Over the years, I've told colleagues and friends about things I have seen or experienced. Many times, people have said that I should write them down so that they won't be lost and forgotten, since some of them might be useful parts of our history. I've been writing them down, without being sure what I would do with them. I decided to gradually post them on this website, and see what reactions I get. I suggest reading from the bottom up (starting with the August 2017 post "The Meritocracy"). Thoughtful and kind feedback would be useful for me, and would help me to revise the exposition to make it as useful as possible. I hope that while you read my stories you will ask yourself "What can I learn from this?" I'm particularly interested in knowing what you see as the point of the story, or what you take away from it. Please send feedback to asilverb@gmail.com. Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully reflect on them!

I often run the stories past the people I mention, even when they are anonymized, to get their feedback and give them a chance to correct the record or ask for changes. When they tell me they're happy to be named, I sometimes do so. When I give letters as pseudonyms, there is no correlation between those letters and the names of the real people.

Thursday, October 14, 2021

"You'll want to have babies"

When I accepted the job offer from Ohio State in 1984, the department Chair agreed, in writing, that I could spend the academic year 1986-87 at a mathematics research institute, where I would be funded by my NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship. (I learned much later, before I officially accepted the offer, that the Dean and Associate Provost had agreed, also in writing, that my time on the fellowship would count towards tenure, and would not delay my tenure review.) So I was surprised during my second year at OSU when the same department Chair asked me to submit a formal request to go on leave. Why did I need to request permission for something for which permission and approval had already been granted? The Chair assured me it would be routine.

K submitted a similar request to go on leave and have the year count towards tenure, and his request was approved.

One day, I got a phone call from the new Acting Dean (the one who attended weekly meetings of the John Birch Society). He told me that he was going to deny my request to keep the tenure clock running during the year away. Why? He said that since I was female, "you'll want to have babies", and that would slow my research productivity. 

Indignant, I told him firmly that I was not going to have babies, and I wanted the tenure clock to keep running. He replied that his decision stands, he was doing me a favor, and I would eventually be grateful to him. I guess I'm not a very grateful person, since that day hasn't come yet.

As I hung up the phone, I thought to myself, "I am not going to spend the rest of my life at Ohio State University."