To pour or not to pour?

Last night a group of 7 female lecturers and senior postdocs went out for some celebrations following my promotion to professor. The group included both UK and international scientists, 2 lecturers (with varying experience), 1 reader and 1 professor (elect) and 3 senior research scientists who don't have a teaching role. There were many interesting discussions, both work related and otherwise. However, one that came up was the issue of interacting with our male colleagues in the semi-formal environment of conferences and meetings. Experiences included being the only person not introduced to the group by the senior male colleague, some people uncomfortable with the idea of shaking hands with women (we *hope* this is soon to be a thing of the past in the UK as it seems to be a generational thing - in other cultures this may not be the case), and being mistaken for a secretary rather than a research scientist. Several in the group also reported the difficulty of looking "youthful and girly" although being senior scientist in the group, and the issues with being taken seriously. Colleagues with substantial fraction of grey hair, or large physical presence were felt to be taken more seriously even if their experience and skills were the same as, or lesser than, our own. An excellent related post and discussion can be found at the FemaleScienceProfessor blog.

One colleague made the point that she never, ever pours the tea or coffee at a meeting where male colleagues are dominant, on principle. Talking to my other half this morning, he felt this was an over-reaction (he has in the past worked in an environment with 2 men in a department of 17 women and had to put up with inappropriate labels concerning his sexuality as a result). I am not sure - but I suspect I end up pouring tea and coffee and sorting out immediate domestic issues at meetings more often than some of my male colleagues... so.. would you pour or not????

7 un-interrupted hours of...

...reading! Yesterday I had a total of 7 hours on cross-country trains going to and returning from giving a seminar up in the north west of the UK. This is what I acheived:

• reviewed a paper for a journal
• read and critiqued a 6 monthly progress report from 1st year PhD student
• read and critiqued a draft paper from a postdoc
• read "good practice guides" on PhD supervision and examining issued by our new university Grad School
• read the documentation for the "Research Development Framework" which is a national scheme to encourage career and professional development of research staff
• read the guidelines for applicants to an EU funding scheme so as to understand what a Spanish postdoc who wants to come work with me will need from me as the host supervisor

At my destination I gave a 1 hour research seminar, and spent 3 hours with a collaborator thrashing out the structure of and roles in preparing a consortium proposal due 1 July.

If only every day were so productive. I think most faculty in my department appreciate the pleasures of long distance (relatively) comfortable travel as an opportunity to catch up on things without interruptions. Of course the downside is usually a morning fire-fighting to clear the "emergencies" that happened while you were away, but I got home last night with a curious amount of adrenalin in my system given the length of the day in total.

Actually there was one interruption on the trip up north. A gentleman decided that it would be a good idea to put an open bottle of red wine horizontally in the overhead luggage rack. By the time he realised it had leaked, it had soaked through my rucksack. The contents were ok, but the bag itself smelt like the aftermath of a particularly good party and was dripping red wine. In an unusually assertive moment I extracted compensation from the gentleman concerned (he turned out to be a rather elderly Australian academic which made me feel a bit guilty - should it have?) and purchased the largest "bag" I could find that didn't look like a beach bag at the station forecourt branch of an "accessories" shop. I guess some of my colleagues would just have decanted everything into a carrier bag but I am searching for that elusive "stylish female academic who is still taken seriously" image at the moment. If anyone out there has found it, please let me know!!

Congratulations?

Well, the news about my promotion has been public for a week now and I have been very interested in the response I have got. The few people who were closely involved in my application were told first and they were very pleased and congratulatory. I then told current and past members of my research group via email (and promised them a meal out to celebrate) and got some nice emails and some shy personal congratulations from the more junior ones. Then when our Head of School made the news properly public by email a few people in our large department sent me short congratulatory emails - these were mostly people I don't know very well but exchange "hellos" with in the coffee room every once in a while. It staggers me that a few people who I work with more routinely, including vast numbers of our lecturing staff have not emailed me or said anything in person, despite having the opportunity. I have always congratulated people in a similar situation.

One potential reason is that our Department is quite large, and more importantly has grown very rapidly over the past 10 years. In fact we have been having discussions recently about whether we need to create subdivisions to stop increasing fragmentation and restore the friendly collegiate nature which our students and postgraduates value. However, opinion is divided as to whether this would indeed help, or just make matters worse. I'd be interested in the experiences of people who work in large research intensive departments where different structures are in place. Do you find your department to be collaborative or a collection of individual researchers? Does creating subdivisions help or hinder?

Professor (elect) at last...

So, after 10 years of lecturing, last week I got my promotion to Professor (from the coming October) confirmed. I work in a physical science based department in a research intensive University in the UK and am one of 3 female professors on a faculty staff of 25 or so. I've worked hard to get where I am, and had two maternity breaks in the last 4 years (now have 2 pre-school age children). I thought it was time to embrace some new things, and to find a space to talk about academia, women and family. I am hoping there will be some interesting discussions, and to meet some new colleagues from across the world. Female Physical Science Professors are still a relatively rare species so there's a chance something I blog about might be useful to those still climbing the ladder - I hope so! I don't promise to be blogging every day, but I'll be here pretty often.

For now though, I've got a Board of Studies to go to....