Archives for Mama PhD

June 2008

The Career Coach Is In: Call For Questions (June 15) (5 comments)

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another topic — mentoring

I would add another important topic — finding an appropriate mentor. My women peers in my Ph.D. program — mommies and non-mommies alike — and I have frequently discussed the (a) joy of finding a woman established in our field at our university who serves either formally but more often informally as a trusted friend and mentor as we navigate the world of academia or (b) the unexpected and crushing disappointment at having to navigate gender politics with an established woman in the field who sees the more family-friendly policies some women take advantage of now that were not available during their graduate school/early faculty experiences as a “gimme” that discredits the path of those who use them.

It seems to me that much more explicit discussion of these issues in the corporate realm has taken place; I think it is worthy of discussion from an academic perspective, one that has ramifications especially for retaining women in academic careers.

Katie, at 8:10 am EDT on June 16, 2008

Although I don’t personally need help with this topic, the two body problem might be one to discuss.

Physiology PhD Mama, at 1:00 pm EDT on June 16, 2008

Yes! Please talk about pregnancy on the job market, plus going in and out of academia (esp. for humanities PhDs). The two body problem is tough, too, but there is plenty of conventional wisdom out there. I haven’t seen much that’s helpful about pregnancy in any pre-tenure phase. Thanks!

Elizabeth, at 2:50 pm EDT on June 16, 2008

MAKING THE RETRO LEAP!

Over a decade ago, I was a single mom, going to graduate school and working full time — but I made a successful transition from teaching to the business world.

Now, I’m cycling back.

As a doctoral student and university employee, I am interested in the demographic trends that say there will be an almost 30% increase in the need for faculty in higher education. I will be moving from sales into the online classroom by 2010, just about the time things start heating up.

Or are they already heating up?

Shari Pobjecky, Capella University, at 11:55 am EDT on June 17, 2008

“Two body problem” report

For the person who suggested the two-body problem: our research institute will be published a report called “Dual-Career Academic Couples Hiring: What Universities Need to Know” towards the end of July. You’ll be able to download it from our website, http://gender.stanford.edu at no charge. This report is based on a survey of 9,000+ faculty across the U.S.

Michelle Cale, Associate Director at Clayman Institute, Stanford, at 3:25 pm EDT on June 19, 2008

Mothering at Mid-Career: Parenting in the News (June 16) (5 comments)

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a small help

I just wanted to mention a policy I am happy to take credit for getting put in place at my institution: we call it the Five Course Option. This allows full time faculty members to reduce their teaching load from 6 to 5 courses at a salary cost of 10%. Being able to do this for the past several years has saved my sanity and that of my family. Of course it is far from a magic bullet because of the cost, especially given that full salary is, well, many of us know about salaries at private higher ed institutions...

Anne Houde, Professor, at 7:45 am EDT on June 17, 2008

Thank You

I don’t have any answers or even suggestions, but I want to thank you for this column/blog. I’m just starting my career in academia and kids aren’t even up for discussion yet, but it’s nice to know there are others out there working to help us all find a balance.

a, at 9:30 am EDT on June 17, 2008

trying to practice and teach?

Like others reading and writing here, I am trying to figure it out as I live it — dual academic career couple with two children, trying to be equal partners. It can be extra effort, sometimes so that falling into traditional gender roles looks easier — the path of least resistance, where we do not have to be creative and talk and make a conscious decision. On the other hand, is that not what it means to be a whole person? Anyway, I wanted to comment on shifting the focus of one’s academic work to fall in line with one’s parenting — and I recognize the myriad ways in which this might not be workable for everyone. However, I taught an undergraduate course on the anthropology of reproduction b/c that is one of my areas of research. It was a great experience for me, and I think for the students — they had so many questions about all the different dimensions of reproduction as an experience (biological, cultural, social, political, etc.) that I feel like I never had answered until I became a parent myself. I got the impression that my students just did not know it was imaginable or allowable anywhere in the world to expect to have a paid family leave. So, it made to start to think that it is important for the students that I am visible as a professor who is a parent, and that I should be teaching material that encourages students to consider what are the possibilities in their own lives. While this does not answer the question of how to make our lives more livable right now, “teaching family-friendly” seems to me part of what we need to do, too.

