Comments on: Should She or Shouldn’t She?

By: bitchphd

bitchphd — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 19:17:57 +0000

Re. Moshe’s point about the postdoc period requiring both resources and goodwill: yes, that’s the catch with almost any initiative to increase the diversity of the work force–dealing with the gap between simply saying “we want a more diverse workforce” and actually putting resources behind it. It is a genuine problem. One can make all sorts of arguments about how the resources required would pay off in the long run by ensuring a broader talent base, better morale, etc., but in terms of near-term budgeting, it’s a tough case to make. I don’t know enough about the postdoc situation to really be able to come up with a clever solution, but I’m sure someone else does…

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 03:34:22 +0000

Sean & Moshe,

True this does not solve the situation for post-docs, but I can say that if this had been policy while I was an Assistant Prof, it would have made a huge difference to me. Assist profs are usually in their early-mid 30’s which corresponds to prime child bearing years.

I am going to raise this issue with my university administration and point to the Princeton policy. I would like to encourage others to do the same.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 00:28:06 +0000

I do like that Princeton idea, I hadn’t heard of it. As Moshe says, though, it would be hard to make it work for postdocs — even if current employers won’t hold it against you, future ones would. Which is simply an inherent injustice in the postdoc system, something that might be worth a discussion of its own…

By: Moshe

Moshe — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 22:37:16 +0000

bitchphd,

Long time fan…anyhow, I believe in the sciences the most problematic time with regard to this issue is the postdoc years, typically two of those after the PhD, 2-3 years each. Taking time off during that period (late twenties typically) is nearly impossible. I think that problem is more difficult because it is likely to require resources, not just good will to solve.

Also, good opportunity to say keep up the good work, yours in fact is the only non-science-related blog I frequent so far…

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 22:15:47 +0000

BitchPhD, thanks for writing in. WOW! That is such an incredibly obvious and fantastic solution. I hope other universities take note.

By: bitchphd

bitchphd — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:40:18 +0000

I am late to this thread, but in case JoAnne (or anyone else) is still reading, one of the best solutions in academia at the present time (that I’ve heard of) is, I believe, Princeton’s. They had the option of stopping the tenure clock but found that women were unlikely to take it precisely b/c, as JoAnne points out, having rules in place doesn’t deal with the possible negative consequences of dealing with people who harbor prejudicial attitudes. Oddly, at Princeton, men were more likely to take family leave, presumably b/c they were slightly less worried than women were about this issue. By and large, I think it’s true that men who take leave are seen as progressive, right-on guys, while women are seen as possibly less than serious about their jobs.

So what Princeton did was make leave after childbirth or adoption MANDATORY. For everyone. Suddenly the issue of, “well, you’re *allowed* to take leave, but of course if you’re really serious you won’t do so” simply disappeared. And b/c both men and women had to take it, the number of people who do have families became much more obvious. There’s strength in numbers.

By: Sciencegate » Women in Science - The Final Frontier?

Sciencegate » Women in Science - The Final Frontier? — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 23:02:37 +0000

[...] So here, from JoAnne Hewett at the often entertaining physics blog Cosmic Variance, is a meditation on the subject of the first order. (Complete with, at last count, 108 comments.) [...]

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 23:11:40 +0000

I did a chemistry PhD and postdoc and then went off to industry because (among other reasons) I wanted to have kids. My experience was that academic life requires you to be able to work 50 hours a week every week and move across the world at about 6 months’ notice until you’re about 40. That means you have to either be single or have a partner who’s basically willing to fit their life around your job. The same goes for having kids: you need a partner who can do everything, and then as a woman you *might* have a chance to combine career and family.

I think the model for academic life and work is based on life 100 years ago when rich young men with devoted wives were the only people who became scientists. I think there will probably always be enough people mad enough to deal with the awful conditions so things won’t change: I just wish that it was easier to see, as an undergraduate, what the implications are of choosing a career in academia. I wouldn’t say I regret my PhD exactly, but it was a bit of a waste of time from the career point of view once I realised it was impossible to have a n academic career, kids and something of a family life.

By: janet

janet — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 18:07:05 +0000

Contraceptive failure rates also depend on whether you use them consistently and correctly. Thus, for every method, you’ll usually see quoted a success rate for “perfect use” and another for “typical use,” and they are often quite different. For example, for the Pill, the failure rate is about .1% per year for perfect use, but about 8% per year for typical use — which could include forgetting to take pills, or not understanding that you need to take them every day.

For all the statistics on contraception, pregnancy, abortion, and other aspects of reproductive and sexual health you could ever want, see:

http://www.agi-usa.org/

By: Eaten the First Time

Eaten the First Time — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 07:02:56 +0000

[...] The discussion at Cosmic Variance about the mismatch between fertility and the (sciencey!) tenure track has been exploding Firefox on me. If you don’t want to risk it, the best comment was from Kieran Healey: Who knew that women in science reproduce by parthenogenesis? – there are satisfyingly many people on the thread who seem to agree with me that this oughtn’t be the women’s issue that it is. With that, you can skip directly to a partial solution, a bill to start throwing money at real support for student parents: We focus on birth control and delaying pregnancy. But the thing is, it isn’t having a child that screws girls over: it’s the stigma against having kids, the total lack of social support, the “you made your bed, now lie in it” attitude that we have as a society. [...]