Engineering Science - Women in Science in the News Comments

Comment on 'Women in Science in the News' by Evan

2008-06-20T21:26:21Z

I don't think it's simply that you "can't catch up". The real problem is that when you apply for grants, you will appear extremely non-productive over that period of time if you have no publications. Do NIH or NSF have a policy regarding this? Even if they do, if your proposal is up against others who have been working during that time, how can you penalize those folks? It's just a big mess, and I honestly don't think there's anything that can be done about it - aside from creating special grants only for funding women who have taken time off for pregnancy/child rearing. That's probably a political nuke.

Comment on 'Women in Science in the News' by evan

2008-06-20T21:22:57Z

Geoff, just wanted to point out you switched the percentages given by the second study:

"Controlling for such factors as age, weekly hours worked, and race or ethnicity, male faculty members are 21 percent less likely than male physicians to have recently had a birth in their households. Controlling the same factors for women, those who are academics are 41 percent less likely than physicians to have recently had children."

Comment on 'Women in Science in the News' by Geoff Davis

2008-06-04T04:00:54Z

Yes, that's a good point. I'm sure the knowledge half-life argument is a factor for people with PhDs, especially in academia. However, I'd be surprised if it was a big issue people at the bachelors / master's levels, and my take on the Athena report was that it was looking at S&E very broadly, i.e. people with at least a bachelor's degree.

I agree that it shouldn't be too hard to get back up to speed - after all, if it were true that (a) everyone's knowledge expires quickly, and (b) it takes forever to learn new knowledge, then people wouldn't have time to do much of anything because they'd have to sit around reading journals all day.

Comment on 'Women in Science in the News' by Sarah Stockwell

2008-06-03T20:17:08Z

I doubt that law firms and banks are creating more family-friendly environments than academia, but I do suspect that it's easier to take a few years off in those professions. There's a perception that since science moves fast, a person who takes a few years out to raise a child will find their knowledge out of date when they try to return. I would argue that that's nonsense -- even in the super-speedy fields like molecular biology, you'd just need to curl up with PubMed for a while to catch up -- but that's the perception, and it's part of the reason I don't know anyone who's successfully re-entered science after a hiatus. There's also the problem that if you take a few years off you're not considered sufficiently dedicated to the profession, but that may be just as bad in law/finance as it is in academia.