Thursday, November 17, 2011

Being that woman

I wrote yesterday about how much it makes me feel better about a department where the men have pictures of themselves with kids. And how much I notice that a woman never chooses to picture herself with children.

In the vein of "be the change you want to see in the world" I'm wondering if I should put a picture of Epsilon and myself on my webpage. My pictures need to be updated anyway. I've cut my hair since, and have had experiences of people trying to recognize me from my website and fail.

I don't know that I have the courage to do so, and I don't know if it will help at this point. The job market is a hirer's market now, so pictures on webpages may have less to do with who applies to a place than "do you have a job in my specialty". But since these things are cyclical, it will be a seeker's market again in a few years, and having a picture of Epsilon may be a useful recruitment tool.


The other question to consider is whether or not having a picture of female faculty with kids will add to the recruitment effort of drawing grad students any more than having pictures of female faculty period. It would have for me, but I didn't have a female science professor until I was a junior as an undergrad, and thus keenly aware of the gender imbalance. What say other people?
A picture of a female faculty member with kids would
Increase my odds of applying to that grad school
Not effect my odds of applying to the grad school
Decrease my odds of applying to the grad school



  
pollcode.com free polls 
A picture of a female faculty member with kids would
Increase my odds of applying for a job at the school
Not effect my odds of applying for a job at the school
Decrease my odds of applying for a job at the school



  
pollcode.com free polls 
Update: I just found 1 woman with a prominent link off her faculty page to her personal web page that has artistic pictures of her kids, husband, favorite vacation spot, etc. This just made my weekend. To bad the rest of the department is not as interesting.

Update (Nov 21) : I have been contacted by a female reader that she also has links to her children on her page. Two instances seems to be the critical number for me to get my courage up. Thank you.

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