Just read an interesting little blog piece on the growing numbers of women studying science and the tough choices they often face after graduation and entrance to the workforce. I don't have much to add but I think it's important to think about these issues and I think this is a good conversation starter. Check out the full post at The Intersection: On Sacrificing Reproductive Fitness for Career Advancement:
As Natalie Angier
rightly points out, women are making tremendous strides in science and
engineering earning 40 percent of U.S. doctorates in 2006 (up from eight percent 50 years ago). But we've still got a long way to go in terms of leveling the playing field after graduation.
Angier
references a recent survey of 160,000 Ph.D. recipients that found 70
percent of male tenured professors were married with children while
only 44 percent of their female counterparts were. Further, twelve
years or more after receiving doctorates, tenured women were more than "twice as likely as tenured men to be single and significantly more likely to be divorced."
Another California study reported nearly double the number of female
faculty agree with the statement, "I had fewer children than I wanted,"
compared to men.
Comments