Sallie, at 2:05 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Teaching and Modeling “Family Friendly”

I agree with the comment posted regarding teaching “family friendly” in our classrooms. I am a PhD working in a staff position in a counseling center but also serve as adjunct faculty in my psychology department. I taught a grad level seminar recently and my most appreciated comment on the evaluation forms was a comment by a female grad student. The student remarked that one of the most helpful aspects of my course was seeing an example of a female psychologist working full time in a clinical/administrative position, teaching a bit, and yet very focused on being a mother to my 2 small children. The student noted that it was her first example of seeing someone in her intended profession “having the balance” she didn’t think was possible. I was so proud of that comment, more so than any other comment on the evaluations. I think not only what we teach, but what we model day to day, is quite important for change in our institutions over the long run.

Josette, Assistant Director, CAPS at University of Arkansas, at 10:45 am EDT on June 18, 2008

Optimistic

As a mother who began the career journey with an infant in tow (and subsequently let go of said career and the financial perks that went with it because the toll was too much for myself and my family), I am always incredibly impressed by, and feel vast empathy for, parents who are in the throes of the work/life balancing act.

I’m hopeful that in the next decade (it’s already 2008 and things still aren’t perfect, so I can’t be TOO optimistic) employers, corporations, and institutions of higher learning will have figured out how to decrease the misery level by improving the work/life balance for their employees, faculty, staff, etc. I’m taking it as a good sign that the academics are mobilizing in an intelligent, creative, and thoughtful manner.

Alexa, at 6:55 pm EDT on June 18, 2008

ABC's and PhD's: Creating Programs for Local Elementary Schools (June 18) (1 comments)

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It’s funny you mention that. When we were applying to a private school over the winter, one of the admissions people asked what I did. When I told them I worked at a local uni in science they lit up and said, “Science fair!” Of course we didn’t get in, so it’s their loss. ;-)

veronica, at 10:50 pm EDT on June 18, 2008

Math Mom: Success? (June 18) (11 comments)

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I think it is vital that you let him know, gently, how different your lives are. It is a simple fact of academia, and mathematics and philosophy in particular, that men like your colleague set the standards for hiring, tenure and promotion. Making an assumption that the average faculty member has a stay at home spouse to handle the details is simply wrong. Men and women both (should) have to juggle parenting/ life issues with academics. He shouldn’t be allowed to hold the faulty assumption that his life is similar to your own...

PhilosopherP, at 8:55 am EDT on June 19, 2008

I’m with PhilosopherP, Della, though I think you’re also right that this is a measure of your success. And I’d still be replaying the conversation in my head, too, if it had been me. What on earth can he have been thinking?

Libby, at 9:35 am EDT on June 19, 2008

Different perspectives

Your colleague may think there is no difference in your lives because he may assume you make decisions the same way, with the same input. If his child is sick, he assumes his stay-at-home wife will stay with the child at home all day (catering to their needs and illness) or pick the child up from school and deal with the illness from that point on. He probably doesn’t factor that into his calculus of your life, because you are like him—at work, teaching, with the students. Maybe it never dawns on him to put the ballet rectial before preparing for the conference because the conference is part of his professional responsbilities and his status whereas the ballet recital has no factor in that equation either. His stay-at-home wife will attend the recital if he is too busy preparing for the conference. To him that may be a win-win situation. To you that is not even a consideration. We all have our perspectives. None of them are wrong, but they are different and not equal. To be understood by all parties, all the factors in the equation must be taken into account: x + y = z, but 2x + 6y is not z, too.

Marybeth Mitts, at 9:55 am EDT on June 19, 2008

That’s why salaries for women in academia tend to be less than those of their counterparts. Women tend to have other responsibilties that they need to take care of that — whether they care to admit it or not — do not allow them to commit their full time attention to their academic job. I’m not saying that this is bad. Rather, the opposite is true. Women shouldn’t expect to get paid the same when they are perfroming a second — and more important — job at the same time.

The BigDog, at 11:30 am EDT on June 19, 2008

wow.

