Leaky pipeline

Here is another article in the Chronicle today about the pipeline at Penn.

The main point was that just putting women and minorities into the pipeline as starting assistant professors is not sufficient.  Without some changes in the way academia operates, we will continue to lose more than our fair share of women and minorities along the way and the impact on the full professorship and administrative roles will still remain far lower than those hired at junior levels.  Has some very interesting comments about the role of pay, time (read domestic responsibilities), emotional resources, and recognition on women and minorities.

The best line was "we need to model livable lives for our students".  This for me was the kicker when I though about going into academia.  I looked at the female faculty in the department where I did my undergraduate work (granted a major pressure cooker) and thought, I don't want their lives.  Many of them were single or divorced and childless.  I don't want to say that those things are bad for everyone, but for me they were deal breakers.  I didn't want a job that meant not being able to sustain a marriage or a family.  So modeling a life style that others might want (and actually having it too) is key to getting more women and minorities into STEM.  Making tenure and beyond a more "sustainable" process will make life better for everyone in academe.

Breadwinners

Great article today about women breadwinners (in the Chronicle) and how they still don't make as much money as men (in the same field with the same education).   You can argue that women in some fields are younger (assistant prof versus full prof), but here's the rub:

"When compared with men's pay at the same level of educational attainment, women's pay is even more unequal: Women earn only 67 cents to their male counterparts' $1. That difference remains steady at every level of education.."

 Why is this?  Some of the arguments focus on how women are likely to be in lower paying specialties (primary care physicians versus surgeons), but I think it is more than that.  It may also be too that women are more interested in qualify of life (work/family balance) than money so they opt for situations that give them more flexibility rather than more pay.  Is this a good thing or a bad thing?  I think it is bad that women are underpaid and don't have opportunities to advance!  On the other hand, I think that if women are truly choosing family time over more money, that is OK if that is what they want.

There are certainly situations where I see very successful individuals (research superstars, administrators, etc.) and I think wow that person is amazing.  Then I think, but on the other hand I don't want their lifestyle (too much travel, working 24/7, etc.)  I don't want to do bad research or not have any opportunities for leadership/advancement, but I don't want to give up evenings with my kids or be gone all the time.  Travel is something that appeals to me less and less.  Whether it is missing the family, the prep work required for the house to run smoothly while I'm gone (not to mention childcare if spouse is gone too), missed work, and the joys of flying these day I would rather not travel too much.  I obviously go to some conferences, give some seminars, and serve on review panels but I try to work on saying no.  How will this impact my earnings long term, hard to say.  I've been a co-breadwinner my whole career.  Sometimes I have made more money and sometimes my husband has made more than me.  Really for us the big issues are affording a house in a good (close) school district and being able to pay for high quality childcare.  But, would I take a job for double the money that cut my kid time in half, probably not.

Ah well, back to making the most of my last 3 week days before the semester starts...

Tentative syllabus - check
First round of edits on two papers from former students - check  (need to do second round on 1 paper)
Grant reviews - started
Book chapter - lit review in progress
Regulatory protocol - submitted
Major service work - moving along nicely
Paper reviews - To be started (need to work on saying no!!!)
Annual review - almost done
Lab freezer - former students samples - sorted/removed

Fairly productive break all in all, but my to-do list seems to be growing rather than shrinking.

Back in the office

I am back!!! I say that with joy and gladness in my voice.  I love the kiddos, but 11 uninterrupted days without house guests or travel was a long time in cold weather.  We successfully navigated the shopping/gift buying/wrapping (the UPS man now thinks I'm crazy with gifts from out of town and online shopping) and celebrating with family.  The kiddos loved their presents and Santa had cookies (albeit the kind you take out of a box and bake).  We enjoyed local venues for kid entertainment and played in the snow.   But, thankfully I now have sometime to focus on work and get something done (which did not happen over the holidays).  And, we have 2 blissful weeks until classes start on the 19th.

December was a month of extraordinary craziness (even for me) the perfect storm of travel, end of the semester holidays and unexpected service commitments.  I agreed to serve in a leadership role for an important committee and the amount of time spent behind the scenes to get all the ducks lined up was amazingly more than anticipated.  Things are moving in a very positive direction, so I am hopeful that it all paid off, but it was much harder than I anticipated when I said yes.  The lesson I have learned is that you have to get everyone informed on the same page before the meeting so that they can all feel good about the decision being made and get a chance to things through/process the situation before hand.  Not sure how I feel about leadership/administrative roles after all this but I have definitely learned a lot about herding cats.

My goals for the new year are:
1) to have a more organized office
2) work on saying no more often
3) work out at least 2 times per week
4) focus on the big picture and what really matters

And for the next two weeks (before classes start), I need to edit two papers from students who graduated already, write a book chapter that is due in mid-Jan, and review some grants.  Oh and come up with a syllabus for my class (last taught a few years ago).

What are your New Years Goals?

