Julia wrote
> >This made me wonder whether there are any women-in-science
> >outreach activities aimed specifically at senior male
> >faculty. What about, for instance, a group to help the
> >advisors of female graduate students?
> >
> I wince at lumping all female graduate students into a pile-each and
> every person is quite different.....
Yes. And moreover, in my experience, no senior male faculty
will admit he needs help in advising (or anything else). The
attitude is that they run the program, and everyone else
should just get with it.
As i've said before, there is a tendency to equate "family issues"
and "women's issues". they are clearly NOT identical. family
issues affect both men and women, and women's issues don't
require she has a family.
> Having said all that, there's a school of thought that I half agree
> with that says you shouldn't coddle graduate students because it
> simply postpones the inevitable smashing against the hard cruel
> world. Experiences like the one above taught me how to "produce" no
> matter what my personal state. this is good for my science and my
> students, but probably not for me as a person. And I still think
> it's the hard cruel world of science that needs to change, not the
> people who have a life.
Well, this is true, but you can't change it unless you are in it, and
you can't get in it unless you can play their game at some level.
Which means enduring all sorts of garbage while
you cling to the ladder.
As a long previous (and rather contentious!) thread
pointed out, there is really a fine balance between supporting
students, and teaching them to handle the slings and arrows
of our outrageous profession. Too far on one side, they get
"coddled" and can't deal with the mean world they face
when they leave; too far
on the other, and you are guilty of the same abuse you
want to stop. To make it more complicated, every student's
balance is different.
And of course, teaching students comes at a cost. Because
a student who will learn has to be able to make mistakes.
Which takes time, and slows down the pace of research.
The system does not reward any faculty member
for their ability to teach grads or postdocs. It rewards
them only on the number of papers, the prestige, and
the research dollars. We all know of stories
of big-name labs that are considered abusive, while
smaller supportive labs tend to go under (and burn
out the PI while they're at it).
I place some of the blame on the me-first competitiveness
that our society rewards. Sadly, many scientists are no
longer intellectuals, but careerists. This leads to a question,
that may be worth another thread.
What is the purpose of academic scientific research? Is
it solely to generate new knowledge (that may ultimately
improve our lives)? Does it REALLY have anything
to do with education? Or is it another competitive game?
Put another way, what i a successful scientist?
> Can you tell I should be writing something else-I'm procrastinating....
Thee and me...March 1 is far too close!
--
-susan
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S L Forsburg, PhD Associate Professor
Molecular Biology and Virology Lab
The Salk Institute, La Jolla CA
forsburgATsalk.edu
http://pingu.salk.edu/~forsburg/lab.html
Women in Biology Internet Launch Page
http://pingu.salk.edu/~forsburg/bio.html
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