First of all, I am very pleased to announce that S4 had a baby boy today. He is her third child and the 14th grandchild in my family. Everyone is happy and healthy. Yay!
Now I'd like to share two observations about life in a female-dominated lab. I've said before that the lab I'm in is something like 70% women. Since I've always been part of very woman heavy labs, I don't have personal experience with which to compare them to male dominated labs. Lately I've been trying to imagine what the little differences might be.
Our lab has several rather sensitive personalities. They aren't cry babies or difficult people, they are people who are always concerned with how their words and behaviors might be perceived by others and who carefully interpret the words and actions of others so as to fully understand their complete meaning and intent. I recently had a chance to work with a wider group of scientists from my institution as part of a new collaborative effort. We were literally working all together at a table for a whole day. As we worked, one of the technicians in my lab asked, "what is this thing?" I answered, "it's an X and it does function Y." She said, "I know it does Y but I didn't know Xs looked like this." I said, "oh, okay." No big deal. The entire exchange took less than a minute. Then the tech added, "Sorry to be short with you" and I replied, "You weren't and I hope I didn't sound condescending". The men at the table were mildly aghast. I think they thought we were walking on eggshells with each other but really it was just a normal interaction, at least among people who are used to sensitive types.
Is this representative of how women interact professionally as a result of socialization or is it because of the particular personalities that have shaped our lab culture?
Next observation. I have said before that I hate pooping (although I think butts are hilarious). It is the worst part of my day. If I have to Go while at work, I try to be as discreet as possible, even timing my bathroom visit when there are no other women in there. There is a man who works in my vicinity who goes to the bathroom every day with reading material tucked under his arm, clearly headed off to take a shit. Ewww. There have been other men at my work who regularly announce their #2 events. I have never heard a woman in our lab group do that.
Again, is this an example of how gender socialization drives lab culture or is it just individual quirks (i.e. that I am grossed out by the idea of anyone at all making #2 and it just happens that none of the women ever announce it in my presence)?
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Would you eat a ...?
Suppose you are a life/earth scientist on some kind of field expedition. Some calamity occurs that leaves you stranded without food. You are forced to gather and hunt for resources. Let's say that the ecosystem where you are stranded is not very productive, so there are few wild food options in low abundances. You have no indication of when help will come -- you could be rescued tomorrow or maybe not at all. I won't define your group size, i.e. if you are alone or with colleagues.
Would you eat an endangered species to stay alive?
What if it were your study organism?
What if you knew no one would ever find out?
Would you eat an endangered species to stay alive?
What if it were your study organism?
What if you knew no one would ever find out?
Sunday, September 28, 2008
NYR review
I bet you thought I forgot about my New Year's Resolutions. I did not. I just thought reviewing them made for boring blog posts. But it's been a while since I did an update, so here we go.
Project Efficiency
Recap: I was going to stop procrastinating by 1. not fake working 2. setting goals for each next day 3. not blogging at work at all.
Progress: Not bad, but certainly not perfect.
1. I really do try to ask myself if what I'm doing is actually getting me closer to a PhD, or if I'm doing it to avoid what really needs to get done. Keeping this in mind has been remarkably effective at curbing the fake work habit but I could do better.
2. The days when I arrive a work with a to-do list on my desk that I wrote the previous day are definitely the most productive. Unfortunately, I don't make a list for every day. Need to be more consistent.
3. Okay, I confess that I read blogs a little. My rule is to only read blogs in bloglines which means that I can't read or write comments, the big time suck of reading blogs. It also means that while at work, I don't read blogs that don't syndicate the entire post, nor do I move laterally among blogs. So it's restricted to a break time activity rather than a vortex that sucks me in for hours (like it does at home). In addition, I've cut way back at looking at other websites, like MSN and such.
Money
Recap: I was going to save three months' expenses and pay for two overseas trips as well as open an IRA.
Progress: The IRA is humming along, losing money but for the automatic transfers from my savings account each month. The savings was doing great but has been depleted. I only ended up making one big trip, but I had to help EGM with some expenses. So the total is down, but EGM will eventually pay me back. And I still have time, so I might be able to get to the 3 month mark by January.
Health
Recap: I vowed to cook decent meals at least three nights each week and start eating chicken again.
Progress: We eat chicken about 4-6 times per month, which is about what I wanted. I eat some other meat as well, but not too often. We have been cooking pretty regularly but fell off the wagon during busy times this summer. I have clearly gained weight, so I'd like to get a handle on our eating and exercise to reverse that trend.