Big Dog, I’m not sure I agree with your 59 cent assessment of why a woman academic receives less than a male academic for (surely) the same amount of work. She doesn’t teach less classes or fewer students and she CERTAINLY doesn’t get compensated for her “more important” job. I’m really so sick of lame justifications, like yours, for women receiving less pay than men for the same job. That’s just soooo 1960s.

Marybeth Mitts, at 12:25 pm EDT on June 19, 2008

Unless he knows for a fact that a) you have a spouse, and b) your spouse is a stay-at-home partner, the equation, as the above points out, doesn’t add up. If it were me, I’d ask him, somewhat bluntly, what he meant by his comment. And then, if he really is as clueless as his comment makes him out to be, I’d gently (or not so gently, depending on how little sleep I’d gotten) explain why he is so very wrong.

Melissa, at 12:35 pm EDT on June 19, 2008

moonlighting

According to Big Dog’s argument, then, academics of either gender who take on critical consulting or advisory roles, “shouldn’t expect to get paid the same when they are performing a second — and more important — job at the same time.” Please.

DOA, at 12:50 pm EDT on June 19, 2008

Math mom

I guess as conversations go, this one would be irritating. I don’t have the family situations of each of these bloggers memorized. Is Math Mama a single parent? Does she have a working spouse with a career with flexible hours? A little more info could help put this conversation in context.

cheddar, at 1:55 pm EDT on June 19, 2008

Women need a wife too

we did a survey on career trajectories of scientists and engineers in research extensive universties, and found the significant differences between male and female regarding they having stay-home spouse. Most female scientists are married with professioanl spouses and are entailed with heavy household burden, while male scientists are more likely to be relieved of household chores. The difference constitutes a big barrier for women scientists to pursue the most effective career path, characterized by spending plenty of time socializing with their peers, enjoying a large amount of time without worring about children or other family issue and so.The most advantaged group is those junor female scientists with kids at home. There are not many choices for them, but prusue carreers with heavy shackels.

susu, Dr, at 12:35 pm EDT on June 20, 2008

Ideal Worker Norms

Regarding BigDog’s comment, academic women’s “full-time attention” may not be committed to their careers, but this is not relevant to the issue of salaries unless these women are doing less than what is expected by the demands of their positions. I would guess that most women are fulfilling their parenting duties on top of, not instead of, their academic commitments. This poster seems to be operating under very gendered assumptions related to what has been called the “ideal worker” norm: the idea that all of a professional’s time and effort will go toward his/her career. Expectations for tenure and promotion (and, thus, assessments of merit and standards for salaries) need to be set so that all working parents can reach them. We cannot expect and reward a pattern of work that assumes a “supporting” spouse at home who does all of the cooking, cleaning, and childcare (which is what BigDog is implicitly suggesting).

Prof, at 5:30 pm EDT on June 20, 2008

When our younger daughter was 3, she had a special need that prevented her from going to daycare (she had attended daycare part-time at my school, but it was a disaster for her). To make a really long story really short, my husband quit his job to stay home with her. While he had heard about the “parenting issues” I had (I had been home, then worked part-time, then back full-time), he didn’t really “get it” until he was in the trenches day-in and day-out. I’m not surprised that this guy said something so ridiculous. You really have to experience it to understand.

NOW, what I find so funny, is that darling hubby thinks I don’t understand what it’s like to be home! But, to give him tons of credit, our now 7- and 11-year olds are doing great because of him!

knezmom, at 10:00 am EDT on June 23, 2008

Drama Mama: 8 Things That Terrify Me About This Next Generation (June 20) (3 comments)

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4, 5, and 6 aren’t really new to this generation, either. Every generation has had people who were proud of things their parents find embarrassing or wrong (sixties, anyone?). Perfectionism is a very old one as well, and co-dependent relationships are nothing new either, although they may be more visible now because they can just text each other right then instead of saying “I’ll have to think about it".

Don’t be too quick to turn ‘these particular young people aren’t like I and my friends were’ into sweeping generalizations about entire generations. There were people who didn’t value school 30 years ago just like there are now. Fewer of them went to school, and you probably didn’t associate with them then just like high-achieving and/or ambitious students don’t associate with them today. But that doesn’t mean it’s a new phenomenon.

Lisa B., at 11:45 am EDT on June 20, 2008

good rundown!

