About academic culture and reward/bullshit ratio

Dr. Isis’ blog was the first science blog I read when I was in grad school. I was always impressed by her upbeat way of writing about combining her life as a scientist with being a mom. She wrote it in a way that was both hilarious and sounded real. Today I asked on twitter why she hadn’t blogged in a couple weeks and that started a whole conversation about being a mom in academia. I storified the first part of that conversation here.  (It was my first time storifying something so am not sure if I included everything that was said, but it gives you a good impression). I often wonder whether someday I will regret all the time and energy devoted to science and Dr. Isis said:”TBH, I suspect we'll regret it.” Later, I asked her whether she was thinking of making major chances to her (academic) life and she answered:” I am thinking that I won't be in academia 6-9 mos from now.” She added that science is not necessarily harder than other things, but that it is not rewarded equally. Also, she added “Let's just be clear that I am in now way "failing." I am just reevaluating what makes me happy.” And later: “Again, this is not about success. It's about culture and reward/bullshit ratio”

To me, this was a shocking reality-check. Because if everyone’s favorite domestic and laboratory goddess reconsiders staying in academia then what does that mean for me? It feels a little like when I hear peers that published in better journals than me decide that science is not for them; it makes me feel that if they can’t do it, then neither can I. Do I work hard enough to ‘make it’ and more importantly: do I want to put in all this time and energy, especially now that the funding situation everywhere is so dire that we are competing for grants with a success rate of 10-15%? Or do I want to spend more of my time with BlueEyes (or in a job that asks less of my commitment)?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do appreciate everyone’s honesty in this conversation. I like hearing other people’s experiences, and I would LOVE if Dr. Isis would someday blog about the things that drove her to make the decision to stay in academia or choose something else. In the mean time, I’m thinking about my plan B, and whether this should someday upgrade to plan A.

Edit: here are two other posts about the subject from Potnia Theron and Barefoot Doctoral. 

Edit 2: here's Dr. Isis' response

Things that make me sad and angry

In my homecountry, the country that was the first to allow same-sex marriage, obviously same-sex parents also care for foster children. These children either don't have parents that can take care of them, or the authorities have decided that their parents cannot take care of them for whatever reason. It's great that there are people that step in and lovingly care for these children. However, sometimes these foster children are Muslims, and their biological parents don't agree with the fact that same-sex parents take care of their children. And now it has gotten even worse, and an entire country (Turkey) has become involved (Here is an English article about it). It basically comes down to the fact that prime minister Erdogan from Turkey has promised to visit 2 lesbian moms that have a Turkish boy as their foster child to pressure them into giving up the care of this 9 year old boy. The parents and the boy are currently hiding. Sigh.

On babywearing - infant positioning

I’m finally going to do something about the lack of babywearing posts on my blog, so if you’re not here for that, feel free to leave now. If you are here for that; today I’ll talk about how to properly position your baby in a wrap or carrier. How do I know all of this? I had 3 months of maternity leave and lots of procrastination time after that learning about babywearing online and by doing it myself.

Position of the hips and back

When a baby is just born, his spine is in a C-position as opposed to our adult spines that are shaped like the letter S. So to optimally position your baby in a wrap or carrier, you want to imitate as best as you can the natural C-shape of your baby’s spine (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Source

In order for that to happen you want to make sure that his knees are higher than his bottom, which is the way most babies are positioned in the womb too. When a baby grows up and learns to hold his head up and when they learn to crawl their spines are starting to curve more like our adult spines, however even with older babies and toddlers you want to make sure that they are in this position, because it is not only key for proper spine development, but also for the development of their hips (Lots more about his, including references can be found here). So it is important to make sure you have a carrier with a wide seat that supports baby’s legs from one knee to the other. Carriers with a narrower seat will cause your baby to have their knees lower than their bottom, which may cause hip dysplasia, and causes most of baby’s weight to be on their pubic bone instead of divided over their entire upper legs and bottom (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Source

Position of the neck and head

Especially with a really small baby, it is important to make sure that you are not blocking their airway when babywearing. Make sure you can put a finger under their chin and when you’re just starting to wear your baby be mindful of their breathing. The best way to carry a newborn is tummy-to-tummy (like in Figure 1), and not in the cradle carry that is often recommended by manufacturers of stretchy wraps. When wearing your baby tummy-to-tummy, for example in a Front Wrap Cross Carry in a stretchy or woven wrap, make sure he is high enough on your chest that you can give him a kiss on the top of his head.

