Grad School

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(Re)producing in Grad School

March 3, 2010 in Grad School by Kris | 5 comments

While attending my first professional conference post-PhD, I met a potential incoming graduate student who was curious about our opinions on having kids while earning an advanced degree.  She’s coming into the lab that had 14 children during my time there, but the immediate response from one of my colleagues, who is in the PhD phase of the program and has three kids, was, “Don’t have kids in grad school.”

The potential grad student explained that she was concerned about waiting until she finished her degree, as her grandmother had two children late in life with Down Syndrome, and she didn’t want to run the risk of a complicated pregnancy by waiting too long.  The current grad replied, “If you want a complicated pregnancy, try having a kid while in graduate school.”

I can see her side, she has three kids ages 5-1, was teaching during all three of her pregnancies, and took at most 6 weeks off (with no paid maternity leave). As Dr. Isis and Arlenna have lamented, campus childcare here is something you should sign up for about 2 years before you plan to conceive, so the chances of being able to have your infant on campus with you are slim.  On the other hand, your schedule as a grad student, even if you are teaching, is generally more flexible than a 9-5 job, and allows for tag-team parenting.

In the case of this particular student, she’s graduating in May, getting married over the summer, and moving to a new state to start grad school in the fall, where she’s planning to get a Master’s degree and then go to another institution for her PhD.  My advice to her would be to wait, maybe until she gets her Master’s, before having kids.  She’s young, there really is no rush. My husband and I were married for four years (and together for nine) before my oldest was born the summer before our last year of undergrad.  Taking the time to establish our identities, both as students and as a married couple, helped us be better parents, I think. And if the women in our lab are any indication, waiting a little while doesn’t guarantee a risky pregnancy (despite the “advanced maternal age” code on my OB chart). Five of those fourteen babies were born when their moms were over 35.

Including this one.

On Being a Scientist

November 25, 2009 in Education, Grad School by Kris | No comments

One of the courses I’m taking this semester is “Responsible Conduct of Research.”  It covers some of the ethical issues associated with being a scientist.  The course is a great overview of some of the issues scientists regularly deal with, including misconduct (what it is, and how to avoid it), collaboration, advising, authorship (how much and what kind of effort is required to achieve authorship on a publication?), research with human and animal subjects (IRB approval), mentoring (how to find and/or be a good mentor) – all the things you should know about how to be a professional scientist, but which no one ever really tells you.

This video from the AAAS provides a summary of what the course is all about.

YouTube Preview Image

I wish I’d had this introduction as an undergrad.

The Leaky Pipeline

November 23, 2009 in Education, Grad School, Science by Kris | 1 comment

The Center for American Progress has released a new white paper, in response to a report by the National Research Council which stated that women with terminal degrees were less likely to enter the tenure track, and more likely to drop out before receiving tenure, than men.
http://images2.americanprogress.org/CAP/2009/11/MaryAnnMason_womenandscience.mp4
The CAP study, Staying Competitive, Patching America’s Leaky Pipeline in the Sciences (pdf), addresses factors that contribute to this attrition of highly trained women in STEM fields.

In the life sciences, women now earn more the 50% of the PhDs. However, women are more likely to “leak” out of the system before getting tenure, primarily as a result of family obligation. Getting married and having children are the source of the biggest leak between earning a terminal degree and achieving tenure. Married female PhDs with children are 35% less likely to enter the tenure track than their male counterparts.  So being married and having children doesn’t prevent you from becoming a fully tenured professor, but add being female on top of that, and your chances drop by 35%. And married women with young children who do enter the tenure track are 27% less likely than married men with young children to achieve tenure. Why? Part of the reason women opt-out of the tenure track is the lack of family-friendly work policies, especially for junior researchers.

benefits

From the chart, between 77-87% of junior researchers (graduate students and postdocs) are NOT entitled to paid maternity leave. My graduate institution falls into that ad hoc category. None of the women in my program (14 babies!) were given paid maternity leave. And many took only 4 weeks off before returning to work at least part time.  At that’s just the beginning. Even for those faculty who have protected paid maternity leave, once they return to their jobs, they face more work. What constitutes work?

When combined with caregiving hours and house work, UC women faculty with children, ages 30 to 50, report a weekly average of over 100 hours of combined activities (in comparison to around 86 hours for men with children). This staggering amount of overall work gives a sense of how challenging it can be for women to combine children with a fast-track career in the sciences. [In addition,] the number of care hours provided by women faculty with children stays very high through age 50, averaging more than 30 hours a week of care. By age 58 women faculty with children still engage in 15 hours a week of care, and a full convergence of care hours provided by all of our faculty, regardless of gender and children, does not occur until the age of 60.

These talented and highly-trained women are being set up to fail, thanks to a system that doesn’t recognize the importance and effect of family obligations, and to the detriment of American science as a whole.

