Science 2 March 2012:
Vol. 335 no. 6072 pp. 1031-1031
DOI:10.1126/science.335.6072.1031
Vol. 335 no. 6072 pp. 1031-1031
DOI:10.1126/science.335.6072.1031
News & Analysis
Half-Time Jobs, Full-Time Scientists
Half-time tenure-track slots that would allow women to be productive researchers while giving them more time to raise a family are one ingredient in Wendy Williams and Stephen Ceci's recipe for change.
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Hopingtobe Anonymous
I think we need to acknowledge that this agreement works for this particular couple. I worked in Universities for a long time and found many couples with both partners being in academia, and thought that was the norm. Then in the industry, I found that this is NOT the norm, especially as this is frowned upon (you know people being in the same field under the same manager, such as the Dean in this case)..... YET women do very well in those fields. Lawyers come to mind, where women outnumber men.
I wonder in this age, whether women are given a real choice. My wife feels enormous pressure to work, even though she dislikes being in research (has a good record), and wants to work with "nice" people. She wants to be a Starbucks barista, but feels that everyone will harrass ME if she does that. Imagine - she is worried that I would be perceived as being an unaccommodative husband who sacrifices his wife's career for his (frankly I'll tell society, bring it, but she won't listen).
Perhaps testosterone - most female postdocs I hire go to industry, the males ... well.... they want to make it to academia and are still struggling through a second postdoc - it's a huge risk. Less than 10% will make it. On the other hand, women are forced to make a decision around 33-37....men unfortunately aren't. So most women I know have decided enough is enough at this stage. Most men persist, only to be crushed by the reality of decling faculty position numbers, and the "preference" they give to under-represented sexes. The system is not flawed, it just picks people who are persistent in the wake of constant failure..... as that is the nature of good research too.
Don't like it, do research elsewhere (national lab, industry lab etc.). Lots of good scientists work in those places and do highly productive research. Or even better, both sexes can find a partner AFTER you hit the tenure track, as then you don't have to sacrifice.
Kudos to this couple for making their life happen, and being happy about it. Frankly a >$100K pay for two people is in anyway way above full-time working couple averages. The real sacrifice is after all, whether you're willing to NOT buy that 4 bedroom house with a large garden, and instead live in a 2 bed flat like the rest of the poor world for the sake of science.
Matt Pritchard
This thread, might be dead, but I wanted to clarify a few points.
*My main motive for accepting this 1/2 time position was the realization that a full-time faculty job building up a tenure application requires 60-70+ hours/week for most people. I was willing to take a pay cut to "only" work 40-50 hours/week while raising a family and to allow both my wife and I to be equal on the tenure track. This is not the choice that everyone would take, but I was glad to have the option. We entered this arrangement with open eyes and I have been contacted by several people who would accept the same terms. The university will offer my wife and I full-time positions when they are available.
*There is no requirement that half-time positions require your spouse to be a close colleague or even that you are married at all. My opinion is that more universities should offer these flexible positions -- go half-time for a few years (extending the tenure clock, if needed) and go back to full-time when ready.
*Our arrangement is different from most "soft money" positions that I know of i that there is no penalty if we do not raise addition salary with grants, and thus there is no pressure (other than financial).
*I do not feel taken advantage of by the university, because I chose this arrangement. It is also a question of perspective: Is it fair that employees private universities get paid more than employees of most public universities? Is it fair that employees of private companies with my same qualifications are paid more than academics?
Mostly Anonymous
"It is a sweet deal for the department. Despite earning a half-time salary, the couple figure they work pretty much full-time."
The couple must be both really passionate about their research and completely oblivious to the fact that they are basically getting severely taken advantage of. If the university tried to do this with an hourly employee (like a secretary or janitor), the university would be blindsided by a dozen law suits and investigations before the day was out.
This isn't a solution, this is a scam.
Michael Koelle
These half-time faculty positions basically give in to the current terrible system of tenure-track jobs that are incompatible with having a family. Both men and women ought to be able to hold a properly paid full-time job that allow them to have children and spend time with their family and still have a realistic chance of winning tenure. I sympathize with couples who have used the half-time positions as a mechanism to cope with the current system, but the answer is not to encourage more 1/2 time positions but to fix the system so these scientists can be properly rewarded for the full-time work they do.
