astra_nomer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
astra_nomer) wrote2004-06-25 07:26 pm
astra_nomer) wrote2004-06-25 07:26 pm
Walmart women
This was orignally going to be blog about the challenges facing this particular working mother in academia, so maybe I should get around to musing on that topic now.
I was listening to NPR in the car this morning, and it happened to be Talk of the Nation discussing this lawsuit that women working at Walmart are bringing against Walmart for allegedly discriminatory practices. Then at work, I found that my copy of STATUS, which is a newsletter about women in astronomy, had arrived in my mailbox. All of which got me thinking. If the culture of the workplace, whether it's a superstore chain or a university, is inherently hostile to women with families, is it discrimination? How can you change the culture of a particular profession?
STATUS does a lot of hand-wringing over women leaving astronomy at all levels. But what if you're faced with the choice of pursuing a career without any job security and severe penalties for part-time work (think publish-or-perish) versus holding a job with some notion of career advancement or even staying home with your kids since your salary is unlikely to offset childcare costs anyway? I will admit that STATUS does do a good job of bringing such dilemmas to light and advocating changing the culture of academia to make it more friendly to women scientists.
Someone on NPR, in dicussing lower wages for women in general, made a comparison between the salary of a social worker versus that of a mathematician. Hah. Funny, I never really thought of science being a particularly lucrative profession. On the other hand, most social workers are woefully underpaid, but that's another rant.
I used to say, only half-jokingly, that if I didn't land a job, I'd become a stay-at-home-mom. But when it came down to it, I only got one job offer. Granted, it's a fairly prestigious one, but still, how close did I come to becoming a SAHM? I have never faced any overt discrimination, even as a grad student with kids, but just thinking about the pressures I will have to face, being a mom vs. being a scientist, makes me wonder if I can succeed at doing both, or will I be a second-rate mom and a second-rate scientist?
To be honest, I don't think I'd make a very good SAHM. I don't think I have the temperament to take care of my kids 24/7. It's kind of nice going to work and interacting with adults, then coming home and being fully present for my kids. And I simply cannot picture myself doing anything other than science. Everytime I think about what profession I could go into if this academia thing doesn't work out, I draw a blank. I just hope I have what it takes to cut it.
I doesn't help that I'm suffering from a bad case of Imposter Syndrome. I keep being afraid that I'll show up to work and then they'll discover that I don't really know what I'm doing after all, and they made a mistake in hiring me.
I was listening to NPR in the car this morning, and it happened to be Talk of the Nation discussing this lawsuit that women working at Walmart are bringing against Walmart for allegedly discriminatory practices. Then at work, I found that my copy of STATUS, which is a newsletter about women in astronomy, had arrived in my mailbox. All of which got me thinking. If the culture of the workplace, whether it's a superstore chain or a university, is inherently hostile to women with families, is it discrimination? How can you change the culture of a particular profession?
STATUS does a lot of hand-wringing over women leaving astronomy at all levels. But what if you're faced with the choice of pursuing a career without any job security and severe penalties for part-time work (think publish-or-perish) versus holding a job with some notion of career advancement or even staying home with your kids since your salary is unlikely to offset childcare costs anyway? I will admit that STATUS does do a good job of bringing such dilemmas to light and advocating changing the culture of academia to make it more friendly to women scientists.
Someone on NPR, in dicussing lower wages for women in general, made a comparison between the salary of a social worker versus that of a mathematician. Hah. Funny, I never really thought of science being a particularly lucrative profession. On the other hand, most social workers are woefully underpaid, but that's another rant.
I used to say, only half-jokingly, that if I didn't land a job, I'd become a stay-at-home-mom. But when it came down to it, I only got one job offer. Granted, it's a fairly prestigious one, but still, how close did I come to becoming a SAHM? I have never faced any overt discrimination, even as a grad student with kids, but just thinking about the pressures I will have to face, being a mom vs. being a scientist, makes me wonder if I can succeed at doing both, or will I be a second-rate mom and a second-rate scientist?
To be honest, I don't think I'd make a very good SAHM. I don't think I have the temperament to take care of my kids 24/7. It's kind of nice going to work and interacting with adults, then coming home and being fully present for my kids. And I simply cannot picture myself doing anything other than science. Everytime I think about what profession I could go into if this academia thing doesn't work out, I draw a blank. I just hope I have what it takes to cut it.
I doesn't help that I'm suffering from a bad case of Imposter Syndrome. I keep being afraid that I'll show up to work and then they'll discover that I don't really know what I'm doing after all, and they made a mistake in hiring me.
no subject
I keep being afraid that I'll show up to work and then they'll discover that I don't really know what I'm doing after all, and they made a mistake in hiring me.
You're not. You won't. And they didn't.