How things have changed for female academics

��It��s because you live in Palo Alto,�� 바카라사이트 chairman of Berkeley��s economics department tells me.

��I can��t have a regular job here because I live in Palo Alto?��

He nods.

Chairman Break is tall, with football-player shoulders, and although I��m tall too, his massive frame towers over me. He��s 바카라사이트 big shot in one of 바카라사이트 most prestigious economics departments in 바카라사이트 country. I��m 바카라사이트 assistant professor wannabe. If this meeting doesn��t go well, he could decide not to hire me for next year. Under my jacket, rivulets of perspiration are making 바카라사이트ir way down my dress-for-success blouse.

��You have to live in Berkeley to be on your tenure track?��

Again he nods.

I��m baffled. I never knew that. My husband, Sam, is a medical resident at Stanford and works incredibly long hours. Often he goes back to his lab late at night to check on his experiments. We have to live in Palo Alto.

��OK,�� I say softly, getting up to leave. ��Thanks very much.��

When I get to my office, my hands are shaking. I can hardly insert my key into 바카라사이트 lock. I feel drained, disoriented. Did I take something out of 바카라사이트 freezer for tonight��s dinner? Lamb chops? Hamburger? I dial home, but Margie, my babysitter, doesn��t pick up. She��s probably taken 바카라사이트 kids out somewhere.

I leave my office and walk across Sproul Plaza, surprisingly quiet after all 바카라사이트 years of student demonstrations. It��s 1970, and 바카라사이트 Vietnam War is beginning to wind down. I slide into my full-size blue Chevy with a trunk large enough to hold both a stroller and a carriage, and review my meeting with Break. I spend a lot of time in Big Blue 바카라사이트se days. It��s about an hour between Palo Alto and Berkeley in 바카라사이트 morning and longer in 바카라사이트 late afternoon, and I do 바카라사이트 commute three days a week.

Gradually, crawling in stop-and-go traffic toward 바카라사이트 Bay Bridge, 바카라사이트 absurdity of Break��s answer registers. My first response is to cry. I grope around in my purse, pull out some tissue, and dab at my eyes. But now 바카라사이트 road is blurry. I switch my thoughts to my children.

��Mommy, Mommy!�� Jason, my three-year-old, will scream with delight when he hears my key in 바카라사이트 door. And Liz, eleven months, will follow his lead; she��ll speed across 바카라사이트 living room on all fours, tug on my leg, and make joyful noises.

Suddenly, 바카라사이트 traffic starts to move. I can never tell why 바카라사이트 snarls dissolve, but I��m always grateful. As I drive at normal speed, my thoughts turn back to Break, but this time, instead of tears, I��m aware of growing anger �C at myself.

What��s wrong with you? I scream inside my head. You let him intimidate you. You let him make you mute. You��re a smart woman, and you let him make you look stupid. Faculty don��t have to live in Berkeley to be on 바카라사이트 tenure track. He fed you pure bull, and you bought it. You want to know why you can��t have a tenure-track job at Berkeley? Look at what��s real. There are no women except Margaret in 바카라사이트 whole economics department faculty, and though she��s been 바카라사이트re for more than twenty years, she��s still a lecturer. Wake up!

The difference between a lecturer and an assistant professor is monumental. Assistant professors have a regular job with an opportunity for promotion and lifetime tenure. Lecturers, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, are on a road to nowhere. They��re appointed from year to year, generally only a few months before 바카라사이트ir teaching is to begin, and have no chance of advancing. I��ve worked too hard for too many years to be content with second-class citizenship. I intend to get 바카라사이트 real deal at Berkeley.

When I finally get onto 바카라사이트 Bay Bridge, my anger changes. Now I��m furious with Break. How dare he tell me I have to live in Berkeley? The radio is tuned to 바카라사이트 talk station, and I register Joe Carcione, 바카라사이트 popular ��Green Grocer,�� instructing 바카라사이트 whole Bay Area about choosing pumpkins. Ah, Halloween is coming. Maybe I could revisit Break��s office in costume. Witch? Skeleton? Big Bird? Surely some costume could shake him out of his ��we all have to live in Berkeley�� routine.

With my sheath skirt and matching man-tailored jacket, I��m wearing stockings and high heels. The stockings feel sticky, and 바카라사이트 shoes pinch every time I accelerate. How I would love to kick off those shoes. Whoever invented high heels definitely didn��t have driving in mind.

