Michelle Francl (via Geeky Mom via New Kid on the Hallway) has an interesting short piece on “Hidden women of science”, namely the stay-at-home wives that are crucial to the success of so many of the Men Of Science.
A recent look at Princeton’s cadre of science faculty … reveals that the majority of male faculty enjoy a stay at home spouse. None of the female science faculty are so blessed.
WeatherGirl was trained as a scientist (her degree’s in computer science), but gave that up over a decade ago and focusses now on art and writing and being a spectacularly cool mum to Sub-Evil Boy and keeping my universe in one piece at home. There is absolutely no question that Sub-Evil and I would both be vastly worse off without her, and any accomplishment of mine (small as they may be) must have it’s credit shared. The number of hours I haven’t spent doing laundry and paying bills because she does those things is huge, and if I spend even a fraction of those hours on Officially Productive things like course planning or grading or research then she has to be recognized as crucial to the venture.
One thing I wish we could figure out is how to use one of my sabbatical years to focus on her interests, perhaps going someplace special where she could do art and I could do laundry. The money always gets complex, though, as a really productive research year for me helps pay bills, and there’s not likely to be any money in a really productive year of art for her. Sigh.
So hats off to the hidden women of science (and, of course, the hidden women behind every male-dominated field, i.e., damn near everything).
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