I am struggling with this. I finished my MS in Wildlife Biology when my baby was 7 months. She's going on 15 months now and I haven't been able to find any work in my field. I'm limited to a job that has no travel and is in town where my husband has his job and we have our house. This makes for very slim pickings.
Elizabeth Ray On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 12:08 PM, Andres Lopez-Sepulcre < [email protected]> wrote: > In my experience, it all depends on the country and how easy funding > agencies, research institutions and governments make it. I have experience > in several countries: Spain, USA, France and Finland. They each have their > good and bad points on that respect. Fore example, while the USA and Canada > tend to be pretty good at opening jobs for couples, which helps enormously > the two-body problem, I find that some European countries offer better > conditions to be a parent. For example, in Finland and Sweden the > government offers paid maternity and/or paternity leaves of at least 10 > months. Since this is a 'stipend' independent of the scientific fellowship > or contract, it essentially means that if they had 3-years of funding, they > now will have that + 10 months (i.e. the grant or contract 'slides' > forward). Moreover, there are good free or cheap daycare services and even > sometimes, daycare or family-housing in field stations. The conditions are > so good that I have never seen such a high rate of graduate students > pregnant or with children as in those countries... and they are > consequentially doing better than average at keeping women in science. Of > course, many countries (like Spain, my home-country) fail in all aspects. > > Andres Lopez-Sepulcre > Laboratoire d'Ecologie, UMR 7625 > Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris > [email protected] > > http://web.me.com/asepulcre > > > > > > > > > > On Apr 11, 2012, at 5:54 PM, Rachel Guy wrote: > > I've been following the debate Simone Whitecloud inspired concerning >> babies in the field. This brought to mind something I was told when I was >> pursuing my B.S. in Wildlife Ecology: >> >> "You can be a scientist, a spouse or a parent. Two of these things you >> can be simultaneously great at doing, while the third will suffer." I'm >> not sure I entirely agree with this statement, but I have seen personal >> relationships tried by professional obligations and professional >> obligations tried by personal obligations. Particularly in a field that >> often demands long absences and irregular hours, I can see how this would >> particularly be true. Though, I have also seen faculty and research >> scientists with families that seem pretty stable and happy. Is there any >> substance to this paradigm, and if so, are there realistic ways in which we >> can change them? I'd love to hear the communities' thoughts on this as it >> is something that I have often reflected on as I've progressed through my >> career. Can we have it all? What are the key differences between the ones >> that are seemingly able to do it and the one's where the challenges become >> too great? >> >> Rachel Guy >> Project Coordinator, Research Assistant >> >> >> >>
