Mary Ann Mason

Mary Ann Mason is considered an expert on public policy issues related to the effects of parenting on academic careers; public policy issues concerning children's rights; and the history of the American family and of childhood.

Mason received her B.A. from Vassar College, her Ph.D. in American History from the University of Rochester, and her J.D. from the University of San Francisco. She taught history at several Bay Area colleges, founded and directed the largest paralegal education program in the West at St. Mary's College, and practiced law for several years.

In 1989 Mason joined the faculty of UC Berkeley as an assistant professor in law and social welfare in the Graduate School of Social Welfare, rising through the ranks to full professor. Her publications include a major work on the effects of modern divorce, The Equality Trap, and two major works on child custody, From Father's Property to Children's Rights and The Custody Wars. From 2000 to 2007, she served as the first woman Dean of the Graduate Division at UC Berkeley, with responsibility for nearly 10,000 students in more than 100 graduate programs. During her tenure, she championed diversity in the graduate student population, promoted equity for student parents, and pioneered measures to enhance the career/life balance for all students. Currently on sabbatical, she will resume teaching at UC Berkeley in January 2008.

Mason has been a trail-blazer for culture change to make higher education across the nation more family-friendly for faculty and students alike. Her current research project is known as "Do Babies Matter? The Effects of Family Formation on the Lifelong Careers of Academic Men and Women.” Her research findings and advocacy have been central to ground-breaking policy initiatives, including the ten-campus “UC Faculty Family Friendly Edge” and the nationwide “Nine Presidents” summits on gender equity at major research universities. Her newly released book from Oxford University Press (co-authored with her daughter Eve Mason Ekman) is Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers. Her website is here.

Mary Ann Mason lives in Oakland with her husband, psychologist Paul Ekman; they have two grown children, Eve and Tom.