Lisa B. has a point that some of the things that younger people do that annoy older people are perhaps not entirely new. However, the behaviors that Drama Mama is complaining about are objectively wrong in people who are seeking a college degree. Boasting about skating by without actually reading a book? Probably not entirely new. But I don’t feel that we need to let them off the hook for it just because some people way back in the 80s might have done it, too.

I say keep students’ feet to the fire. If their parents don’t like the results, then they can “home school” them through a university education.

Ann M. Little, Associate Professor, History, at Colorado State University, at 12:20 pm EDT on June 20, 2008

Social Learners — Student Engagement

I concur on most of the arguments presented. But let us look closer at # 3: “Splintered Focus.” In 21st Century lingo this may be referred to as “multi-tasking” and has it’s place in this global society that is becoming more and more definitive of our lives. The educational system should find creative ways to incorporate this kind of learning. Ironically, I have found that many of our students do very well academically and many will do an excellent job at writing that essay while IMing and listening to the IPOD. So many of our students are social learners but the system has not yet caught up with them. We are not catering to their particular learning needs and styles. Might it be that we are still stucked in the 60s, whatever that means? Or are we looking to creatively engage our students in the use of 21st century tools to enhance their learning? Just a wondering.

Anita Coley, at 12:50 pm EDT on June 22, 2008

The Career Coach Is In: Community College Jobs? (June 22) (1 comments)

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CC Vet

I worked in Georgia’s largest community college for three years in a tenure-track position. Last year, I left for a four-year college for several reasons, but two in particular had to do with shortcomings of the community college. First, the community college’s pay was mediocre, and was not going to go up very much over time. Second, the generally anti-academic atmosphere there had little to do with learning and research for the sake of truth or personal growth and everything to do with creating economic opportunities for the students.

That said, because I LOVE teaching, I generally found the CC environment to be to my liking and low-stress compared to a research institution, even with the 4-5 teaching load. However, there are a few drawbacks for someone in Renata’s position:

1. Be prepared to teach second-shift hours. With kids, this can be tricky. More progressive CCs will offer childcare arrangements for their non-traditional students, though, and this may help. My latest class ended at 10:30 p.m.

2. Pursuing a career in higher education with a Master’s degree means always being restricted. When my CC was forced to close down one of its campuses, the few of us with Ph.D.s had other options. Those with Master’s degrees who didn’t want to teach K-12 were stuck.

3. (Corollary to #2) When you have a faculty with a larger-than-normal proportion of women and professors who do not hold terminal degrees, the administration may exercise more power. To the extent that the administration could be bullying or paternalistic with the faculty, this reminded me of my previous experience teaching at the high school level.

Having said all this, there was a cameraderie at the CC that was priceless. It felt like being part of a family, and I would encourage any grad student to at least consider a career at this level. I hope you find these comments helpful, Renata.

Dr. K, at 2:50 pm EDT on July 7, 2008

Mothering at Mid-Career: Beyond Parenting (June 23) (3 comments)

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I love this article. My husband and I have also created this adult community for our girls, ages 14 and 16. It is comprised of a group of 5 families that make up what the Jewish community calls a “havarah". Though we are not Jewish we have become part of the community and welcomed with open arms. These adults are an important part of my girls lives and ones who they reach out to all the time. It does indeed take a village to raise a child.

