There is so much talk of the leaky
pipeline,
and discussion
about how to plug up the hole to keep more women in science for longer. We drop
like flies after the PhD.
There have been some excellent ideas for tackling this problem
(see links above, for instance), but I have thoughts to add on things that
would (maybe) help me avoid leaking out to work at Starbucks, or being a
full-time mom until my kid goes to school and I’m too disconnected to re-enter
the workforce. I hope this doesn’t come across as a whiny rant; my intention is
really to detail the mechanistic problems that I am personally facing following
my dream.
The common thread that ties all of these ideas together is
that as an adult, particularly an adult with a kid (or more than one!), life
requires money. This thoughtful blog post points out some major issues why
(marine) science lacks diversity: life as a scientist apparently requires sacrifices
of both money and time. When I was younger, it wasn’t as big of a deal for
me to work for minimum wage, or even volunteer, to gain experience in science.
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| I have a lot of experience doing this, and I like it. I have less experience being a barista, or a parking lot attendant, but I'm still allowed to apply for those jobs, if I want to. |
But now life is expensive. Housing, transportation, food,
and – most painful of all – good childcare consumes all available funds we may
have, leaving my ability to pay someone to care for my child while I work for
free, much less my ability to pay out of pocket to attend conferences totally
impossible. Yet if I want to remain in science, these are the things that (I
believe, perhaps I’m incorrect?) are necessary – I have to keep publishing, and
I would sure like to remain alive and kicking in the face-to-face
conference-networking arena – but how can I possibly justify either of these
things when I’m currently working part-time as an adjunct and part-time as a
mom (and part-time as a renovations contractor on my house—but that’s a
different story)?
So, what are my ideas to help combat this?
1. Don’t place limits on time-since PhD in job
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Since graduating, I’ve taken 9 months “off” for family
obligations. During these times, I was not being paid yet continued to work as
much as I could on publications, data analysis, and writing a book, while
taking care of my family. I’ve also had, up to now, about 9 months of partial
employment during which I have continued to do research in my (not very
abundant) free time because I care about it, and because I very much want to
remain competitive for “real” science jobs. But, all up I’ve been a PhD-holder
for about 4.5 years, and can no longer apply to a host a job opportunities I’ve
seen because I’m too “advanced” in my career.
But why? If I really want to do another post-doc because it
is housed in a lab that does work I love, and it would allow me to continue
doing research during more than 1-2 hour nap-time blocks each day, and I’d be a
good fit for the position, why does it really matter when I graduated?
2. Let us apply for funds to
attend conferences, and give us the student/high school teacher rates
Plenty of conferences set aside funds to bring students,
high school science teachers or researchers from less-developed countries in
who otherwise couldn’t afford it. This is wonderful. But I am currently much
less able to pay to attend a conference than I was as a student, because:
(a) the registration fees are higher
(b) I have to do something with my kid – pay to bring him
along, or pay for extra childcare the week I’m away, or pay to fly him to his
grandparents’ for the week, etc. (The key word is pay)
(c) There is no graduate or development office from which to
beg for money to fund my conference attendance
3. Offer good, afforable childcare at conferences
When I was breastfeeding, I attended two conferences with my
son in tow. At that point it was cheaper (no cost on the domestic flights) and
physically easier (no pumping and desperately missing him) to bring him along
than to place him in full-time childcare at home. At the more-important (more
relevant to my field) conference, there was no childcare at the convention
center, and all childcare places in the town that I called were booked solid.
So we paid out of pocket and my husband took days off work he could come with
me to care for the babe for half the day and work remotely for half the day,
and I took the kid with me to half the day’s sessions. Sucky.
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| Yes, that is 6-week-old Ryder in an ergo as I present two posters and answer emails during a week-long pause in my maternity leave to attend AGU. I look somewhat less approachable than the lady on the left (Photo by Rachel Borgatti) |
4. Let us apply for money from special pots
I know, this makes it seem like I think I am special, and
shouldn’t have to compete with everyone else for money. But really, do you
think that my proposal—written exclusively during naps and at 10 pm when I am
also sleep deprived and half my days are spent doing brain-cell-destroying
activities like explaining why the kid can’t have chocolate for breakfast—going
to be as competitive as someone who gets to sit in a quiet office and spend
time actually reading journal articles (what’s that?) and thinking about science (what a concept!)? I’m doing this as
well, but I’m not holding my breath.
Several countries have recognized that we might need a
little help, and I applaud them and am very jealous:
Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain: http://www.fix-the-leaky-pipeline.ch/
The Wellcome Trust, career re-entry scheme, Europe: http://goo.gl.EQcUK9
Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship for flexible work, UK: http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/dorothy-hodgkin/
5. Give us paid
maternity leave
For a number of super obvious reasons (i.e. it’s really
unhelpful to be evicted when you baby is 2 months old because you failed to pay
the rent after taking your 6 weeks unpaid
leave). Come on now.
Well, that’s all I have time for. What do you think of these
ideas?
I can relate to this. I've been lucky that my husband and I have been able to swing professional meetings for me, as I have very limited financial support. Thankfully, I do have a lot of flexibility in managing my time.
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite in the exact position you're in, but as a 'research associate,' I'm not able to apply to a lot of funding bodies that only support tenure-track faculty or students or post-docs. I'm none of those things. In the advent of adjunct (non-tenure track) teaching appointments, a ton of professionals are also being left out to dry.
