I don’t know if you read ScienceWoman’s posts at the blog “On being a scientist and a woman”, but if you don’t, go over there from time to time. The same thing can be said for the blog “Female Science Professor”. They are both very internal sorts of blogs. You won’t find overly-opinionated rants and pontifications about various things nearly as often as you’ll read thoughtful anecdotes and internal debates about what it is like to be a scientist (who also happens to be a woman) in a science department somewhere in America*. They are both anonymous, which allows them to speak more freely, and probably makes them more interesting blogs – especially when they talk about the difficulties of being both a scientist and a woman in their job.
Here’s a simple but poignant post from Science Woman that should motivate you: It is entitled “I will not be a foregone conclusion.” I thought it was great, and so that’s why I thought I’d point you to it.
-cvj
(*This is a good thing, from my point of view… ranty and/or overly-opinionated blogs have their place, but I find that they can tire me out… and very easily these days. So I tend to look at other types of blog in my downtime.)
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Sciencewoman is great. I particularly like the way just describes doing the things that others just rant about. The “I took my baby to the field; here’s how it worked out” post and a similar one on seminar were brilliant.
HI,
I think maybe you’ve misunderstood me. I’m not sure. So let me emphasize that I am saying that I don’t find their approach to discussing those issues ranty. Further, I don’t have issues with people venting their frustrations on such issues in various ways. And it is useful to do so in my opinion, since it can help strengthen the resolve of others in the same situation if they learn about someone else in the same struggle, and often ideas about methods, approaches and solutions are exchanged. A rant from time to time is a good thing. A rant from time to time does not make your blog ranty. So those blogs are not, and that is why I like them and am recommending them.
The 24/7 rant blogs and especially the ones with too many posts of the sort “I think group X is stupid, and here’s another reason why” … those are the ones I don’t bother with. These blogs are not of that sort.
Cheers,
-cvj
I dunno. Speaking as a woman and (former) researcher, there ARE times when all you can do is rant against the sheer stupidity that happens. Specifically against idiocy like the bits she describes in her posting. NOBODY ever assumes a male scientist will be taking more time off after the birth of a baby or curtailing his research, but for some reason, they just figure women will do it. And then when women do because they don’t have much choice, somehow we then get blamed for “taking the motherhood choice.” As if it’s a choice we can always control. And, if we exercise the job choice, we get whacked for not being more family oriented. And if we ARE more family-oriented, it’s assumed that we don’t care about our jobs and the very intellectual work we do. It’s no-win.
I’m not a mom, so I can’t speak to that problem. But, the other subtle and not-so-subtle crap that women face in the lab? Oh yeah. It’s there. Don’t get me started on the male mentors who would (sometimes literally) screw their female grad students for no other reason than they thought they could get away with it.
Ranty? No. Realistic.
(And why is it that I often see women’s concerns about how they’re treated in the workplace termed “rants”? Would the same term be leveled at a male who expressed concern about his treatment in the workplace?)
But, I do agree with you that reading “ranty” blogs about this kind of behavior can get tiring. Maybe the way to keep from getting tired is to make sure the behavior doesn’t happen in the first place. Then we could all get on to ranting about other things.
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