that contributes to the ongoing underrepresentation of women in science and engineering.

Although similar questions have been considered in national contexts, little research has explored work-family conflicts for parents in an international setting.

This study aims to examine the role of support actors in promoting or hindering access to public services/spaces for migrant agricultural workers (MAWs) and to determine the factors that influence adequate support for this population.

Using a situational analysis methodology, the authors carried out focus groups and interviews with 40 support actors complimented by a community scan (n = 28) with public-facing support persons and a community consultation with migrant farmworkers (MFWs) (n = 235).

Two major themes were revealed: (In)access and (In)action and Blurred Lines in Service Provision. The first illustrated how support actors could both reinforce or challenge barriers for this population through tensions of “Coping or Pushing Back on Constraints” and “Need to find them first!” Justification or Preparation? Blurred lines in Service Provision encompassed organizational/staff’s behaviors and contradictions that could hinder meaningful support for MFWs revealing two key tensions: “Protection or performance?” and “Contradicting or reconciling priorities? Our findings revealed a support system for MAWs still in its infancy, contending with difficult political and economic conditions.

Service providers can use research findings to improve supports for MAWs. For example, addressing conflicts of interests in clinical encounters and identification of farms to inform adequate outreach strategies can contribute to more effective support for MAWs.

This research is novel in its examination of multiple sectors as well as its inclusion of both formal and informal actors involved in supporting MAWs. Our findings have the potential to inform more comprehensive readings of the health and social care resources available to MAWs.