Re: How To Recruit Women to Tech and IT Classes

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

> One troublesome item related to what Herb said below about latch-key
> children and related to one of my comments is the assumption that it is the
> female physicist who should give up her time for the raising of the kids
> and
> not e.g. her lawyer significant other.  IMHO the problem of latch-key kids
> should not be viewed as a gender specific issue or problem.  I realize in
> practice it typically is, and the reasons are of course quite complicated
> and rooted in the cultural and sociological dynamics between couples and
> their larger society. (Wow what a mouthful!)
>
> Joel Rauber
> Joel_Rauber@sdstate.edu

An interesting statistic that I picked up at the meeting in Guelph:
About 90% (give or take, I don't remember the exact numbers) of women
physicists are married to other physicists. Only about 5% of male
physicists are married to other physicists. Having said that I do
know a woman physicist who is married to a lawyer (but he used to be
a physicist until he decided to go to law school and start earning
some money). In fact, she just took a job at my former institution
and her husband is looking for a job in the area. This scenario is
becoming more and more common. In fact, for those women who are
married to physicists, the obvious solution to the latch-key problem
is the so-called "two-body problem." That is, the couple sharing
joint half-time appointments. It isn't common yet, but it is becoming
moreso as physics departments who are interested in becoming more
female-friendly realize that this is a good way to do it. The rules
governing such arrangements vary from school to school, but more and
more schools are realizing that they get a good bargain because for
slightly more than one salary (benefits often can't be split) they
often get considerably more than one person's work.

there is certainly more than one way to skin this cat.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
******************************************************