Work
Recap: 1. submit two papers 2. finish lab work for chapter 2 3. finish lab work for chapter 3 4. get started on or eliminate chapter 4
Progress: 1. Chapter 1 is getting closer to submission form. Research Advisor still hasn't read it, but I did get some good feedback from another colleague. She pointed out some flaws that had me uncomfortable, so I feel like after I deal with them the paper will be really close to ready. It's unlikely that I will get another paper out before the end of the year.
2. done, with the exception of a handful of analyses that will take a few hours.
3. See counter at side bar. After the samples are processed, I'll be delightfully over the hump but I'll still have a bunch more work to do before I have all the data.
4. I dramatically reduced the lab work required for this chapter at my committee meeting, which is a start. I might get started on the lab work before the end of the year, but it will mean trade-offs with other work, like writing chapter 2. Since I think I work best when I divide my time between the office and lab, I'm thinking I might put this lab work off so I don't spend the spring in writing jail. On the other hand, it would feel really good to see this project get rolling.
So that's that. I think I'm still on track to defend in late spring/early summer with some money in the bank and reasonable cholesterol levels. How are your NYRs faring?
Project Efficiency
Recap: I was going to stop procrastinating by 1. not fake working 2. setting goals for each next day 3. not blogging at work at all.
Progress: Not bad, but certainly not perfect.
1. I really do try to ask myself if what I'm doing is actually getting me closer to a PhD, or if I'm doing it to avoid what really needs to get done. Keeping this in mind has been remarkably effective at curbing the fake work habit but I could do better.
2. The days when I arrive a work with a to-do list on my desk that I wrote the previous day are definitely the most productive. Unfortunately, I don't make a list for every day. Need to be more consistent.
3. Okay, I confess that I read blogs a little. My rule is to only read blogs in bloglines which means that I can't read or write comments, the big time suck of reading blogs. It also means that while at work, I don't read blogs that don't syndicate the entire post, nor do I move laterally among blogs. So it's restricted to a break time activity rather than a vortex that sucks me in for hours (like it does at home). In addition, I've cut way back at looking at other websites, like MSN and such.
Money
Recap: I was going to save three months' expenses and pay for two overseas trips as well as open an IRA.
Progress: The IRA is humming along, losing money but for the automatic transfers from my savings account each month. The savings was doing great but has been depleted. I only ended up making one big trip, but I had to help EGM with some expenses. So the total is down, but EGM will eventually pay me back. And I still have time, so I might be able to get to the 3 month mark by January.
Health
Recap: I vowed to cook decent meals at least three nights each week and start eating chicken again.
Progress: We eat chicken about 4-6 times per month, which is about what I wanted. I eat some other meat as well, but not too often. We have been cooking pretty regularly but fell off the wagon during busy times this summer. I have clearly gained weight, so I'd like to get a handle on our eating and exercise to reverse that trend.
Work
Recap: 1. submit two papers 2. finish lab work for chapter 2 3. finish lab work for chapter 3 4. get started on or eliminate chapter 4
Progress: 1. Chapter 1 is getting closer to submission form. Research Advisor still hasn't read it, but I did get some good feedback from another colleague. She pointed out some flaws that had me uncomfortable, so I feel like after I deal with them the paper will be really close to ready. It's unlikely that I will get another paper out before the end of the year.
2. done, with the exception of a handful of analyses that will take a few hours.
3. See counter at side bar. After the samples are processed, I'll be delightfully over the hump but I'll still have a bunch more work to do before I have all the data.
4. I dramatically reduced the lab work required for this chapter at my committee meeting, which is a start. I might get started on the lab work before the end of the year, but it will mean trade-offs with other work, like writing chapter 2. Since I think I work best when I divide my time between the office and lab, I'm thinking I might put this lab work off so I don't spend the spring in writing jail. On the other hand, it would feel really good to see this project get rolling.
So that's that. I think I'm still on track to defend in late spring/early summer with some money in the bank and reasonable cholesterol levels. How are your NYRs faring?
Friday, September 26, 2008
Don't steal my food!
My sister (S3) posted the following anecdote on our family blog. She doesn't know I have this blog so I didn't ask her if I could repost the story here; I'm pretty sure she'd say yes. Her son is 2.5 years old.
[Son] had a small, dry booger on his nose. I flicked it away. [Son] asked me, "Was that a booger, Mama?" I said, "yes". He replied in a very disappointed voice, "I wanted to eat that booger."
