Please, I'm not sure how it has come down to this but for the record: I absolutely *do* support work/life balance initiatives and models that are family (and couple and single-person)-positive, both inside and outside of academia.
On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 11:49 AM, Jacquelyn Gill <jlg...@wisc.edu> wrote: > Hi Karen, > > The problem with this framework is that you risk guilting parents (usually > women) for choices they > are forced to make, or even those they may genuinely want to make, > especially if the parents' level of > engagement doesn't match what others expect. Like I said earlier, for some > people, a mother's > choosing to work at all is irresponsible. Framing arguments in this way is > ultimately damaging and > shifts the burden away from institutions who need to step up and support > parents, and instead shifts > that burden to parents for whom choice may be relative and is definitely > highly value-laden. I don't > see the value in reminding people who are probably already very aware that > that can't spend enough > time with their kids that, in addition for working hard to provide their > family at the expense of having > a fulfilling life, they're also not really raising their kids. Those > choices were probably hard to make. I > also still fail to see how that is relevant to a discussion of women in > academia-- the overwhelming > evidence is that women are leaving academia because there aren't > institutions in place to support > them, not that women are abandoning their families. > > Best wishes, > > Jacquelyn > > -- G. Karen Golinski, PhD
