Women in the workplace

[rebeccmeister]

Yesterday my friends and I talked about our futures, and it was simultaneously comforting and discomfiting to hear their thoughts on what follows after graduate school. I realized that when I started grad school, it was with a real leap of faith that during school I would discern what I wanted to do after graduating. Well, here I am, needing to think ahead to graduating, and I still don't know. My fellow female academics have a broad range of aspirations after grad school, but I worry that we are too turned off by the Research I lifestyle and will contribute to the persistent gender gap in the sciences. Is it possible, I wonder, to be a Research I professor and NOT be a workaholic or have the full support of a stay-at-home spouse? (research suggests that the most successful male faculty are those with stay-at-home spouses) Is it possible to do good, useful science in a non-competitive fashion? (this question is triggered by D's comment that she isn't interested in doing experiments just because they'll make a splash)

My thoughts kept going back to something figment80 described learning when she did her research for her master's degree: most workplaces are structured (physically and psychologically) around the needs of the male body. F80 studied breastfeeding in the workplace, which often requires a lot of negotiation and rethinking on the part of businesses. Mull over that idea for a while. Also mull over the fact that according to a report I heard on NPR yesterday the US is one of the few developed countries without decent maternity leave. And while you're at it, think about workplace goals and competitiveness and aspirations and how women have been shown to operate in such environments.

I am inspired by many of the women academics who are a generation ahead of me. I am not always convinced that I'm cut out to follow in their footsteps, but then again a part of me wonders if I have an obligation to do so out of a stubborn desire to see women and minorities succeed in academia. (and this doesn't even begin to get into the question of what is meant by equality in the first place) I suppose that if I continue to recognize and promote my values through my work, I will be happy with what I do.

Comments

[earthlingmike.livejournal.com]

These days there are more women in college than men.

and regarding balance-

[trifold-flame.livejournal.com]

One has to imagine the over-worked and under-appreciated stay at home spouses of many top research scientists would agree with the point

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

As undergraduates, yes. But the proportions change as one looks further up the academic ladder.

[trifold-flame.livejournal.com]

The lack of maternity/paternity leave in the US is pretty disgusting, from the perspective of both parents and children. I imagine it really serves to discourage breastfeeding for a lot of women (I got kinda a lot to say about breastfeeding), because it has to be pretty crappy to have to use a breast pump. The thought of it is fairly unappealing, at least.

I've thought about that question, regarding research vs. teaching in academia. If I become a professor at some liberal arts school, am I giving up? Should I push onward and focus on having some brilliant research career? And then I realize that I may be some kind of super-crazy if I'm going to define being a college professor as *failing* ;-)

Definitely agree, though, that one of the reasons we don't have as many women being tops in the research field is because of the way it is structured- which is in many ways fundamentally and biologically stacked against women. It may be too much to hope for that the structure of the field change, but I dunno. There are a lot of areas in our society in which we need to find more balance.