To lose talented scholars…because of our failure to provide baseline family responsive policies seems pennywise but pound foolish. If young scholars continue to leak out of the pipeline prior to seeking fast-track careers in the sciences, there is no way to make sure that they are not largely or entirely lost to our nation’s capacity to generate new scientific discoveries.

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Reference: Staying Competitive Patching America’s Leaky Pipeline in the Sciences

PSA: Powerpoint Don’ts

November 19, 2009 in Education, Grad School by Kris | No comments

I had a few professors who could have benefited from this information. Although, when I started graduate school, most of my profs were still using overhead transparencies.

YouTube Preview Image

Finding Balance

November 16, 2009 in Education, Grad School by Kris | 1 comment

196977245_746972ef6d_mHeh.  Something that has been on my mind, she says, typing one-handed while balancing sleeping babe, Boppy, and laptop. Earlier this month, Female Science Professor posted a survey on careers in science, helping out a high school student with a senior thesis project.  While I was dismayed that anthropology wasn’t included in the science categories, there were lots of comments, and FSP noted in a follow-up post:

I found it interesting that the majority of respondents are women (not surprising) with no children (perhaps also not surprising, depending on the reason for the lack of children).

So she asked readers to elaborate:

I am [female/male] and I do not have children because.. [rest of sentence].

Many who are early in their careers, like SpiderMonkey, responded that they were in grad school/doing fieldwork/postdoc, and couldn’t see adding kids to the stress/craziness, but that they wanted children eventually. Some never wanted children to begin with, and preferred to focus on their careers.

Dr. Isis, who is the mother of a young child herself, also wanted to know why people chose to have kids while pursuing a career in science. Some said that they were having children now, because they didn’t want to wait until their careers were established and discover that it was too late.

The responses and comments got me thinking about my own situation, and that of my friends and colleagues.

When I started grad school, I think I was one of two students in my lab, maybe in the entire department, that had a child.  Oldest daughter was 2.5.  When I finished my PhD last summer, pregnant with youngest daughter, many of my fellow grad students had (multiple) children.  In my lab alone, fourteen babies were born during my years as a graduate student, and that was just the biological anthropologists! Doing our bit for the evolutionary fitness of the group. My dissertation advisor cautions new students not to drink the water, just in case.

None of us would claim that finishing a terminal degree while trying to have a semi-normal life (nevermind children) was easy. My first was born the summer before my last year of undergrad. I was excused from the final exam in my early childhood education class because I was in labor. With our latest, my husband and I convinced ourselves that we could handle it (jobs, kids, school, life, new baby) because we had done the parenting thing and knew what to expect. So this summer, I defended my dissertation, had a baby, and started a new job, all within the space of three months. Because one stressful life event at a time isn’t enough, or like Dr. Isis says, parenthood “is just not compatible with anything rational or sane.”

I am now convinced that parents forget the first six weeks with a new baby. Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation, shifting hormones, whatever.  Those first six weeks with youngest daughter were rough. Maybe because we’re older, maybe because we haven’t parented a newborn together before, maybe because we live away from family, maybe because every baby is different. Add to that the stress of starting the postdoc, and it’s been a difficult adjustment for everyone.  Trying to do homework/housework/eat/blog/shower/sleep(?!)/start a career around a newborn’s (utter lack of) schedule is daunting.  And when I’m at work, I’m also pumping every few hours, missing the baby, going to class, trying to remember to eat, attending meetings, etc.  Add a 90 minute commute round trip on top of that, and some days I feel lucky to remember my own name.

A couple of things have helped during the adjustment phase:

  • Cosleeping.  Youngest daughter sleeps with us (technically on me), so I can sleep while she has a midnight snack.  I don’t think I’m getting the quality of sleep I was getting before I got pregnant, but I am getting more sleep than I would if I had to get out of bed (and fully wake up) to nurse her.
  • Other mom friends.  Fourteen babies.  Most of the grad students in my lab are in the same situation, so if one of us needs help, we can depend on each other.  We babysit each other’s kids, pick them up from school, and have playgroups together. That support is invaluable.

So for those women who want both a career in science and a family, it can be done. Cloud at Wandering Scientist is compiling a list of professional women who are making it work (Yes, Virginia, There are Scientists who are Mothers). I respectfully disagree with those who feel they can’t be a scientist and a parent.  I AM a scientist, I was a scientist before I had children, and that mindset influences how I parent them (much to the chagrin of oldest daughter’s high school teachers, I imagine. She corrected her French teacher the other day when his picture for singe –monkey– was a chimpanzee). I’m also a parent. And I should be able to be both.  I shouldn’t have to sacrifice my entire life for my career, or give up the career I love because I have kids.  Doesn’t make the balancing act any easier, but my life is full, and doubly rewarding.

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Image Credit: clarity via flickr


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