Peoples!
Oh so long ago I kvetched about how all women in academia panels quickly descended into discussions about phenomena known as The Babeh. Which was like, so totally lame, because I don't want babies. So after you all so kindly told me to buck the fuck up and do something about it, so I did! I swiftly assembled a panel of super awesome women academics to answer your questions on life in academia. I received a metric shitton of awesome questions, but sadly I only conned them into answering four, which where:
1. How do you command the attention, and respect, of men in academic settings (e.g. classroom, conferences, faculty meetings)?
2. How should women dealing with a two-body problem handle assumptions that their career is secondary to their partner’s?
3. What would you like to see from tenure-track and not-yet-tenure-track menfolk? How can they pitch in?
4. How do you deal with insinuations that you were only chosen for a position/award/etc because of affirmative action?
The panelists' fabulous posts are up here:
[Gerty-Z][Prodigal Academic][Isis the Scientist][Professor in Training][GeekMommyProf]
(Some are, *cough cough* tardy, so be patient). All will be tagged AcademicWomensansBabies to make them easy to find in the future.
Read, cry, be amazed and their awesometiude and eloquence. And leave them lots of comments full of love and adoration for taking the time to do this, because they are Epicsauce.
And then leave me comments because you know how they make me on super speshul and snugly inside. Thanks so much for EVERYONE, for submitting questions and the panelists for taking the time to answer them.
Annnnnnnd I have a super awesome surprise for all of, which I will announce around X-Mas, start speculating!
RBO “GAAH! There’s no TIME!”
5 days ago
7 comments:
Thanks for organizing this Hermie! And awesome contributions.
One thing that really struck me - very consistent answers to the question about "how do you command respect from your male colleagues/peers/students?" Everyone said something along the lines of "I don't 'command' respect; I earn it via my work and professionalism."
Which made me think - if the answer is so universal, why the question about "commanding" respect in the first place? After some thought I realized that this is an issue that has been brought up by speakers in a lot of teaching/career development/work-life/ladies in science workshops I've attended. Interestingly, it's almost never brought up by attendees, but rather addressed right from the get-go by the presenter.
And the advice given is usually in terms of "don'ts": Don't undercut your own authority on the subject matter, don't allow confrontational students (or conference attendees) to draw the discussion off track, don't let asshole colleagues provoke you into an emotional response.
Which is all well and good, but you know, don'ts are kind of hard to follow. They leave us wondering, well, what should we do instead?
It's like teaching my dog not to jump on people. "Don't jump" is not a useful command as he has no clear idea of what he should be doing instead. "Sit" works much better - he's got a clear action that replaces the one that undesirable one.
I really appreciate all of the panelists addressing this query with a list of "do's" instead of "don'ts". Great job, and thanks to everyone for sharing their wisdom.
Blah, blah, blah.
Loved this.
Congrats on getting this together, Hermitage! Good stuff. You are Most Nefarious indeed.
Dude. It is almost Christmas!
Thanks Hermitage! Great initiative! Love the posts.
@AA: I agree with the answers I got in general, but I think it can be insufficient in certain situations. I know several Professorin who are intimidating as hell but have the misfortune of being adorably short, adorably faced, adorably accented, or some combination thereof. They still get a ton of shit from their students. I dunno.
@Isis: Why u mad tho? ^^
@Girlpostdoc: I'm very glad you enjoyed it
@VWXYNot?: Without Toaster Sunshine getting all up in my grill, I gotta find new and creative ways to flex that Nefarious muscle
@Juniper: Santa is late with my gift to y'all, be patiencezzz!
@Nina: I like to pretend to be not lazy every once in a while.
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