Career Breaks (in Physics)

Send email to careerbreaks at earthlink dot net.

A web page devoted to the dissemination of information about career breaks for scientists with the main focus being physics and related fields. By "career break" I mean any deviation from the usual full-time job commitment. This includes everything from not working at all for a few months or years, to having a reduced schedule.

• My articles on career-break grants and my career break from, repsectively, the Spring '04 and Fall '06 issues of "The Gazette." A newsletter published by the APS's Committee on the Status of Women in Physics.
• In March 2006, Symmetry Magazine published an article describing my career path and discussing career breaks in physics.
• People who have done it!
• Grants amenable to people with a career break - the Blewett Scholarship is here
• More information; places where the career break issue is discussed
  The new National Academies report, the ACE report on academic flexibility and the Academe issue on career and family can be found in this section.
• Thoughts and ideas from myself and others
• Other links for/about women in science and dual-career information.
• Links for/about familes in science, academia.
• Email me at careerbreaks at earthlink dot net.

Shireen Adenwalla (sadenwal at unlserv.unl.edu)
Condensed Matter Experimentalist
She took intermittent time off to raise a family, worked part time and on soft money for approximately 5 years (two body problem). Dr. Adenwalla is currently in a tenure-track position at the Department of Physics, University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

Jackie Johnson (jaj at anl.gov)
Material Science: amorphous materials
She took 10 years off from research to start a family of four children. She did some intermittent teaching during that time. Dr. Johnson is currently a staff scientist at Argonne National Lab in the Tribology Section of Energy Technology.

Catherine Mavriplis (mavripli at gwu.edu)
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: fluids, heat transfer, aerodynamics, computational techniques
She began working in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The George Washington University after obtaining her Ph.D. from MIT and doing a post-doc at Princeton. Four children later, she is a Research Scientist at the University of Oklahoma (NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory) and teaches part-time, via distance education, at George Washington.

This information was collected by Elizabeth Freeland. Information about other grants suitable for persons with career breaks can be sent to her at careerbreaks at earthlink dot net ( email ).

Forward to Professorship in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics
This is a NSF funded workshop sponsored by the George Washington & Gallaudet Universities. "This workshop is provided for women and minorities who may be considering, or are currently in, a tenure track position in science, engineering or mathematics." Attending this workshop can be useful to someone ready to return to a full-time career.

American Association of University Women: American Fellowships
There are three fellowships open to scientist and non-scientist: one for postdoctoral research, one for dissertation writing, and one that is short-term for research publication. Applicants who have taken time off and/or work part time will be considered.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: Sloan Research Fellowships
Applicants with career breaks due to special circumstances such as military service, a change of field, or child rearing will be considered.

APS's M. Hildred Belwett Scholarship for Women in Physics
The creation of this scholarship was announced in the November '04 issue of APS News . The scholarship will target women with career breaks, women who want to change fields, and women in their first academic position.
This year's (2005) deadline has past. An announcement of the recipient is expected in September. You can find more information here: M. Hildred Blewett Scholarship

NSF ADVANCE Program
There are three types of awards in this program targeted towards women. The Fellows Award is targeted towards individuals who have had disruptions to their careers. There are conditions of eligibility, such as previous employment, which exclude certain circumstances. NOTE: As of December '04 future guidlines/solicitations are unavailible for this program. It seems to be on hold... Check the NSF website for current status.

The Daphne Jackson Trust
Anyone interested in re-entry or re-training grants should look over this website. For specific program information, click on the "fellowships" tab at the top. For actual funds though, it's only useful to residents of the U.K.

Beyond Bias and Barriers is the 2006 report from the National Academies. Scroll down to access the free, online version.

Creating Options: Models for Flexible Academic Career Pathways a report from the American Council on Education's Office of Women in Higher Education funded by the A.P. Sloan Foundation. The executive summary is availible as a 12 page pdf and gives suggestions to institutions for creating flexibile career paths. Arguments for the need for flexibility are also reviewed here.

The Nov/Dec 2004 issue of Academe from AAUP is dedicated to work-family issues. Titles include: Working Part Time After Tenure, Hitting the Maternal Wall (a nice overview of the current situation), and Balancing Work and Family for Faculty: Why It's Important. As of December '04 these are articles are availible online.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education has many archived articles concerning women and families in academe. Topics such as reduced schedules, and staying vs. leaving are not uncommon. Six month and month-to-month subscriptions are available. All their materials can be accessed online once you have a subscription. Without it one is limited to certain sections. Some example article titles are:

• From October 14, 2004, Part-timers on the Tenure Track by Joan Williams reviews the possibility of working part-time on the tenure track and gives some sucess stories.
• From August 15, 2003 As Good as it Gets: A review of some faculty perks including sections entitled Family Friendly Policies and Happy Trailing Spouses.
• Why some women quit their coveted tenure-track jobs by Piper Fogg; an article about women getting on, and off, the tenure track.
• How Academe Treats Mothers by Joan Williams, discusses assumptions we all make about women, men, and mothers.
• Who Cheats the Childless? by Joan Williams, discusses the backlash against hiring couples, and some suggestions for administrators

• When Professors Go to War by Robin Wilson, August 6th, 2004.

