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All that, and no lawyer jokes?
May. 3rd, 2007 11:01 pmWow, I didn't realize that my last post would generate so many comments! Granted, it's mostly ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dcltdw to blame, but thank you all for keeping it civil and generating such an interesting dicussion. *scritches* to dcltdw for being a silly rabbit.
While I can't really respond to every comment, I did want to respond to a couple of ideas that came up:
1) I'm not advocating affirmative action. I'm not really sure that that's the right response. For example, I am very reluctant to apply for any faculty jobs that are specifically allocated for a woman, because I want to be hired on my scientific merits, not simply because I'm a woman. On the other hand, I would be perfectly willing to apply for a grant that would allow me to return to research after a leave of absence for family reasons, if that circumstance actually applied to me. There's a difference there that I can't really articulate, but has to do with allowing for flexibility in your career trajectory or working hours, rather than promotions based on criteria other than merit.
2) The story goes that the academic tenure-track career path is based on the lives of sixteenth century monks who studied "natural philosophy," as it was called way back then. So our notions of ivory towers are based on that - pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, and to the exclusion of all else. In the intervening centuries, life has changed. Science is no longer the exclusive domain of old white men (even though it still seems that way sometimes!) and yet the career trajectory has not changed much. If at any point you deviate from the grad school-postdoc-assistant professor-tenured professor path, it's extremely difficult to get back on. So, if you take some time off from research to, say, have a child, when you're ready to come back, you'll find that the doors have slammed shut to you. This is what I mean by flexibility - allowing for varied career paths, for people to have lives outside their careers. Several people alluded to the fact that longer hours do not necessarily mean greater productivity. The business world is finally beginning to realize that, and I hope that the academic world does, too.
Off my soapbox now, and to bed.
dcltdw to blame, but thank you all for keeping it civil and generating such an interesting dicussion. *scritches* to dcltdw for being a silly rabbit.While I can't really respond to every comment, I did want to respond to a couple of ideas that came up:
1) I'm not advocating affirmative action. I'm not really sure that that's the right response. For example, I am very reluctant to apply for any faculty jobs that are specifically allocated for a woman, because I want to be hired on my scientific merits, not simply because I'm a woman. On the other hand, I would be perfectly willing to apply for a grant that would allow me to return to research after a leave of absence for family reasons, if that circumstance actually applied to me. There's a difference there that I can't really articulate, but has to do with allowing for flexibility in your career trajectory or working hours, rather than promotions based on criteria other than merit.
2) The story goes that the academic tenure-track career path is based on the lives of sixteenth century monks who studied "natural philosophy," as it was called way back then. So our notions of ivory towers are based on that - pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, and to the exclusion of all else. In the intervening centuries, life has changed. Science is no longer the exclusive domain of old white men (even though it still seems that way sometimes!) and yet the career trajectory has not changed much. If at any point you deviate from the grad school-postdoc-assistant professor-tenured professor path, it's extremely difficult to get back on. So, if you take some time off from research to, say, have a child, when you're ready to come back, you'll find that the doors have slammed shut to you. This is what I mean by flexibility - allowing for varied career paths, for people to have lives outside their careers. Several people alluded to the fact that longer hours do not necessarily mean greater productivity. The business world is finally beginning to realize that, and I hope that the academic world does, too.
Off my soapbox now, and to bed.