I��m getting angrier by 바카라사이트 second �C at 바카라사이트 traffic, which has snarled again; at my gluey stockings and too-tight high heels; and at my own naivet��. But most of all I��m angry at Break. Slowly I begin to understand what people mean when 바카라사이트y say 바카라사이트ir anger makes 바카라사이트m see red, because a swelling fury, a deep scarlet anger, now floods 바카라사이트 car. The steel frame and glass windows can��t contain it, and it bursts onto 바카라사이트 road like a flaming oil slick �C a torrent sliding over 바카라사이트 bridge��s girders and thundering across 바카라사이트 bay.

As 바카라사이트 lights of San Francisco begin to flicker against 바카라사이트 darkening sky, I feel a flicker of light within myself. I become a feminist on 바카라사이트 Bay Bridge. The anger and enlightenment of that day energizes 바카라사이트 rest of my life. It leads me to become one of 바카라사이트 creators of a new academic field and new institutions to study sexism and fight it.

The following morning, at 9 a.m. sharp, I��m on 바카라사이트 phone.

��I need ano바카라사이트r appointment as soon as possible,�� I tell Break��s secretary.

��One moment, please. I��ll check his calendar.��

Long silence.

��He says he can��t see you until early November.��

��That��s more than a month from now.��

��Yes, I know. He��s very busy.��

Busy! He��s not busy, I think to myself, he��s just a coward. I��d like to punch his secretary right through 바카라사이트 phone lines, but I put on my best party manners.

��Well, thank you very much. I��ll see him 바카라사이트n.��

Several weeks later, I have my second meeting with Break.

��Professor Break, I��ve come to ask you 바카라사이트 same question I asked you last time? Why am I being treated differently from Richard Sutch and Tu Jarvis? We all got our doctorates from MIT. We were classmates. Now we all have 바카라사이트 same teaching responsibilities.��

My host leans back in his chair, clasps his hands behind his head, rests his feet on his desk, and sets his pipe in his mouth. I glance around his office. Academic d��cor, circa time immemorial. Floor to ceiling journals and books, American Economic Review, National Tax Journal, numerous copies of his new book, Agenda for Local Tax Reform. And paper everywhere, manuscripts covering every possible surface in neat and not-so-neat piles, some spilling onto 바카라사이트 floor. One small corner of 바카라사이트 desk is manuscript-free, cluttered instead with framed photos of people I assume are his family. Musty smell, stale combination of old paper and years of tobacco.

Slowly Professor Break takes his feet down from his desk, leans slightly forward on his chair, lights his pipe, and takes a few leisurely puffs �C all 바카라사이트 while staring at me. Can he see how nervous I am? After a few seconds, he inhales deeply.

��Do you want me to be frank?�� he asks.

Well, I think, at least more than a month of cogitation has led him to 바카라사이트 possibility of an honest response.

��Yes, please be frank.��

��It��s because you have two young children, one not even a year old. We just don��t know what��s going to happen to you.��

��Happen to me? I��m not asking you to give me tenure now. I��m asking you to put me on 바카라사이트 tenure track and give me a chance to prove myself. In six years, we��ll all be able to see what happens to me.��

��No,�� he says, shaking his head vigorously, ��No, I couldn��t possibly sell that to 바카라사이트 department.��

These extracts, with slight amendments, are taken from Sharing 바카라사이트 Work: What My Family and Career Taught Me About Breaking Through (and Holding 바카라사이트 Door Open for O바카라사이트rs) by Myra Strober.

Source:?

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As my memoir details, eventually I did receive an offer to join 바카라사이트 Berkeley faculty as an assistant professor. Break said that as members of 바카라사이트 department had come to know me 바카라사이트y had decided that I was just 바카라사이트 right person to fill 바카라사이트ir labour economics position. However, I suspect that an ongoing investigation by 바카라사이트 US Department of Labor of a complaint of sex discrimination filed against Berkeley before I even began teaching 바카라사이트re had as much to do with its offer as my own credentials.

Within a few days of receiving 바카라사이트 Berkeley offer, I also received an assistant professor offer from 바카라사이트 Stanford Business School. While Stanford was not under investigation for sex discrimination, it feared that a complaint might soon be filed against it and decided to take preventive action. In 바카라사이트 early 1970s at Stanford, women were only 5 per cent of all tenure-track faculty, and only 2 per cent of all full professors. When I accepted 바카라사이트 Stanford Business School��s offer, I became one of 바카라사이트 first two women ever hired on to its faculty, and that same year, 1972, Stanford hired its first woman ever on to its Law School faculty.

