1. I'm linking a *New York Times* Opinion piece addressing, from several women's points of view, a number of topics being discussed in this thread:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/30/motherhood-vs-feminism/lets-not-pass-judgment-on-parenting-styles 2. After careful reading and consideration of your posts, I've formed the opinion that, in the USA, it is most likely that each academic department or university will respond individually to the concerns many of you have (see Duke for one example in A&S). It seems unlikely to me that, in the USA, the issues will be addressed structurally as they have been in most W European countries. In the final analysis, there may be no strategy that serves all requirements. Anyway...TBC... clara b. jones Blog: http://vertebratesocialbehavior.blogspot.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/cbjones1943 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jacquelyn Gill <jlg...@wisc.edu> Date: Tue, May 1, 2012 at 12:49 PM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Families in Science - Balancing your personal and professional life To: ECOLOG-L@listserv.umd.edu 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 -- clara b. jones
