lonetto@phri.UUCP (Michael Lonetto) (07/19/85)
The following was written as a mail response to Marsha at UCSD. Since Jeanette has brought up some of the same points I thought I would share it with the net. It has to do with who works, who stays home, and aren't men pigs for forcing the women to slave over the fruits of their mutual admiration:-) Please direct flames /dev/null, thoughts and criticism to me. Dear Marsha, Unfortunately, in my case, I am 28 years old. My SO is 29 (30 next month). She has a VERY strong desire to have children, and would like to have her first before her 33rd birthday, preferably much sooner. We are planning to be married next spring, and to wait about two years before having a child. She intends (I should say insists) on taking at least a year(much more likely 2 or 3 years) off of work when she has the child. Thats where we stand personally (except that we met a year and a half ago and are very much in love). Professionally she is unhappy with her job as a archivist at CBS, having been stranded in a backwater with no place to advance to. She is looking for another job in a different area, but is still undecided about direction. My job is another matter entirely. I LOVE my job. I'm a scientist without degree ( I have an MS but no dissertation) working for a VERY small recombinant DNA oriented biotechnology company. I have the same responsibilities and salary as the PhD's on the staff, a lot of input into both scientific and organizational planning, and a lot of good people to collaborate with. This was not always so. When I met my SO (lets call her Pam, its more polite) I was waiting tables part time while I looked for a job, and had been doing so for over a year. When I started work here I was a technician, I ran some experiments under supervision and worried about details (keeping the lab clean, ordering supplies, making sure we had clean glassware, and several real shit jobs I would never drop on my own technician) for other people. Not to mention working for half of what I make now. In a year and a half I've come a long way, and I'm still moving, but the price is that I quite often put in 70 or more hours a week, not counting time spent reading and thinking at home. I personally would LOVE to be able to take off 2 or 3 years while my children are young and watch them grow and become aware of the world. I can't think of anything more enjoyable, even with all the headaches it entails. The problem is that I am unlikely to reach the point where I can do that in the next 5 years, by which time Pam will probably return to work, the kids will be in daycare, etc. I am hoping at this point to reach the level of enlightenment that allows some very good scientists to be productive on a 40 hour week, because if the kid was born tomorrow I would never get to see him/her while he/she was awake. Sorry this is so long, but this has been on my mind for a while. -- ____________________ Michael Lonetto Public Health Research Institute, 455 1st Ave, NY, NY 10016 (allegra!phri!lonetto) "BUY ART, NOT COCAINE"
moiram@tektronix.UUCP (Moira Mallison ) (08/05/85)
In article <357@timeinc.UUCP> greenber@timeinc.UUCP (Ross M. Greenberg) writes: > >You're right -- we (men) haven't. You (women) have: the issue >of pregnancy is now a special case. It used to be considered a >"disability". This was changed, and now maternity leave is a benefit. >Certainly pregancy is not a disability, but the benefit of >maternity leave comes with a certain cost. Is this really true? As I posted before, there is no "maternity leave" as such here at Tek. There is a short term *disability* available for a period of about six weeks; it is under the same terms as elective surgery: the woman is expected to return to work when the physician certifies that she is physically capable. Beyond that, the woman may take an extended personal leave. This is available for men as well, and is under the same terms as any personal leave. The job is not guaranteed upon return to work. Is this significantly different from other large corporations? Moira Mallison tektronix!moiram