Hi Jess! Hang in there science soul sister (I say as someone with the only income supporting our household and very aware of the 14 months of funding that remain in my current position).
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this..... one random other factor that kicks around in my head... I remember being a little off-put when maternity leave was somehow considered disability pay.... confusing....what message about motherhood is this giving?.... but actually reflecting on it more I wish that science and the NSF would treat having young kids at home as a disability. What I really mean is that the NSF gathers and tracks data on certain groups of people - people with physical disabilities, people from particular ethnic groups, vetertans, etc. And for some of those groups, as a PI you kind of get credit for involving people from those groups in your research program and your broader impacts statement might have lots of details on how your research is involving students or trainees from such underrepresented groups. NSF should add questions about "do you have young children at home?" and "what is your combined household income" and "do you have any other dependents (like aging parents) that you care for?" and other questions to the demographic surveys that they send out every year and that they make anyone paid by NSF funds respond to. To parallel the video that I am about to make you watch, NSF should track those groups for whom the forces of society try AT EVERY TURN to prevent them from pursuing a career in academic science...... Gather data on ALL of those groups and give PIs credit for including those groups in their research program. Making it through the years with young kids at home in a science career requires a lot from the individual in question, but it also requires an open mind, creativity, flexibility and good management skills on the part of the PI, group, institution that you are working for. They should get credit for that! Maybe then having a student, postdoc, etc. who is a young parent or thinking of starting a family wouldn't induce as many groans..... even PIs with kids are subject to this. When your kids are older, you really do totally forget what it is like to have an infant at home. Even 4 years in I forget what it is really like on a day to no-sleep-night to day basis. That's true for all of us when we are interacting with people who have struggles of any kind that are different from our own - it is really impossible to "know" what someone else's challenges feel like - we have no idea. So that's my short lunch break rant/spilling of words into the ether :)
Hi Jess! Hang in there science soul sister (I say as someone with the only income supporting our household and very aware of the 14 months of funding that remain in my current position).
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this..... one random other factor that kicks around in my head... I remember being a little off-put when maternity leave was somehow considered disability pay.... confusing....what message about motherhood is this giving?.... but actually reflecting on it more I wish that science and the NSF would treat having young kids at home as a disability. What I really mean is that the NSF gathers and tracks data on certain groups of people - people with physical disabilities, people from particular ethnic groups, vetertans, etc. And for some of those groups, as a PI you kind of get credit for involving people from those groups in your research program and your broader impacts statement might have lots of details on how your research is involving students or trainees from such underrepresented groups. NSF should add questions about "do you have young children at home?" and "what is your combined household income" and "do you have any other dependents (like aging parents) that you care for?" and other questions to the demographic surveys that they send out every year and that they make anyone paid by NSF funds respond to. To parallel the video that I am about to make you watch, NSF should track those groups for whom the forces of society try AT EVERY TURN to prevent them from pursuing a career in academic science...... Gather data on ALL of those groups and give PIs credit for including those groups in their research program. Making it through the years with young kids at home in a science career requires a lot from the individual in question, but it also requires an open mind, creativity, flexibility and good management skills on the part of the PI, group, institution that you are working for. They should get credit for that! Maybe then having a student, postdoc, etc. who is a young parent or thinking of starting a family wouldn't induce as many groans..... even PIs with kids are subject to this. When your kids are older, you really do totally forget what it is like to have an infant at home. Even 4 years in I forget what it is really like on a day to no-sleep-night to day basis. That's true for all of us when we are interacting with people who have struggles of any kind that are different from our own - it is really impossible to "know" what someone else's challenges feel like - we have no idea. So that's my short lunch break rant/spilling of words into the ether :)
continued........
Want a feel better break? If you haven't seen it already - watch this clip from a Center for Inquiry panel. Go to the end of this video (1:001:27) and watch Neil deGrasse Tyson respond to a question about males vs. females in science....... "the fact that I wanted to be a scientist and an astrophysicist was hands-down the path of MOST resistance"......"I wanted to become something that was outside of the paradigms and expectations of the people in power" ........."and now I am, I think, one of the most visible scientists in the land, and I look behind me and say 'Where are the others, who might have been this?' and they're NOT THERE. And I wonder, what is the blood on the tracks that I happened to survive and others did not, simply because of the forces of society that prevent it AT EVERY TURN".........
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/KEeBPSvcNZQ
YES!!!! So you know we may not end up as Neil DeGrasse Tysons, but if we are going to leave our blood on the tracks than at least we can be vocal about it and push the issues forward. Then we can link arms and with great meaning sing along when we are watching Mary Poppins with the kiddos "Our daughters' daughters' will adore us, and they'll sing in grateful chorus... Well done! Well done! Well done, sister Suffragette!" And then continue to more advanced celebrations of feminism with our kids :) But still wearing pastel sashes.
http://youtu.be/Kvk1NZDFvZU
Want to make yourself feel worse? Read this recent article by Sramana Mitra, founder of a very wonderful sounding and successful non-profit, writer of a horrid, horrid article on work-life balance for women.... yikes! I have so much that I would like to say to that... maybe I'll send you a thought out response as a guest blog posting :)