Adam Drake
The solution should perhaps be simpler still. Instead of requiring someone to marry a close colleague to benefit why not create part time faculty positions - 1/2 time, half salary, half annual admin/teaching duty and double the length of the Tenure clock (with the option of going to tenure review at any point after the normal 6-7 years).
Make the option available to both men and women so there is no 'second class citizen' stigma.
Anonymous Anonymous
So, you're being allowed to take on a smaller teaching load, with the expectation that you'll write grants to make up for it? That's just the norm in a lot of biomedical departments anyhow. The "part-time" nomenclature is very misleading.
Sesha Shayee
I am not sure how a half-time position is a great start for a career in academia. I am in a position with a 50% appointment while my spouse is a full time now tenured faculty in the same department. We also worked with the same advisor. I have been in this position for over 7 yrs now and am effectively on a slow and painful death in research. In my 50% position I do not have lab space, I cannot take on grad students, I do not get a vote in the faculty meetings and many other restrictions. This article seems like going backwards to me. The dept is getting a real sweet deal and they will do nothing to improve the situation for us. Why should they - pay some one full time when they are getting that and much more by paying the same person half time. Academia stinks - pretenseful out and out - making it seem like they are so accomodative but they are more cut throat that corporations.
Rowena Lohman
Good afternoon,
I wanted to make one clarification, since I don't think there was room in the article to go into detail. Our half-research, half-teaching position does allow us to raise the other half of our salary, which we do a fair job of. Also, half-time teaching is a very big deal for someone who is trying to build a research program from scratch - it means that I have a full term each year that I can devote entirely to my research and graduate students. I expect to teach full time at some point, but at this stage in my career I appreciate the extra time to devote to research.
A very common dual-career mode is for one member to be a full-time faculty member and one to be a soft-money research scientist (we were offered several combinations of this with one or the other being the tenure-track member). Our situation in total is equivalent to that in many ways, except that we like the equality that it creates between us. We also get a full vote each in faculty meetings, which is important to us.
This certainly will not work for everyone - but for us it strikes a good balance. I should also state that we are in the same subfield and had a common thesis adviser. This added to the difficulty involved in finding two full-time tenure-track positions in a single location.
Rowena
Xiangli Yang
The title has said it all, it seems to be illegal to hire someone who does full-time job with half of the salary.
Anonymous Anonymous
Oh boy, full-time work for half-time pay? With near-zero maternity leave? What a huge step forward for women!! As a female postdoc with a kid, I have so much to look forward to!
Valerie Coffman
I don't see how it helps for two reasons. First, I agree with Julia. If your spouse is not in academia, this split-tenure track won't help. If a 1/2 track existed without the spouse, then maybe that would help. Secondly, if they still feel that they are working full time, then how is it different from having a full tenure-track position? It doesn't sound like the expectations are lower. In fact she still needed an extension on tenure similar to what many departments offer to women having children.
Andrew Cox
"It is a sweet deal for the department. Despite earning a half-time salary, the couple figure they work pretty much full-time."
Boy, it is a great deal for the department. In fact, why don't they just make all of their appointments 1/2 time and get full time work out of it?
Julia Myatt
The only problem with this story is the fact that the husband-wife team are both academics and are able to job-share! I'm a female scientist, stuck in the classic position of choosing whether to battle through a few more temporary contracts to try and get a permanent position by my late-30s, or to look for an alternative career that enables me to have a family in my early 30s. The 2 just don't seem to be compatable and I rarely have any examples of women that have made it work. Most of the cases I can cite are part of an academic duo and by working together they can keep up the research output of the woman while she has children. This just isn't as likely to happen for those of us with partners in non-academic positions.
Nimesh Mody
I think you have identified the real problem that won't be solved by flexible working hours or on-site childcare facilities (both of which are helpful). Together with the reality that the the male partner maybe earning considerably more in a secure job environment and not pulling his weight in the home, whereas a research career is just getting ridiculously difficult to sustain.