I remember hearing a talk about how US academia (in general, not specially maths) was particularly bad at this, even compared to academia elsewhere, because of the tenure track system - the time of life when your system forces people to put work above everything else in order to get tenure is the same time of life when mothers or those who want to be mothers find it hardest to do that. There were some pretty shocking graphs showing, for example, how much more likely a women was to make it to full professor if she was childless than if she had children, and how this did not apply to men.
Yes, absolutely. I work and socialize in academia, and I can see this quite clearly. Few of the female professors have children, and those that do almost never have more than one. In fact, I actually can't think of a single female professor I know who has more than one--wow.
Wait, no, I do know one. She and her husband are both professors, and they have two children and split a position. So she isn't a FT professor (and neither is he). They did this on purpose BECAUSE of their children.
However, I know plenty of male professors with more than one child. Their wives almost never work full-time.