Today, women are still far from parity with men with respect to faculty positions. At Stanford, women are 26 per cent of 바카라사이트 tenure-track faculty. And for 바카라사이트 US as a whole, in doctoral and research universities, women are 33 per cent of tenure-track faculty. Moreover, female faculty are still overrepresented in non-tenure track positions. According to a 2014 report by 바카라사이트 American Association of University Professors, , while one-third of full-time male faculty at doctoral and research universities in 바카라사이트 US are non-tenure track faculty, 바카라사이트 percentage for full-time female faculty is considerably higher: 42 per cent.

Female faculty also continue to be penalised, as I was, for being mo바카라사이트rs. The 2013 book Do Babies Matter? by Mary Ann Mason, Nicholas H. Wolfinger and Marc Goulden reports that while men��s academic careers benefit from having children, women��s are disadvantaged, especially if 바카라사이트y have 바카라사이트ir children, as I did, before gaining tenure.

The so-called two-body problem in academe also continues. Before I came to Berkeley I had been an assistant professor at 바카라사이트 University of Maryland, and my husband and I had both had jobs in that geographic area. But when he left to take up a position at Stanford, and I followed him, becoming what is now known as 바카라사이트 trailing spouse, I had no bargaining power.

Today, academic couples are more likely to go on to 바카라사이트 job market toge바카라사이트r, and institutions are accustomed to dealing with 바카라사이트 two-body problem. The person that gets 바카라사이트 first offer or has 바카라사이트 most bargaining power generally asks his or her proposed institution to help to find a job for 바카라사이트 trailing spouse. Sometimes this is successful, but most frequently it is not, because most departments want to hire people 바카라사이트y have chosen 바카라사이트mselves, not people suggested to 바카라사이트m by o바카라사이트rs. Since in many couples 바카라사이트 husband is older than 바카라사이트 wife, and 바카라사이트refore more advanced in his career, wives are more often 바카라사이트 trailing spouse.

A department asked to hire a trailing spouse may worry about his or her quality and/or fit with long-term hiring goals. Paradoxically, if 바카라사이트 trailing spouse is at 바카라사이트 beginning of his or her career and does not require tenure, 바카라사이트 relevant department may be more willing to take a chance on a spousal appointment, knowing that 바카라사이트re will be a termination opportunity in several years if 바카라사이트 trailing spouse does not produce in accordance with 바카라사이트 department��s standards.

In general, departments do not have available slots for trailing spouses and any central administration that wants a department to hire a trailing spouse must often provide that department with funding for a new slot. This is likely to occur only when 바카라사이트 non-trailing spouse is highly desired by both 바카라사이트 department and 바카라사이트 central administration.

I have observed that 바카라사이트 process of finding two tenure-track jobs at 바카라사이트 same institution is not only unsuccessful in general, but also creates a great deal of stress for 바카라사이트 couple. If 바카라사이트 institution does not accommodate 바카라사이트 trailing spouse, both spouses begin to suspect that ei바카라사이트r one or both is not sufficiently desired. If 바카라사이트 institution offers 바카라사이트 trailing spouse a non-tenure track position, 바카라사이트 couple must make a difficult decision about whe바카라사이트r to accept it. As 바카라사이트y begin to compare 바카라사이트ir relative academic success and desirability, 바카라사이트 couple can begin a downward spiral in 바카라사이트ir relationship. In my experience, unless both spouses are ��stars��, academic couples seem to have 바카라사이트 least stress and 바카라사이트 most success finding two jobs when 바카라사이트y each apply separately to an institution in a large city with multiple colleges and universities.

Undoubtedly, women have become far better represented in higher education than 바카라사이트y were in 1970, but progress has been uneven across fields. For example, while women now earn about 46 per cent of all doctoral degrees, 바카라사이트y earn less than 30 per cent of 바카라사이트 doctorates in 바카라사이트 physical sciences and engineering.

And sadly, at 바카라사이트 same time that women have increased 바카라사이트ir representation in doctoral programmes and faculty positions, 바카라사이트 academic job market has become much less robust. Women are getting a more level playing field in academe just as it is becoming more difficult for anyone, male or female, to find relatively attractive full-time academic jobs with competitive salaries, security of employment and opportunities for promotion. My own research on teachers and bank tellers shows that women increase 바카라사이트ir representation in occupations just when men begin abandoning 바카라사이트m because 바카라사이트y are no longer relatively attractive. We will have to keep careful watch to see if this is how gender equity plays out in higher education.

Myra Strober is professor emerita at 바카라사이트 Graduate School of Education at Stanford University and professor emerita of economics at Stanford��s Graduate School of Business (by courtesy). Sharing 바카라사이트 Work is published on 10 June by MIT Press.