Success comes at a price

There seem to be a lot of articles in the media these days about keeping women in science (especially academic fields). I’ve found these articles to be nice summarizes of the gains we’ve made as well as the issues that remain to be tackled.

Today a friend brought my attention to this article in the NY Times. The author raises a lot of good points. Things are certainly much better than they were, but as she points out, some gains have produced new drawbacks. For example, when I read about the assumption that women win important prizes or positions because of their gender rather than their intellect or achievements, I could think of female colleagues who faced disrespect and insinuations of “you only got the job because you are a women”. After years of struggle to establish oneself in a competitive field, that type of experience is disheartening. Furthermore, I think that increasing competition for scare jobs in the current academic market worsens this new and subtler type of discrimination against women. People have always needed scapegoats when they struggle to find work.

One issue I thought the article missed, also has to do with the current academic market and the negating effect it may have on recent gains regarding the tenure-track and family formation. I think it is wonderful that many universities now pause the tenure clock when a child arrives, provide paternity leave and, in some cases, offer day care on campus. However these benefits are not generally extended to post-docs or contract staff; and it is in these positions that most women of childbearing age now find themselves. By the time they get to the tenure-track their fertility is running out. I think this is the next big challenge, and not just in terms of keeping women in science. I think the next big challenge for academia is addressing the swelling tide of highly trained contract workers and extending to them some of the benefits of the tenure track. This is also an idea that has attracted much attention of late - including an article in Nature.