Tuesday, October 2, 2012

In search of an old post

I have a vague recollection of reading a post a while back (2 years ago? 3 years?) about women in science putting the brakes on their careers for impending motherhood years in advance. I recall the advice being something like, "Go do your awesome science all-out, don't put the brakes on before you've even started, and it won't matter when you take maternity leave because your science will be so badass that they won't doubt your ability to keep it up." Obviously I'm paraphrasing here and I might have gotten part of the message wrong, but is this ringing a bell for anyone else? Was it a post by Isis? I've been searching her blog but I can't find what I'm looking for. Where did I read this???

6 comments:

gigirose said...

yeah, i'm pretty sure that was an Isis post. Or maybe Female Science Prof?

Karina said...

Thanks gigirose! I'm glad to know that someone else remembers it. Now if only we can find it...

Alyssa said...

I was thinking either Cloud, or at least she posted a link to it...have asked on Twitter!

Karina said...

Thanks Alyssa! Any luck? I don't read Cloud, but sounds like I should.

Alexandra said...

There's also the Sheryl Sandberg TED talk about not leaving before you leave (on maternity leave).

http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html

It's not about science specifically but about women and careers and encourages women to not mentally check out before they leave and to keep trying hard, or even harder, before they go on maternity leave. It applies to things other than maternity leave. It is also about actively going for things you want at work (a promotion, increase in salary, etc.). It's worth watching.

Karina said...

Thanks Alexandra! This MUST be the original source. I hadn't watched this before, but I must have read about it on a blog. Maybe I'll show it to my class!