Facing forward

With what I discussed before about the position of the hip and spine, it is easy to imagine why carrying a baby facing forward is not recommended. It is nearly impossible to get baby’s back in a C-shape when he is with his back against your tummy, and it is also almost impossible to get the knees higher than the bottom in this position. Another argument against having your baby face forward is that it is impossible for the baby to ignore all the stimuli around him, whereas if he is facing you, he can much easier look away in crowded situations. Many people argue that their baby wants to look around and that that is impossible without having them face forward. However a high back carry of hip carry is much more appropriate for this and allows for good positioning of your baby.

Next time I'll talk about the different carriers and wraps that are out there.

On parent-friendly science

So a lot of people, for example Erin McKiernan and TSZuska share my opinion that the recent piece in Nature kind of misses the point in trying to show that it is a piece of cake to combine a career in academia with being a mom. However, when I talk about this with friends or with my husband, their comment is often:”So who cares when women quit science because they want to stay home with their kids? What if these women don’t want academic careers, but they just want to be a stay-at-home mom?” I find it hard to formulate a good answer to this, because sure, if women want to stay home then that’s their choice. But I think that often it is not their choice to leave academia, but it is the academic culture that makes it incredibly difficult to pursue an academic career as a woman/parent/both. 

As Zuska says:

  “But every time we devote words and energy to discussing How Women Can Be Mothers And Scientists Too! we are not discussing What The Hell Is Wrong With Science And How Can It Be Fixed.“

So let’s move on to what I think can be done to fix this.

First off, it would be great if having babies and putting those babies in daycare would be easier, especially when you’re a post-doc and you don’t have all the money to arrange help in any way you would want. But this is not really changing science, it is just changing the environment around us a little bit.

What would also be great is if you could be a scientist also if you don’t love insecurity about your job. It would be awesome if there were more research associate/staff scientist type of positions for those of us who LOVE to do science but who HATE the fact that science can only be done on a short-term contract OR on a super-hard-to-get tenure track position that in itself means tons of insecurity in terms of getting grants. Wouldn’t it be great if you could have a science job that doesn’t come with tons of disappointment…?

Next, it seems like right now it is impossible to take some time (i.e. few years) off to take care of children when they are very little. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could do that and then be able to come back as an academic scientist? I sure would consider it. Or work part-time for a bit when your children are little.

Finally, for women it would be beneficial if grants and papers would be judged either anonymously or with only your last name on it. In comparison with the two items above this seems like something that can be pretty easily implemented right?

All this is coming to you from a disgruntled post-doc who just heard that she didn’t make the cut to be interviewed for a TT position in the home country and who is in a lab where funding is running out, while desperately trying to find grant money to support myself. I'm going to go dream about this fairytale land where you never have to worry about grants and you can do science with the unicorns.

When role models are super models

This week, Nature has a special section about women in science. Wait, aren’t we all just scientists? And is Nature going to have a special issue about left handed scientists next week and about Greek orthodox scientists the week after? Just kidding, I think it’s great that Nature explores how women are doing in science, in terms of salary, funding and getting tenure. Also, they have an article featuring four successful scientist, who are not only women but also have children. Awesome, you would think, to see role models that we can all look at for inspiration.

One of the women featured in this article is @kaymtye. She is an amazing kick-ass scientist who has her name on 6 (six!!) Nature papers, and now holds a position as assistant professor at MIT. Also, I learned in this article in Nature, she’s expecting her first baby. I don’t want to say anything bad about Kay, because she does great research and made an awesome career for herself (and is a break-dancer too apparently!), but what is Nature doing here?? Are they showing that sure, you can be a woman scientist and have a baby, but only after you had a decent amount of Nature papers and a TT position at a top institute? I like to look at role models around me, especially when they are female and have children, to see how they have done things, but this story makes me feel kind of incompetent and it makes me wonder whether I’ll ever get to be a kick-ass scientist without all those Nature papers before I had a baby. Am I just being jealous you might wonder? Yes, a little bit.

The control of your PI

The other day I talked to another post-doc who is in hir fifth year and about to leave the lab. Hir parents are visiting soon and ze asked hir PI to take a couple days off. The PI told hir no and said that ze could take 2 days, but only if it were a Friday and a Monday, in order not to disrupt hir experiments. This post-doc left the office feeling angry and sad. The next day ze asked again because hir parents had already booked their flight tickets to come visit. The PI agreed this time but only under the condition that ze would work 2 extra weekend days to make up for this time off, and if ze wouldn’t get data on those weekend days ze would have to come again on another weekend day. Did I already mention that this post-doc has a small child and would this way miss a couple of weekend days with hir child?

I think this type of control by a PI is quite ridiculous and does not add to the productivity of this post-doc or the entire lab. On the other hand, I also don’t understand why this post-doc puts up with this especially when ze is about to leave this lab. 

There are other PIs that are on the other side of the spectrum and leave everybody extremely free to do whatever they want.

What are your thoughts on the appropriate level of control a PI should exert over his or her lab members?