Our Lives as Women in Physical Sciences
The UCI ADVANCE program has sponsored two forums for graduate
students and postdoctoral researchers in the School of Physical
Sciences entitled "Our
Lives as Women in Physical Sciences". During the forum, four panel
members, who are women faculty in the School of Physical Sciences, gave
a short introductions of themselves and their career paths
then moderated an open discussion with the audience. The first forum
was held on March 4, 2005, and the panel members
were Professors Barbara Finlayson-Pitts (Chemistry), Ellen
Druffel (Earth Systems Science), Chuu-Lian Terng
(Mathematics) and Tammy Smecker-Hane (Physics &
Astronomy). The second forum was held on April
16, 2008, and the panel members were Professors Barbara Finlayson-Pitts
(Chemistry), Kathleen Johnson (Earth Systems Science), Natalia Komarova
(Mathematics) and Tammy Smecker-Hane (Physics & Astronomy).
Twenty-two people attend the first forum, and fourty-three
people attended the second forum.
Excellent questions were raised by the graduate students and
postdocs who attended the forums. After the first event, Dean Ron Stern
encouraged the
panel members to write down the questions and their answers to post on
the web, in order
to create a lasting record for the benefit
of future graduate students and postdoctoral scholars both at UCI and
in the wider community. Below are some of the most
interesting questions and answers from both forums.
Questions
& Answers:
How hard is it to have children and a career, and when do you
suggest having children given that getting tenure often conflicts with
your biological clock?
Again, the answer depends greatly on your personal situation -- the
resources at your disposal for child care, your financial situation and
the priorities you and your partner place on work and family.
You have to be realistic. Having a baby during graduate school or postdoctoral research will decrease your productivity, in some cases only for a few weeks, and in some cases for a few years, depending on your particular situation. Remember that we are often far from our families and friends when we move off to graduate school, postdoctoral positions and research jobs, and so child caring and rearing often falls squarely on you and your partner's shoulders alone.
Universities are beginning to realize that they need to provide childcare options for their students. Here at UCI we have the Infant & Toddler Center, which gives the children of students priority in admission. Fees are heavily subsidized in order to make it affordable for students. Thus if childcare is available and affordable for you, it may be possible for you to have children while you are in graduate school. This overcomes the potential problem of your biological clock expiring, but you have to deal with the issue of slowing your progress early in your career.
As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Feb 12, 2002) in an article entitled "Women Who Have Children Early in Careers Hurt Their Changes to Achieve Tenure, Report Finds" by Thomas Bartlett (a copy of this article appears in the Readings section of the UCI ADVANCE web page), women faculty in the sciences who have their first child before completing their 5th year of post-graduate work are 24% less likely to achieve tenure than men who did the same. Women who waited to become mothers until later in their careers, or did not have children at all, were more likely to get tenure. Interestingly, the same figure for women in humanities is only slightly less, 20%, and this discrepancy is found at research universities as well as smaller, liberal arts colleges.
Those are the statistics. But your personal situation might make it easier for you and embolden you to have children at an early stage in your career. Just remember that your graduate career and postdoctoral career are the stages when you are expected to devote the majority of your life to research. It is when you learn the most and must assemble your tool-kit of experience that will land you a competitive faculty or research position. In the end, you'll always be competing with others who have made the sacrifice in not having children. That is why many women wait until after just before or after getting tenure to have their first child.
Again, however, you need to be realistic because of your biological clock. Female fertility declines dramatically after 35 years of age, which is about the time most women faculty achieve tenure. Older women can't assume that their bodies will be ready and willing when they decide the time is right. Because of decreased fertility, women in their 30s and 40s often find they need a year or more of attempts before successfully becoming pregnant. It may be difficult, but all of the women faculty that we know who are mothers will tell you it is was well worth it.
Of course, due to the miracles of modern fertility science, more
women are becoming mothers at older ages. But it is important to
remember that fertility treatments are not physically easy, success is
not guaranteed, and the treatments are
expensive because they typically are not covered by health insurance.
Thus there is no easy answer to this question! Everyone must weigh the
pros and cons for themselves and determine what works best for them.
Should you accept a postdoctoral position with someone who
thinks women should stay home and raise the kids?
This depends entirely on whether you will be respected and well
mentored by your supervisor even if you are a woman and whether or not
your priorities for research and family are acceptable to him or her.
If this supervisor has offered you a postdoctoral job then, obviously,
he or she respects your research skills. Next consider whether or not
your plans for research and family over the next few years mesh well
with the supervisor's expectations.
Remember that your ability to get the next job after this postdoctoral stint will depend greatly on the research accomplishments you have made during this time, and your supervisor plays a major role in that by providing the scientific support and mentoring. In addition, the letters of recommendation that your supervisor will write for many of your subsequent job applications and/or award nominations will be very influential for much of your career. Thus it is important that you and he/she be able to work well together in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Our advice is to do a little research on your potential supervisor. Contact former students and postdoctoral researchers and ask them if he/she is supportive of their students (men and women). Don't let rumor guide your decision, get the facts.
