tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post3291052312406956281..comments2024-03-28T18:38:59.308-07:00Comments on The Adventures of Notorious Ph.D., Girl Scholar: Women's WorkNotorious Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08700875559325201086noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-4924318165805584302015-10-21T05:46:59.324-07:002015-10-21T05:46:59.324-07:00Yes, yes, and yes. While we have male folks chair...Yes, yes, and yes. While we have male folks chairing major committees (they do a lot of work, actually) and serving in major admin positions, the UNSEEN work of my department is done by women.<br /><br />But more surprisingly, the 'new' generation in my dept has a number of female asst profs who are so worried about protecting time for research that they say no to pretty much everything time consuming, important, and VISIBLE to the folks who will eventually be on their tenure committees, even as they continue to do a lot of the smaller unseen stuff.gwinnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04840990153103781272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-13256248841599762022015-10-17T07:06:08.199-07:002015-10-17T07:06:08.199-07:00I wonder how many service-shirkers have been appro...I wonder how many service-shirkers have been approached by more senior people and talked to about this. I have to say that in my department, service appears to be a fairly equally distributed burden across gender lines, but then we have a departmental culture in which people regularly step up.<br /><br />I guess what I'm saying is that most of us don't have training in management or motivational strategies, so I wonder how many of us, once we get to be departmental chairs or leaders of other kinds, bother even to ask people who aren't stepping up to step up and talk to them about how it will be good for them? <br /><br />Then again, I wonder how sustainable my department's culture of stepping up is, in the absence of real levers for encouraging service and discouraging shirking. It's not like (as CPP says above) we get rewarded by any time or money if we do it, or punished if we don't. The pathetic thing is that it wouldn't even take much $$$ to motivate us humanists: why not offer the Grad Studies Chair an extra $1000 in travel money? It's just a token compared to the amount of time it takes to be GSC, but it signals that the service itself is important to the department.Historiannhttp://historiann.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-23698479116078640052015-10-16T15:21:54.779-07:002015-10-16T15:21:54.779-07:00Coincidentally, I was just discussing this with on...Coincidentally, I was just discussing this with one of my female colleagues. She was making the same points you did, but added that she thinks people should demand to be paid for doing this kind of stuff. Comradde PhysioProffenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-74097865041124852832015-10-16T14:46:39.644-07:002015-10-16T14:46:39.644-07:00Thanks, H'ann & Susan. This is really what...Thanks, H'ann & Susan. This is really what's responsible for that "leaky pipeline" -- the gendered expectations of Serving Others. And it's not that some of us don't enjoy them very much -- I like being a mentor! I like pitching in and working and feeling like I'm serving others! But then you realize that only the people who *don't* do that get promoted, get raises, get honors... and that somehow this is All Your Fault (which is why I've stopped saying "say no" and started asking "how much room have you got to say no?"). And then there's the resentment: They're making a big deal about X again, but that's only because s/he routinely ducks service assignments and has never once mentored a junior colleague or organized a conference panel or...<br /><br />Some of us -- single, childless, fully employed -- have the privilege to "lean in" just like the menz. But if USE that spotlight to draw attention to the inequities built in, and to demand recognition for "women's work" -- well, that would be a nice, feminist act. (And who knows? It might even get some of the service-duckers pitching in!)Notorious Ph.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08700875559325201086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-49991840051060396132015-10-16T14:22:36.269-07:002015-10-16T14:22:36.269-07:00Susan's point about the recognition of this ki...Susan's point about the recognition of this kind of work is a really important one. THANK YOU would be nice to hear not just from the individuals one helps, but from one's colleagues & institution, to show that they recognize & appreciate this work. <br /><br />Notorious, the point you make about this becoming women's work is a totally valid one. I didn't mean to undermine it with my earlier comment. As you say above, it's not the kind of work that gets recognized or rewarded when one is looking for an appointment as a senior scholar.Historiannhttp://historiann.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-75240718981845671452015-10-16T12:57:52.208-07:002015-10-16T12:57:52.208-07:00This is something I've been thinking about a l...This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Because I'm pretty much in a giving back to the profession mode. And mostly I enjoy it. What I've found is that on campus, when it's taken for granted, I start getting resentful. So I don't want lots of garlands, but maybe an occasional thank you would help. In other words, my colleagues off campus seem to appreciate me, but those on campus appear to take it for granted. So I'm trying to figure out what boundaries I draw. But that's also because Historiann is right -- our boundaries shift with our careers.<br /><br />Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716705206734059708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-89875302642580219882015-10-15T12:03:44.144-07:002015-10-15T12:03:44.144-07:00I think you're right--we all need to draw our ...I think you're right--we all need to draw our own boundaries. Most of us draw them differently depending on the stage of our careers, and/or our outside-of-work life too. <br /><br />I see the work your colleague is doing as just being a good senior colleague. This is the kind of work that Matthew Pratt Guterl described in his post last week: http://matthewprattguterl.com/2015/10/06/what-to-love/ (and which I wrote about on my blog too.) <br /><br />It sounds like your generous colleague really enjoys her career and gets energy from giving back. Sometimes I feel that way. Other times I'm just tired. Historiannhttp://historiann.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-91228652228342689062015-10-15T09:23:50.654-07:002015-10-15T09:23:50.654-07:00One simple, practical suggestion for recurring mee...One simple, practical suggestion for recurring meetings (not so good for one-offs): rotate the person who takes notes. First meeting, A's turn, second meeting, B's, and so on down the line.<br /><br />This is not necessarily generalizable to other situations, such as editing collections or mentoring junior faculty, but taking notes and does help to raise consciousness and encourage people to think of this sort of job as everyone's work.Dame Eleanor Hullhttp://dameeleanorhull.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com