In article <16C27E9D7.SIMMS at vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>, SIMMS at vmd.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> I think this is a reasonable issue to discuss, however. For years it
> was a non-issue because most scientists had wives who did all the housework,
> childbearing and rearing, etc. Now many male scientists are discovering
> that their wives are no longer willing to give up careers to further the
> husband's career, so there are issues of who does the housework as well.
> even if no children are involved. The men who are still able to swing
> this arrangement seem to be somewhat critical of those men who ended up
> with wives working outside the home. Those who are single or with
> wives who don't have outside jobs (or have "female" jobs that just
> require 9 to 5) are often not as sympathetic as they might be to the
> women or men who have to leave the lab at 5 to pick up the kids, or come
> in late because they had to wait for the plumber or whatever.
I'm about to move to a new job. I;ve
been contrasting my experience as a single hard-working female postdoc
with several male aquaintances who are also moving. Those who are
married, to wives who consider the man's career dominant,
are able to get to work rapidly at the new
place because their wives will do the domestic stuff, look for houses,
set up the utilities, etc etc. And once they are in the lab? Their
dinner will be made, they wont have to "wait for the plumber", or whatever,
and in my experience, a lot of them ARE unsympathetic about
those of us who have to do everything ourselves. Domesticity is
a burden to the single professional. A traditional
"wife" is a real career advantage.
Where do I find me one? ;-)
Incidentally, a completely unsupported non-scientific poll of my
postdoc colleagues suggests that the men are more likely to be married
than the women. Is this true in Science at Large?
susan
--
forsburg at molbiol.ox.ac.uk
then forsburg at salk-sc2.sdsc.edu