I guess I'm not feeding him enough!
Too funny!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Submitted!
I submitted the symposium proposal today. I feel like we did our honest best, so I'm happy with the product. It was a little nerve wracking to press send, especially after a gaff wherein I emailed the section chair a word document with the track changes still on (they hadn't been showing on my screen). A breathed a sigh of relief later in the day, though, when Cauliflower sent me a very nice and reassuring email saying everything looked great.
We still have two outstanding speaker invitations but if they both say yes, the final gender tally will be 7 women and 2 men. For the most part, we simply looked for the best person to represent certain topics and it just happened to be mostly women. Towards the end, I started to feel a little bad that we had so many women and tried to think of more men, but 7 to 2 is how it worked out. That might change if we get refusals, of course. A common complaint for women in science is that they don't get invited to give high profile talks because they just don't occur to the old boys. I didn't want to be a hypocrite. Given that it even crossed my mind, I think we were as fair as possible.
If the proposal is accepted, it will be awesome to know our work was fruitful and to have the exposure of producing the session. Fortunately, the negative consequences of a proposal like this are pretty limited -- it's not like our salaries are riding on it or anything. Even if it's not accepted, this has been a great learning experience. I have been amazed at how positive and supportive everyone has been and it was cool to interact with a few new people.
We still have two outstanding speaker invitations but if they both say yes, the final gender tally will be 7 women and 2 men. For the most part, we simply looked for the best person to represent certain topics and it just happened to be mostly women. Towards the end, I started to feel a little bad that we had so many women and tried to think of more men, but 7 to 2 is how it worked out. That might change if we get refusals, of course. A common complaint for women in science is that they don't get invited to give high profile talks because they just don't occur to the old boys. I didn't want to be a hypocrite. Given that it even crossed my mind, I think we were as fair as possible.
If the proposal is accepted, it will be awesome to know our work was fruitful and to have the exposure of producing the session. Fortunately, the negative consequences of a proposal like this are pretty limited -- it's not like our salaries are riding on it or anything. Even if it's not accepted, this has been a great learning experience. I have been amazed at how positive and supportive everyone has been and it was cool to interact with a few new people.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Consistency is my saving grace
At least, that's my perception. I don't like binge working followed by periods of slacking off. A major theme of this blog is that I believe working at a consistent, sustainable pace is best.
Today reinforced this ethic. I worked a whole bunch of hours last week and I had a great, work-free weekend as a reward. Today I had a doctor's appointment (no big deal, just my annual Lady Inspection which they didn't end up doing because it hasn't been quite a year since my last one) so I stayed home. It was impractical for me to drive to my normal workplace, but I could have gone to campus, since my appointment was at the university health center. I rationalized that I never get anything done there ; I'm there so infrequently that I spend the whole time catching up with people and running errands. But I know that the real reason was lurking in the back of my mind: I worked extra hard last week, so I deserve a day to loaf around. To clarify, I would not have just taken a spontaneous day off for this reason, but since half the day was going to be at the doctor anyway...you know the rest.
This is the trouble when I put in extra time. There's a backlash. Like the writing book says, only a fool rewards writing with a break from writing and I think it's the same with all the rest of our work. I'm a tortoise, not a hare.
Today reinforced this ethic. I worked a whole bunch of hours last week and I had a great, work-free weekend as a reward. Today I had a doctor's appointment (no big deal, just my annual Lady Inspection which they didn't end up doing because it hasn't been quite a year since my last one) so I stayed home. It was impractical for me to drive to my normal workplace, but I could have gone to campus, since my appointment was at the university health center. I rationalized that I never get anything done there ; I'm there so infrequently that I spend the whole time catching up with people and running errands. But I know that the real reason was lurking in the back of my mind: I worked extra hard last week, so I deserve a day to loaf around. To clarify, I would not have just taken a spontaneous day off for this reason, but since half the day was going to be at the doctor anyway...you know the rest.
This is the trouble when I put in extra time. There's a backlash. Like the writing book says, only a fool rewards writing with a break from writing and I think it's the same with all the rest of our work. I'm a tortoise, not a hare.
Communicating to the masses
Alice recently had some press for her impressive NSF Advance grant. She described how awkward she felt being interviewed for a radio story of he achievement. I left a comment on her post describing a much lower profile experience I had with a reporter, but I thought I'd tell more about it here because it opened my eyes to how difficult it is to bridge the gap to lay people (i.e. non-scientists).
