I am suffering from a horrible bout of writers block.
I just reviewed two papers for a certain journal that starts with the letter “N” and am being forced to learn Matlab by my boss.
I am the type of electrophysiologist who likes to turn down the lights, turn up the Al Green and start my lava lamp before impaling any neurons with my sharp electrodes, so sadly, Matlab is not my calling. (And I am damn serious about the Al Green and the lights, ask my Ph.D. adviser).
Matlab is sucking the life out of me, and making me hate science right now, and this is why I think I can’t write.
Anyway, I had all these profound thoughts in the car while listening to Radiohead’s In Rainbows this week, but they all dissipated. So here goes the last thought of the week:
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I have been hearing plenty of talk about the inequality of men and women in science, and especially about the horrible treatment women who are having children go through as science faculty/postdocs.
I think all of this is true for the “older generations” (please don’t take offense to that broad-brush term, I am just lazy and don’t feel like defining-so let’s call the “non-old generation”, gen-Y and the oldies, gen-O). Man my writing sucks today.
Although women who are having babies are treated pretty badly in a systemic way by gen-O-it seems on the surface that although not much, this trend is fading in gen-Y.
This from the LA Times "Younger Americans tend to think differently about gender. Generation Y — those born after 1977 — is dramatically more accepting of nontraditional gender roles than older generations; a recent survey found, for example, that 63% “completely disagree” that women should “return to traditional roles” in society. Americans under 30 grew up in a world in which women are CEOs and secretaries of State, and in which women make up the majority of U.S. college students."
In my personal encounters in the “postdoc trenches”, I have been witnessing a trend that suggests that the problem may not always be an institutional sexism-but an institutional power hierarchy which is anti-family in general.
This power structure results in bad treatment for anyone who is having a baby. It seems that the people in power (mostly male, unfortunately) see a baby as “a liability that may cut down on the potential productivity of the scientist.”
Anyone who is having a baby, meaning men AND women.
In my generation (gen-Y), more of my peers, including myself, see having a balance between family life and the lab as very important-but also realize the intensity of the postdoc to faculty path we are on and the sacrifice needed. Thus, many more of us males are trying to be an integral-modern part of the family unit and actually suffer a more brutal and subversive form of institutionalized sexism from our male bosses.
Males, in my experience, seem to treat other males in lower positions of power (say PI treating a postdoc) with even more contempt for wanting to have children than I have seen them do to women.
This is precisely because males in power from gen-O think that there is absolutely no excuse for males of gen-Y to desire such a large stake in family life. I have seen it time and time again…
Discuss…
yay Al Green! although he kind of makes me want to :’( sometimes. especially today for some reason…
I think everyone should come to Oz, the land down under!
Out of the 6 folks in the lab I work in, 4 have kids under the age of 7, including a baby and one on the way. And the baby boom’s not just in the lab, it’s affecting the whole department, there were definitely more kids at the last Christmas party than there were adults. It’s a fairly mixed dept as well, gender-ly speaking, and getting more of the family oriented atmosphere. Sometimes I hear talk of potty training experiences by the centrifuge between the PhD and the PI. I haven’t yet witnessed any standards or expectations plummeting with personnel or students starting families, only that the party life outside the lab has a capper by 6 pm. However, the PI in the lab has small children at home himself, so I gather that makes a difference. well, not sure if my comment makes any insightful reads on second thought :S
Males, in my experience, seem to treat other males in lower positions of power (say PI treating a postdoc) with even more contempt for wanting to have children than I have seen them do to women.
I don’t know if the degrading treatment can be quantified per se (worse for men than women or vice-versa), but I do agree with the above statement. Many men, in power or not, are now fairly sensitized to the risks of appearing sexist (or homophobic). However, if they are condescending and contemptuous to other men and their lifestyle choices, and both power-wielder and subject are same-race, same-sexual-orientation, same-gender, the power-wielder probably feels free to (in essence) abuse said power.
In the last couple of labs where I have been, I’ve had a similar experience to Linda on the ground. However, where the real power is, is in research “quality” assessments and in the competitions for obtaining positions. Here, a man or woman who takes any time away from the lab at all, for any sort of reason, is seriously penalized. So my working environment is quite good but all the postdocs, men and women both, are really on tenterhooks, because nearly all have felt free (and luckily!) to start their families. But even something as simple an investment in family life as when you don’t sleep enough takes its toll on everyone, leading to a temporary decline in tangible measures of productivity. I think that men of child-(making? I was going to put -bearing but that looks odd) age can indeed be penalized in the way you discuss.
Good points from both Linda and Heather…
I think it is lab-dependent, and in some cases, the lab if forced to be cool with the situation, because if not they will have no staff. I am just talking from my own experience, but I am relieved to know that there are other labs out there who have good policies.
There is a more general point about whether the lab life is inherently anti-family. I am concerned that by encouraging that viewpoint we may discourage future scientists.
Better young scientists know what they may face or what needs to change…! But I’m not sure it’s dramatically more anti-family in science than in project management of any other ilk. For example, there have been a great number of times I have been able to accommodate (rarely) sick or accidentally injured children, doctors’ appointments, and other workday imponderables because of flexibility in my hours, which my husband has much less of. That’s a huge perk to me, one I didn’t much want to give up when I was looking longingly over the fence toward industry. Since my colleagues keep equally flexible hours, we can meet at 8AM or 7PM if need be, mostly to accommodate the imposed, more traditional day kept by our administration and suppliers. Leave at 4PM that day or come in later the next, or download and read articles at home. Personally, I really like that. Some people find it shocking to mix work and personal life, but I appreciate that my daughter has seen cell culture, my son has looked at his fingerprints through a dissecting microscope, and that my career is not a secret part of my life.