Lost and Found

[userj]

Well, I left my wallet and keys at the bus stop today.  It was different from other times I've lost things because I knew about 10 minutes afterwards what I had done.   Another difference was that although I knew exactly where they were, it was almost impossible at that point for me to go back and get them.   Thanks to nice people, they've been

Comments

[nightswatch]

I feel like the "most female grad students are married" assumption is a pretty HUGE one. Is there evidence to back that up? Just thinking about it, I realize that despite my skepticism, a majority of the female grad students I know are married (or as good as). That's pretty anecdotal though.

[gildeddawn]

Well I may be "as good as," but I'm also alone and more than willing to go out for beer.

I agree with Ryan, however, that your advisor is basing his conjectures on poorly-founded personal anecdotal evidence and I'd also add that he is unwise, at best, to use this idea to imply that more female graduate students will negatively impact academia. Collaboration over beer entirely aside, academia is lucky to have us and has tried to keep us out for far too long. Attitudes like this, founded or unfounded, are unhelpful.

I realize that the structure of the Buckyball was first scrawled on a beer napkin, but it could as easily have been written in lipstick on a bathroom mirror.

[salieri]

I missed it the first time I read your comment, but I really like that last line.

[salieri]

I'm prepared to call bullshit here too. Even accepting as true the dubious claim that women are mostly married and won't go drink beer, I still seriously doubt there would be a negative impact on research. Social gatherings over beer might be a convenient way to talk to colleagues, but if that's no longer true then people will form those collaborations in other ways. It's not as though physics stopped when people didn't get together at Huygens' place. If people can't meet at night or in a bar, then they'll find other times and venues.

Also, along the lines of what Claire said, it's myopic to see the pool of people entering academia more than double and think the discipline will suffer because they aren't as singularly devoted to the work as the smaller group was. Unless he thinks women are just dumber than men then his field now can have 2 geniuses for every 1 they had in the past. That doesn't sound so negative to me.

[nightswatch]

And anyway, doesn't current social science tell us that none of us are spending time with real people anyway, we're all just on facebook? His argument is so 20th century.

[bramakote]

I'll drink to that.

[userj]

Sort of replying to everyone above...

OK so, I don't really think my boss would think that this would affect "the discipline" negatively, but more simply that these sorts of collaborations will occur less often (I said "...could (negatively?) affect these sorts of intellectual collaborations...").

It's a form of the more common "couple problem" where some people when they have a permanent partner tend to not feel as obligated to form strong social connections with others (like my personal example above).

Also that people who are married to other busy professionals tend to be very busy and have less time outside of work to do things like talk about science with their peers in a social setting.

And, if women are more likely to A) be in a couple and B) be in a couple with another busy professional...

Also wow, sheesh people you are definitely jumping to conclusions about by boss thinking women are stupid and/or doesn't want women in science?!

[kitkatlj]

My opinion is that your boss should not be lamenting the loss of "intellectual collaborations"--he should be working to stop them from happening if he's really going to miss them so much!

He knows why they'd happen. I have NO pity for his feelings of loss if he isn't out there working to stop it by mentoring young men around him to take care of home chores as much as women do.

[userj]

"if he isn't out there working to stop it by mentoring young men around him to take care of home chores..."

This is beside the point...

If a woman is married to another busy professional they will each take care of 1/2 of the house work. Nearly all women who are married & in graduate school are married to another busy professional.

Conversely, almost zero women (but some men) are likely to have a partner who takes care of everything at home.

Additionally, fewer men than women are married in graduate school because men tend to marry ~3 years later than women.

[userj]

Conversely, almost zero women (but some men) are likely to have a partner who takes care of everything at home.

Wanted to clarify, I mean here that fewer women have a "stay at home husband" than men have a "stay at home wife".

[lenulus]

if you conversely twice, does something awful happen to the space-time continuum?

[luke123]

The only thing I want to add is that one reason to go out for a beer when you're single is to meet single women. If women are coming along too, the experience is greatly enhanced.

[lenulus]

all of my graduate school friends here say BULLSHIT!