Darci, at 3:40 pm EDT on June 24, 2008

Back to School as a Mature Mother

My return to tertiary education after a hiatus of 23 years has been a rollercoaster ride of amazing highs and crushing moments of despair and self doubt. It is only now, after successfully completing my PhD in Women’s Studies, that I am able to reflect on my experiences over the last 4 years and I relish the opportunity to indulge in some reflection with all the benefit of hindsight. Nothing I had read or heard prepared me to be thrust back into an environment that is saturated with wide eyed and bushy tailed 20 somethings after spending more than 2 decades as a mother and wife in Germany. Like many mature students, I decided to accept the challenge and return to university for reasons that are fundamentally personal. My experiences as a wife and mother led me to ask questions that I was unable to answer and my refusal to accept this meant that I had to go in search of those answers myself. The first step in answering niggling questions is to find out where to go looking for answers. I had come of age in a generation that articulated the ‘problem with no name’ through Betty Friedan’s ‘Feminist Mystique’ but I had been largely oblivious of the advances in feminist theory over the decades that followed this seminal work. I was a privileged woman with a Bachelors degree from the University of Maryland and a lovely family, yet I could not get rid of the sense that my life and my choices were being dictated by structures that were inherently hostile to me as a woman and a mother. These concerns as well as the excellent reputation of its Centre for Women’s Studies prompted me to apply to the University of York in the United Kingdom for a Masters degree. I was delighted when I received a placement offer and I was confident that my teenage son and my husband would cope well with my absence for a year, especially since I had the safety net of the easy accessibility of Germany from York. In retrospect, I realised how much I relied on my personal campaign slogan of ‘how hard can it possibly be?’ I had missed the excitement of an academic environment that I enjoyed at the University of Maryland and I was eager to address questions that I felt passionately about in a Centre of like minded people. Despite all my rationalizations and mental escape clauses, I found it incredibly difficult to move so far away from my son. For a teenage son, having your mother in a different country is obviously a dream come true, but his enthusiastic support failed to reassure me and it did not alleviate the lingering guilt that I was abandoning my ‘child’. Ultimately, however, I realised that continuing my education was something I had always wanted to do and, after many years of putting the needs of others first, I resolved to give myself this opportunity. On arriving at the university, the first major shock to my system was sharing accommodation with 5 other postgraduate students. For the first time I understood that I had not fully appreciated having my own home. Being an eternal optimist, I organised many meetings with my flatmates and volunteered to make cleaning rosters. It took a few months for me to accept that this was an exercise in futility and I continue to be amazed at how nonchalant young people can be about their personal space. I leaned that basic hygiene came a poor second to having a group of friends over with a fully stocked fridge. My Masters degree turned out to be such a success in terms of my intellectual development that I decided to do a PhD at York’s Centre for Women’s Studies as well. I was extremely fortunate in being supervised by an internationally acclaimed theorist on sexuality and heteronormativity, Professor Stevi Jackson. I dealt with the sense of displacement by taking frequent trips back to Germany and by making friends from many different countries. I also found support from the relatively large number of mature students at York University. My circle of friends includes people from South Africa, India, Romania and Hong Kong. Quite aside from the emotional support, these friends ensured that my period of PhD study taught me much more than what was included in the academic curriculum. I also realised that most of the challenges of a PhD were not age specific – all my fellow PhD candidates struggled with moments of feeling inadequate and overwhelmed. Another commonality was that we all turned to our personal network of friends, albeit differently constituted in terms of age, for reassurance and comfort.All these obstacles mean that returning to university in one’s 50s is not for the fainthearted. It is definitely not to be attempted without substantial reserves of humour and openness to new experiences. Overall, the gains far outweigh the sacrifices and I am enjoying my 50s with a sense of achievement and a belief in myself that I could not have imagined in my 20s. When I look back at my Bachelors degree at Maryland and remember how I took it for granted, I think that the amazing privilege of a university education was wasted on the young. The chance to go back and have all those opportunities is something that I was privileged enough to enjoy and, through all the difficult times, I remembered that I owed it to myself to seize them all and, above all, to have a fabulous time while I was at it!

janet peukert, PhD, at 7:10 pm EDT on June 24, 2008

What a lovely piece! I hope she continues to develop this community as she moves into the next stage of her life.

Caroline, Co-editor, Mama, PhD at independent, at 9:40 am EDT on June 25, 2008

ABC's and PhD's: Thoughts from an old photo (June 25) (2 comments)

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What a lovely post, Liz! and you raise an excellent point (one that our employers, academic and otherwise, need to address better), that growing numbers of us need time off to care for aging parents as well as young children.

Caroline, Co-editor, Mama, PhD at independent, at 9:40 am EDT on June 25, 2008

Liz...how wonderful that you have this treasured photo. You bring up such a good point about our roles. I often worry about my mother and just think and hope that if it came down to it, I would be able to do whatever was needed to assist her. Thank you.

Paige, at 10:05 am EDT on June 25, 2008

Math Mom: Sun, sand, water…and mathematics (June 25) (3 comments)

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A High school equivalent?

