Expectations of failure?

[pbowne at execpc.com]

S L Forsburg wrote:
> 
 What responsibility do older scientists,
> advisors and PIs bear to make sure that "demanding" is not interpreted
> as "impossible"?
> 
> Also, what responsibility do young women bear to be independent and to meet
> challenges of a demanding, and perhaps unfair system?  Is it fair to
> expect
> constant encouragement and guarantees of success from their elders, who
> themselves get none?

I'd like to add to this the question, do women in science have 
a right to expect the women who have made it and who now have
some institutional power to *stop tolerating* the current 'demanding
and perhaps unfair' system? 

What would it mean for us to stop tolerating the system? 

One thing I can think of would be to collect data on the 
tenure requirements and family-unfriendly or
-friendly policies of companies and universities and make them 
freely available to scientists hunting for employment.
I'm sure many of these data have been generated, but making
sure young scientists know where to find them would be a
significant step. I know when I was job-hunting, I never thought
to ask such questions. I saw them as irrelevant to science.

There's a very encouraging article in this week's Chronicle of 
Higher Education by Nancy Hopkins, one of the women scientists
at MIT who documented bias at that institution. My favorite
quote in it is from MIT's president, explaining why he paid
attention to their report: "It's the scientific mindset ... give
us convincing data, and we go with it."

Wouldn't it be great if the next set of convincing data showed
that employers identified as 'family friendly' or 'nonbiased'
got more applicants
and hired the best scientists?

Pat Bowne
pbowne at execpc.com