Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Coming Back to Life
Yes, it has been 7 months since my last post. They have been hectic months! I have been on two vacations and I got married (no, I will not be posting those pictures here). Yet I still have no excuse for abandoning this blog, and the ~3 regular readers I have (had?). I will only say this; I have seen a rat come back to life after about twenty minutes (I have witnesses to this) and it gave me faith in the ability of anything to be revived, including this blog.
“For starters 36% of men, compared to only 8% of women, have spouses who stay at home, giving men - as a group - an advantage in the workplace.”
And suppose my supportive husband wished to stay at home full time so I could pursue my teaching/research career on the tenure track? How exactly would my meager (at best) salary support not only both of us but our growing family? The problem is not the lack of stay at home spouses, the problem is that teaching is simply not lucrative. Yet Dr Leboy agrees that other factors are involved.
“Rearing children during the most demanding times in a scientist's career is just one of the issues women face. Many academic women don't have children. According to a UC, Berkeley-based survey of nearly 9,000 tenure track scientists across UC campuses, 48% of tenure track women did not have children. Clearly there are factors other than feelings of familial obligation that keep women from advancing in science.”
But perhaps these women would like to have children? I see this statistic as proof of how difficult it is to have children in a tenure-track position.
I have several novel ideas for those interested in ways to keep us women in the sciences.
1) Pay us more money (I don’t mean more than men, I just mean generally ‘more’). This is not an easy career path. Not only did my education cost me almost seven years of my life beyond college but at what cost? While it is true that other careers are also intensive and difficult (law, medicine), these careers are also much more lucrative. Is it any wonder so many doctoral students are choosing consulting over research when they complete their degree?
2) Stop valuing tenure. Many statistics show only the number of women who are in tenure-track positions or who have tenure, etc. What about the number of women in solely teaching roles? Or those who work in a Research professor capacity? Do they not contribute to the scientific arena? Why should we bemoan their fall from the pipeline when they are gainfully employed, performing research and obtaining grants at our Universities?
3) Reward mentors. I know that women in the sciences in academia are VERY busy. They have to teach, publish, write grants, serve on committees, and do just about whatever their department asks of them. And this on top of perhaps raising small children. Why on earth would these women mentor someone like me? For my own advisor, it makes sense for her to encourage me to be successful in a science career. Not only was I a huge investment for her, but with any luck, we will become colleagues and professional contacts. Not to mention that after working together for so long, I like to think she would like to see me succeed. But what about a professor I only marginally know? Other than meeting with me once to give some advice, what incentive is there for her (or him) to help me? What if mentoring a graduate student could be substituted for serving on a committee?
If you couldn’t tell from this post, I am reconsidering a career in academia. In fact, during the 7 month hiatus from this blog I have decided to seek a postdoc position when I finish my doctorate (and btw- I feel good about 2008.....). I am not sure if this postdoc will be in academia or in industry, but I do think that after spending all this time learning how to be a careful researcher, I may as well become one.