I received an award earlier this year and the awarding agency wanted to include a profile of me on their website, as they do for all recipients. Someone from their PR department called me, scheduled an in-person interview, and asked me to respond to a relatively involved questionnaire before the interview to make it more efficient. I spent at least an hour answering the written questions. The next week, we met for the interview. He was a little late and seemed kind of distracted, but very nice. He didn't really ask me too many questions, saying that I had been so thorough on the questionnaire that he didn't need much else. He took a photo of me sitting in a chair, basically a head shot.
The following week, he calledme to say that he needed to follow up on some information, then sent an email with more questions. It was as though he hadn't read my first responses or even looked at the website for the program that had given me the award, a program that is part of his agency! So I spent another hour or so answering more questions and getting him on track. Another week went by, and then I got another request for clarification, this time with really strange stuff in the questions -- he really hadn't understood what I had told him up to that point. So I responded to the latest email, then called him to further explain my answers. More time passed and then I got more requests, this time for an action photo of me in the field or the lab or something. That triggered a whole 'nother mess with a different set of PR people, but in the end one of the technicians took a picture of me at the bench and it was good enough.
About a week later, the reporter sent a draft of the profile asking me to fact-check it. By this point, I decided I would only object to things that were patently incorrect rather than harping on about small misrepresentations of my work. Lo and behold, the piece was pretty good. A final version eventually got posted on the website*.
The point of this post was not to complain about getting press -- I'm very flattered and grateful for both the award and the coverage -- but rather to demonstrate how difficult it can be to express yourself to lay people. The specifics of what I do aren't well known to most people, but I think the main idea and big picture goals certainly are. I had no idea this guy didn't get it after the first conversation, which makes me think that most lay people who I tell about my work don't get it. The most interesting thing was how my family reacted. I shared the profile with them and they all said that the finally understood what I do. I sincerely thought that they already did understand! I had no idea how poorly I had relayed my research, or even the motivation for my research, to my family. It was really a lesson in how differently you have to talk to non-scientists.
I guess this communication is my theme lately. Sorry to harp on this topic.
* Apparently, this was enough to kick up my Google ranking. I have a common name, so it used to take my name plus a keyword to get results for me on the first page. Now you can do it without any keywords and I'm there. neat!
I received an award earlier this year and the awarding agency wanted to include a profile of me on their website, as they do for all recipients. Someone from their PR department called me, scheduled an in-person interview, and asked me to respond to a relatively involved questionnaire before the interview to make it more efficient. I spent at least an hour answering the written questions. The next week, we met for the interview. He was a little late and seemed kind of distracted, but very nice. He didn't really ask me too many questions, saying that I had been so thorough on the questionnaire that he didn't need much else. He took a photo of me sitting in a chair, basically a head shot.
The following week, he calledme to say that he needed to follow up on some information, then sent an email with more questions. It was as though he hadn't read my first responses or even looked at the website for the program that had given me the award, a program that is part of his agency! So I spent another hour or so answering more questions and getting him on track. Another week went by, and then I got another request for clarification, this time with really strange stuff in the questions -- he really hadn't understood what I had told him up to that point. So I responded to the latest email, then called him to further explain my answers. More time passed and then I got more requests, this time for an action photo of me in the field or the lab or something. That triggered a whole 'nother mess with a different set of PR people, but in the end one of the technicians took a picture of me at the bench and it was good enough.
About a week later, the reporter sent a draft of the profile asking me to fact-check it. By this point, I decided I would only object to things that were patently incorrect rather than harping on about small misrepresentations of my work. Lo and behold, the piece was pretty good. A final version eventually got posted on the website*.
The point of this post was not to complain about getting press -- I'm very flattered and grateful for both the award and the coverage -- but rather to demonstrate how difficult it can be to express yourself to lay people. The specifics of what I do aren't well known to most people, but I think the main idea and big picture goals certainly are. I had no idea this guy didn't get it after the first conversation, which makes me think that most lay people who I tell about my work don't get it. The most interesting thing was how my family reacted. I shared the profile with them and they all said that the finally understood what I do. I sincerely thought that they already did understand! I had no idea how poorly I had relayed my research, or even the motivation for my research, to my family. It was really a lesson in how differently you have to talk to non-scientists.
I guess this communication is my theme lately. Sorry to harp on this topic.
* Apparently, this was enough to kick up my Google ranking. I have a common name, so it used to take my name plus a keyword to get results for me on the first page. Now you can do it without any keywords and I'm there. neat!
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