3 ms·

Academia in a certain era, at least in the US, used to acknowledge that it posed several specific difficulties for relationships and families, and addressed the

by cge 3y ago

Academia in a certain era, at least in the US, used to acknowledge that it posed several specific difficulties for relationships and families, and addressed them through policies and programs, for example, spousal hiring policies, family housing, university-run childcare, child-friendly working policies, preferential admission and tuition for children of university staff, etc. I was born and raised in academia; for a while, it worked reasonably well. There was the sense that universities often saw themselves as being a bit like villages in that respect. It has been depressing to see how much of that is now gone, seemingly often ostensibly for reasons of fairness. Of course, before that time, there were also problems, like the embarrassment of refusing to hire Goeppert-Mayer, that may have led to the relationship accommodations in the first place.

dfxm12 3y ago
seemingly often ostensibly for reasons of fairness. Nah, university presidents are just greedy and wanted to play with that money themselves.
- cge 3y ago
  Of course. It's just that fairness is often given as a reason, especially since the accommodations often might be unfair in other professions, but were meant to counteract specific unfair problems. For example, spousal hiring could be seen as nepotism; in the case of Goeppert-Mayer, it famously wasn't allowed because of that. Yet outside of a handful of major cities, the local university is often the only place in the area someone can have a strong academic career, and academic careers often involve moving, so for a couple to both have academic careers, they often need to find a university willing to hire them both, and to search for positions together, something that is very difficult, especially when in different fields, unless the university has procedures to handle it. Add to this that academics often have social lives within academia, and this can become a very common difficulty.

by cge 3y ago

dfxm12 3y ago

seemingly often ostensibly for reasons of fairness. Nah, university presidents are just greedy and wanted to play with that money themselves.

cge 3y ago
Of course. It's just that fairness is often given as a reason, especially since the accommodations often might be unfair in other professions, but were meant to counteract specific unfair problems. For example, spousal hiring could be seen as nepotism; in the case of Goeppert-Mayer, it famously wasn't allowed because of that. Yet outside of a handful of major cities, the local university is often the only place in the area someone can have a strong academic career, and academic careers often involve moving, so for a couple to both have academic careers, they often need to find a university willing to hire them both, and to search for positions together, something that is very difficult, especially when in different fields, unless the university has procedures to handle it. Add to this that academics often have social lives within academia, and this can become a very common difficulty.