Hanging by a thread

It's that time in the semester, nearing the end of classes, week after an enjoyable but not so productive holiday week, when grant deadlines abound, teaching responsibilities pile up, spouses are out of town and conference travel looms on the near horizon.  When I say, what the h(*& was I thinking when I agreed to do X for Prof. Y and my email inbox overflows.  Oh, and I agreed to host a seminar speaker this week!

Breath in, breath out.

Grant #1 finished.   Sponsor info for trainee's fellowship application done.  Major service responsibilities (largely done for the week).  Class for the week, done.  Spouse, home.  Seminar speaker, safely home.

I'm so looking forward to this conference next week from a scientific standpoint, although I'm feeling horribly guilty about being gone (my younger kiddo said Daddy (or Doggy??? hard to tell the difference) all the time while spouse was gone for a shorter trip.  Also, there is the whole Christmas thing and I need to start getting organized (e.g. shopping or at least online ordering).

When I leave for my conference next week, it will all be better right?    4 days of amazing science and beautiful scenery...  Now back to the list of things to do before I leave....

Thankful

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and as a reminder in this crazy busy world, I want to say a few things I'm thankful for....

• I'm thankful that both my husband and I have tenure at our private research university.  It was a long haul, but we made it through.  
• I'm thankful for a very supportive spouse who shares much of the parenting load with me.
• I'm thankful for our kiddos who are very cute and remind me that there is more to life than work.
• I'm thankful for a wonderful school for said kiddos where I am confident they are happy and well stimulated socially and intellectually, allowing me to focus on work.
• I'm thankful for a wonderful lab tech/manager who is supportive and trustworthy.
• I'm thankful for my graduate students who are building a wonderful lab spirit in the new iteration of our lab (after the big wave of graduating students) and who are hard working scientists/engineers.
• I'm thankful for my former grad students who are off doing their own wonderful things now and staying in touch to share the adventures.
• I'm grateful to have receive some acknowledgement of my service work recently that has let me know that all of those committees I've been on through the years are actually worth something (both in terms of what they do around the university and in terms of my career).  
• I'm grateful for a wonderful mentor who is so generous with her time and her reflection on challenges that lie ahead.  Her guidance and encouragement to take on new roles has been so key.  

Now back to that grant for next week's deadline!  What are you thankful for?

The leaky pipeline

I've seen a couple of interesting articles about the leaky pipeline lately and how despite the great increases in the number of PhDs, women are choosing not to pursue careers in academia at a higher rate then men in science and engineering.  So we will never get to parity (even with PhD rates for a given field) unless we address the reasons why women are not choosing academia.

Here is one on why so few parents in graduate school?
Another on how to improve this situation.

The second article comments on how by supplementing grant funds to cover the cost of paid maternity leave we can avoid penalizing women (unpaid maternity leave) or PIs (paid maternity leave -they are left without anyone to do the research during this period).  Allowing a supplement for grant for family leave would be a great benefit for both students/post-docs and PIs.  It would also help to fight the stigma that women might be more likely to take leave and therefore a PI might hire a male candidate or a female candidate.  There are still the details of how to hire someone to work on a project for a few months.  Another great solution to this proposed by FSP is extending the duration of grants to allow for the student/postdoc to do the work after their leave (oh and still giving a supplement to allow them to be paid during this time would be great too).

How to be family friendly without compromising grants?  It's a hard question.  I've only had experience with lab tech's in this area and there is at least a little more guidance on FMLA from our university (not necessarily in a good way).  Fortunately we could stretch to find other people in the lab to cover a short leave and get help from the department with some other items (e.g. ordering, etc.).

It's a hard problem.

PS.  Sorry for the radio silence here.  I have taken on some new responsibilities here which are important to the future of my department.  Don't really want to discuss them too much, but they have been occupying much of my mental energy.

Mentors and advocates

Recently I had lunch with the women faculty in engineering at my university.  Sadly it was a small number of women and currently we have a small number who are on campus (not on sabbatical, etc.).  We were discussing the way that women can easily take on too many service roles.  Key points that emerged were that it is really beneficial to have a senior advocate (male or female) to discuss appropriate service roles with and who can advise you on what committees are not too much work or worth the time investment.  Always respond to a request for service by asking for some time to think about it.  Then discuss the role with your advocate or mentor and determine if it is right for you.  Think about what would make you say yes (relief from another committee or duty, teaching relief, administrative support etc.) and request that as a condition for service.  Other good lines were, is this appropriate for an assistant professor (someone trying to get tenure) or how will this improve my tenure case?  Sometime women have a hard time saying no in the face of pressure from a chair or other powerful figure.  Asking for time to thing can by you time to make a rational decision (not based solely guilt) and help you find a nice way to say no.  I hope it was helpful for the others there.  That said, I did say yes to two major service commitments last week, so maybe I need to consider this advice myself!

Any good tips out there for saying no or balancing service requests?