I’d be curious to know if there are any “starter models” for this type of program you’d recommend that are directed to high school girls? I know Mount Holyoke College has a summer math program; I’d be curious to know your opinion of it, if you have any knowledge of the program. Again, any insight into any high school-targeted program (perhaps with a short time line for shorter attention spans) would be welcome.

Marybeth, at 9:45 am EDT on June 26, 2008

High School Math Programs for Girls

Marybeth, I just learned about this program: http://www.stthomas.edu/gemscamp/Della

Della Fenster, at 4:15 pm EDT on June 26, 2008

The link for the Gems program (in the preceding comment) should read:http://www.stthomas.edu/gemscamp/

Della Fenster, at 11:35 pm EDT on June 26, 2008

Drama Mama: Product, parenting and paranoia (June 26) (10 comments)

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This blog is so bad it’s almost unreadable. Shame on you, IHE, for throwing women academics a bone in a blog concept that excludes women who are not mothers, and, evidently, women who like to read coherent writing based on actual, cited sources and not hearsay and doomsday rumors.

Diana, at 2:05 pm EDT on June 27, 2008

Hey — it’s a blog, take it down a notch sister. Good lord, if I am incorrect in what I have been reading and/or hearing by all means correct me instead of trashing the blog in general. If you don’t like it don’t read it. No need to be rude. Do you treat your poor students this way? At any rate, Drama Mama will continue, incoherent or not. Theatre folks are used to criticism and for these particular moments I enjoy this quote:

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Feel free to respond Diana — with your own blog.

Anjalee, at 4:45 pm EDT on June 27, 2008

Expert facebook friends

“Lately, I find myself swinging between two distinct paradigms. One is the “Well, its one paranoia or another here in America” and perhaps all these chemicals are not evil...But then other times I feel like there is a huge government/big business conspiracy trying to kill me and my offspring...”

Maybe you could swing over to a third paradigm, which emphasizes the importance of scientific evidence. You are a smart person — should you be getting your knowledge of science from your facebook friends?

cheddar, at 5:20 pm EDT on June 27, 2008

Wow, such a big response to one post. Cheddar, please share your scientific knowledge. If you have evidence one way or the other about any topic I am posting, please share! I never professed to be an expert — I am only relating my current “paranoias” which is a part of parenting. I welcome any vivid facts on either side of the subject. I am searching for them. I am hereby stating, for the record, — I don’t have all the answers. If you have them — share. Lastly, “facebook” is just a resource for connecting people — my “facebook friends” are students, scholars and parents. Don’t be so quick to judge. I’ll admit they aren’t scientists but when I begin research which is not in my field of study, I begin with people. Communal learning — as another commenter noted last week — might be the wave of the future.

anjalee nadkarni, at 6:55 am EDT on June 28, 2008

One last thing — my friend with the other blog corrected me in stating that lauryl sulfate was killing marine life, she said “It’s not the lauryl sulfate that is harming marine life it’s the polyethylene which is basically a fancy word for micro-plastic.” Lauryl sulfate, according to some sources (that’s my disclaimer — ok) has been connected to nitrate contamination which can be carcinogenic. Both of these chemicals were in the face scrub she was using. PS — check out this site from the Environmental Working Group’s Website:

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

and also this one on SLS:

http://www.healthy-communications.com/slsmostdangerousirritant.html

and let me know what you think!

anjalee again, at 10:05 am EDT on June 28, 2008

“Cheddar, please share your scientific knowledge. If you have evidence one way or the other about any topic I am posting, please share! I never professed to be an expert — I am only relating my current “paranoias” which is a part of parenting.”

As someone who reads parenting blogs and participates in parenting forums, I’m just wondering how a blog titled MamaPhD should be expected to differ from a blog titled Mama. Regular parenting boards contain discussions of the causes of autism and cancer that seem to come right from snopes.com (like yours). If the Phd isn’t doing anything to differentiate you from a non-PhD mama, then why does this blog exist?

Cheddar, at 11:50 am EDT on June 28, 2008

I don’t understand why a PhD would mean that you wouldn’t ever get paranoid about your child. Obviously DramaMama isn’t a PhD in the Sciences, she’s said as much. And even a PhD can’t know everything about every topic. So she turns to her friends and parenting boards to share.

