I've heard about this phenomenon (or whatever one might call it) before, but I've never witnessed it until today. What phenomenon am I referring to? The one of, when ticking off a successful female scientist's amazing qualities (in a rec letter, introduction, etc), the list often looks like this: Dr. Female performs groundbreaking research, publishes numerous papers, advises amazing students, teaches the best class ever, AND is a terrific mother. Yet male counterparts' lists of achievements never include mention of fatherhood.
So this all came about because I'm serving as a graduate student representative on a faculty awards committee. (While I'd like to think that this is because I have such a great departmental reputation, I suspect my name came up because The Boss owes the head of the department and/or dean of the college a favor.) I was reading through the nomination packets, which include 6-8 letters of support from other faculty members and current/former students. One of the five nominees is female. The first of her six letters mentioned that she accomplished so much in teaching and research and "was a terrific mother of two, to boot." That raised my eyebrows, but I continued on. Five out of the six remaining letters had some variation of the above!! Did any of the male nominees' (all of whom have children) letters mention their families? No.
Any thoughts on this? I'm sure others have posted about this topic before. I don't know what to make of it. Is it just a commentary on amazing women that balance lots of aspects of their lives, and this is surprising? Why are men being left out?
Have you witnessed this "phenomenon"? What are your thoughts? Are men ever granted the same kudos for raising kids in spite of a career? Is this because they are all slackers? (surely, not.....?)
