NudiBooty

Bornella anguilla

Bornella anguilla is a species of sea slug in the family Bornellidae. This species is widely distributed throughout the tropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific. This species can grow up to a length of 8 cm.

Being the change you want to see in the world is challenging.  Inherently this means that you are doing something that doesn’t quite fit within the status quo.  Also, you can’t be the change; you just create a little wiggle room and hope for company.  I should know, I just finished my PhD and am a woman.  This means I am on the precipice that few women pass.

Survey data shows that the reason women leave academia at this point is that they go into non-academic jobs and/or stay home with children.  This work life balance isn’t unreasonable to want; in fact we lose many good minds, conscientious collaborators and caring instructors by not valuing work life balance in academia.  Disproportionate to their male colleagues, women who succeed in academia are likely to be single and childless. I am not married and I have no children so at least I have that going for me…but I have supported my advisor’s decision to go home to his family in the early afternoon for years and will support my colleagues in their work life balance regardless of whether or not my personal situation changes.  I hope that others will join in that support, regardless of gender and family status since without consciousness these disparities will be perpetuated.

I have noticed throughout my PhD that my fellow female graduate students and I devoted a lot more of our time to outreach than male counterparts.  Traditionally, the opinion is that women are not as enabled in no saying as their male counterparts and that plays a big role in the extra committee and extracurricular activities that decrease women scientists’ competitive edge by eroding away time needed for research.  I disagree that is the whole story although I think that disparity is important to consider.  I, and many others, went out of our way to seek out outreach opportunities not merely agree to them when they were offered, even against the advice of our supervisors or at best without their encouragement.  As I finish up my PhD, after two years of involvement with NAPIRE (Native American and Pacific Islander Research Experience), a year as a resident scientist at a high school, and many outreach events, I believe I understand why I feel so driven to continue outreach even in defiance of my best interest in the moment.  This world of white male professors is not my world and I’m doing my best to carve out some space here for women and minorities.  The effort required to carve this space is time other colleagues spend on skillset building and research and that perpetuates the inequality.