If you have scientific evidence that there is no link between autism and immunizations, awesome! Please share. We would all love to learn more as Anjalee has repeatedly said.

This is a blog of her own personal experiences. As she is not a professor in the sciences, and because college professors tend to be very segregated, she turns to the people she trusts and knows: that would be her friends, families, and parenting boards.

If misinformation is being disseminated by parenting boards or the media, perhaps that is not the fault of non-science PhDs. Perhaps it is hard for the media and non-scientific community to understand the scientific jargon. And if you are a scientist, then we would love it if, instead of dismissing non-scientists, you instead properly shared to us what the myths are and disseminated proper information.

Anjalee does not expect you to be an expert in Brecht, why should you expect her to be an expert in what causes and doesn’t cause autism? And that’s why she didn’t write this with any scientific claim, but was more writing a personal, human story about the paranoia mothers feel because the media, the government, scientists, other parents, all feed anxious mothers various different stories.

arduous, at 12:50 pm EDT on June 28, 2008

What’s even worse is that I am an MFA, not a PhD. This blog is connected to Mama PhD, which is a book about mothers who are working or who once worked in academia and the difficulties that lie therein. I love the idea you thought this was a blog about being an expert mother! Yikes! You’d be right in thinking I was not a legitimate “expert” in that field of study. Who is? Maybe someone who has a lot of kids? I am not aware of a master’s or PhD program in being a mother- but if anyone knows of one, Hey — sign me up man!

FYI: There’s this great blog called “PhD in Parenting” that I enjoy. It might be more what you are looking for in terms of “expert mothering” discussion. It’s at http://phdinparenting.wordpress.com/. Check it out if you have a chance. The author does have great guidelines for making comments on her site. She says, “if you feel moved to comment or ask questions, by all means jump in. I enjoy a good conversation. However, I would ask that you be respectful of who I am and my parenting philosophy in doing so.” Too bad she needed to state that at all. Maybe it’s time I did the same.

At any rate thanks to arduous for defending my non scientific background and thanks to cheddar for inadvertently giving me a website to check out that actually does have another viewpoint on the subject at hand.

At least the title to my blog is accurate — there is always a little drama here.

anjalee again!!!, at 5:50 am EDT on June 29, 2008

MamaPhd

“This blog is connected to Mama PhD, which is a book about mothers who are working or who once worked in academia and the difficulties that lie therein.”

Ok, so this blog is just about women who work or have worked in a particular industry. I actually thought there was more to it. As a parent with a PhD, I do think I approach (or maybe I just wonder if I approach) parenting differently than other mothers. Some of the other bloggers here seem to have some sense of those ideas in their posts.

The first two comments both mention the importance of evidence and lament the lack of it in the original post. What I think PhDs have in common is the belief in the importance of expertise and respect for the expert. Importantly, one of the commenters wants us to know that the original poster is an expert on a particular topic. Hence expertise appears to matter in our profession. So how does our belief in the importance of evidence and our repsect for experts affect our parenting? When a friend passes along some urban legend (i.e., shampoo ingredients cause cancer) to a MamaPhd, wouldn’t the parent whose training is based so closely on the importance of evidence and respect for expertise stop to think twice about this? That is what I meant when I was talking about adding a third paradigm to your thought process.

“I love the idea you thought this was a blog about being an expert mother! Yikes!”

I’m not sure who you are responding to. None of the commenters said anything like this.

I understand now that this blog is just about women who have or have had a shared industry background (where the industry is higher education.) I actually had hoped that the writings on this blog might consider how being a PhD (or having another terminal degree) affects parenting. There is rich ground to cover on this latter topic, but it doesn’t look like this blogger has considered it.

cheddar, at 12:10 pm EDT on June 30, 2008

Okay you win cheddar. I give. My blog has failed your expectations. I get it. Consider this more creative writing (that you doesn’t suit your taste) than research and analysis. My field of study is more tailored towards topic exploration then hard evidence and my posts will reflect that background. We can agree to disagree on which is more relevant in our own personal lives. Let’s call it a draw shall we? If you enjoy the other bloggers please by all means read the other fine Mama PhD posts.

anjalee, at 12:10 pm EDT on July 3, 2008

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