What are the pros and cons of
taking a postdoctoral position in Europe if you want to eventually come
back to the USA?
The most important consideration when choosing where to go for a
postdoctoral position is to choose the place that will most effectively
broaden your set of research skills. Many fields of science these days
involve high levels of international cooperation, thus moving to Europe
for a postdoctoral position is very good for developing an
international network of collaborators. Some good advice would be to
make sure that the university or lab that you are moving to in Europe
is well known in the USA community. Although what your postdoctoral
advisor says about you in your future letter of recommendation is the
most important, it is a big help if that person is also well know and
well respected at the places where you will apply for jobs in the
future. If your goal is to eventually return to the US, then be
sure to come to conferences back in the USA periodically so that you
can
maintain your contacts in the USA. If you are in Europe when you apply
for a subsequent job in the USA, it will cost more for a university/lab
to bring you over to interview for a job. Most places realize that
hiring people is one of their most important activities, and they are
well equipped to finance it, but places like small colleges might have
a limited amount of money available for search activities. However you
can mitigate this problem by planning to come to a conference in the
USA
during the traditional job interviewing season in the USA, and you can
tell potential employers in your application letter that you plan to be
in the USA on certain dates and would be open to including a trip to
interview for their job.
Do universities expect you to
negotiate when they offer you a job?
Yes, absolutely! You should negotiate over the level of salary as well
as the contents of your "start-up" package, which should include things
like the cost of purchasing office furniture, computers and any lab
equipment that you need to do your research, plus travel funds
and salaries for graduate students'/post doctoral researchers' for a
few
years until you can successfully obtain your own research grants.
You should also negotiate for an amount of office and lab space that
fits your needs. Make sure the university will provide you with
everything you need to be successful. They are making a big investment
in you, and they want you to succeed.
Universities expect you to negotiate with them. Do not be shy
about negotiating, but do bargain in good faith.
Statistically men are much more apt to negotiate for a better outcome
for themselves than women. If you are interested in this subject, we
highly recommend a book by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever entitled
"Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide", which contains
some very interesting experiments that show women were much less apt
to ask for things or negotiate for a better outcome for themselves,
compared to men. However women worked harder and got better results
when they were working for the benefit of others, compared to men.
It is very important to land a competitive starting salary,
because as you climb the career ladder raises are usually given
relative to your current salary. Thus if you start your career with a
lower than average salary, you will likely remain lower than average
throughout your career. Studies show that this can mean a loss of
millions of dollars of potential income integrated over the length of
your career.
Therefore, don't be shy about asking other faculty, especially your
postdoctoral advisor, to give you advice about how to negotiate for
salary and start-up. Most advisors would be glad to help you through
the
process, because they want you to succeed.
What do you do when you find the environment of the lab
you're working in to be unacceptable (sexual advances, rude comments,
etc.)?
First, how do you know if a problem you are experiencing is sexual
harassment? Check the website of the Office
of Equal Opportunity and Diversity (OEOD).The documents there give
some very helpful examples and list the policies & guidelines
regarding sexual harassment. The director, Ms. Kirsten Quanbeck and her
staff do an excellent job of addressing sexual harassment experienced
by undergraduate and graduate students, staff and faculty. You can go
to them for helpful advice and, if necessary, they will mediate to
solve the problem.
Some women are very uncomfortable addressing unacceptable behavior. But our advice, if you are comfortable with it, is to tackle it head on by talking with the person or persons. In a non-threatening way, explain why this behavior is inappropriate and why it offends you and ask the person to stop. Sometimes people simply do not realize how offensive what they do or say is. They may think they're being funny and not realize that they are, in fact, offending you. They may not realize how negatively their behavior effects the workplace. In the long run, you'll feel better about yourself if you do. If you do nothing, it will only make you feel powerless.
If the person continues the unacceptable behavior after you speak to them about it, or if you feel uncomfortable tackling this head on, then you should discuss it with your laboratory supervisor. This could be a postdoctoral researcher running the lab or a faculty member. Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself and discuss a sensitive topic with your supervisor. It is their responsibility to see that their lab is run in a way that promotes a harassment-free workplace for both men and women. After all, the best research will be done if both men and women can work to their highest potential.
If you are intimidated about discussing this with your supervisor then you should contact the OEOD office and ask for their help. The ADVANCE Equity Advisers in Physical Sciences (Tammy Smecker-Hane, tsmecker@uci.edu and A.J. Shaka, ajshaka@uci.edu) also will be glad to help in any way she/he can, but the staff at the office of OEOD has much more experience in dealing with sexual harassment issues.
Last edited on May 12, 2008
by Tammy Smecker-Hane (tsmecker@uci.edu)