Children & Childcare

• Automatic tenure clock delay, 1-year per child, for men and women; faculty would have to ask to opt out of this.
• On-site day care, especially for young children as it's generally hardest to find daycare for babies.
• On-site sick-child daycare, and babysitter-backup daycare; both could be limited so as to prevent abuse (e.g., 2 weeks per year, max) but could provide the crucial backup when other backups fail.
• Keep departmental/business/institutional meetings between hours of 9 and 5 (or better still, 10 and 4).
• See the last chapter (pgs 140 - 142) of Sue Rosser's book "The Science Glass Ceiling" (2004) for more ideas.

• Locate childcare centers with "drop-in" policies.
• Help organize "shared" childcare. Sharing the expense of baby-care with another parent could make the cost more accessible without overloading the caregiver. The caregiver could even charge more, but it wouldn't be a factor of two for two babies. For older kids, some sharing is even easier because they can play together rather than pulling their siblings hair.
• "Web-cast" meeting sessions. Participants could check in to a web-cast during the talks they miss, especially if they couldn't find a sitter for all the sessions.
• For big meetings at hotels/conference centers, create a "parents" room (like some churches do) and pipe a televised version of some talks and discussion into the room. This could be a staffed daycare room as well. Parents who needed to check in with their child or nurse a baby would not have to miss a popular talk.
• Establish a child-care grant: applicants would explain why the meeting is important to their career, and what child-care support they need (payment for babysitter at home, or at meeting, or for someone to accompany applicant and take care of children).
• Create a childcare subsidizing fund that attendees could apply to. Subsidies could be given out by status (sort of like Aspen subsidizes housing at the Physics institutes - grad students get more, full professors get none, etc.)

American Physical Society, APS The Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) sponsors WIPHYS, a listserv, and a newsletter, "The Gazette". Information for both can be found at:

American Astronomical Society, AAS Their committee on the status of women (CSWA) has a web site and a weekly email newsletter "AASWomen".

IUPAP Working Group on Women in Physics sponsored an International Conference in 2002. On the web site is a list of recommendations which covers: General Recommendations Attracting Girls into Physics (childhood to university) Launching a Successful Career (University to Mid-Career) Balancing Family and Career Getting Women into Physics Leadership International Aspects In addition there are links to grants, jobs, women's groups, and conferences. The conference proceedings can be purchased from the publisher, AIP, at here. ISBN 0-7354-0074-1

chillyclimate.org from AWIS (Association for Women in Science) One could easily spend a lunch break browsing the information on this site. For administrators or others interested in improving academic life of women physicist try the "Model Program and Policies" and "Recommendations" links. There are also links for resources (grants), statistics, literature, surveys, and more.

Becoming Leaders: A Handbook for Women In Science, Engineering and Technology written by F. Mary Williams and Carolyn J. Emerson From the web site: "Becoming Leaders provides practical information to assist women in science, engineering and technology fields to advance their careers and develop their leadership style." This book has a lot of practical advice and deals with all the steps and directions of one's career. See their website for a table of contents and ordering information.

The Chronicle of Higher Education The Chronicle of Higher Education has many articles concerning women and families in academe. Six month and month-to-month subscriptions are available. All their materials can be accessed online once you have a subscription. Without it one is limited to certain sections. Some example article titles are:

• From August 15, 2003 "As Good as it Gets": A review of some faculty perks including sections entitled "Family Friendly Policies" and "Happy Trailing Spouses".
• "Why some women quit their coveted tenure-track jobs" by Piper Fogg; an article about women getting on, and off, the tenure track.
• "How Academe Treats Mothers" by Joan Williams, discusses assumptions we all make about women, men, and mothers.
• "Who Cheats the Childless?" by Joan Williams, discusses the backlash against hiring couples, and some suggestions for administrators
• On going announcements of grants targeting specific applicants or projects. See "New Grant and Research Competitions".

As mentioned above, the Nov/Dec 2004 issue of "Academe" from AAUP is dedicated to work-family issues. Titles include: "Working Part Time After Tenure", "Hitting the Maternal Wall", and "Balancing Work and Family for Faculty: Why It's Important". As of December '04 these are articles are availible online.

From the April '04 Issue of the Chronicle of Higer Ed: Singing the Grad-School Baby Blues by Joan C. Williams.

See the last chapter (pgs 140 - 142) of Sue Rosser's book "The Science Glass Ceiling" (2004) for ideas about institutional change AND institutions testing these changes.

Jerry Jacob's website has links to his sociological studies done with grad student Sarah Winslow. Recent work includes studies of the time demands of academic life, its affect on work-family balance, and its role in the perpetuation of gender inequality. to the top