A Conversation on Women with the Department Head

I have had concerns for a while about the amount of female faculty in the Biochemistry department (we have 0) and I finally decided it was time to bring my concerns to the department head.  Let me be clear, I never thought that this was an intentional thing, I didn't have images of the professors sitting around a table with steepled fingers thinking of ways to keep women out.  I just assumed that it was the usual excuses, women took time off to be pregnant so they were less productive, they looked after kids more leading to less productivity etc.  I've always felt like the lack of women in our department suggested that in order for me to have a chance at (the very limited) faculty positions that existed, I would have to be above and beyond any male candidate.  What I found out however, was an excellent surprise.  It turns out that the department had attempted to hire multiple women, and had even offered multiple women positions within the faculty, however the women ended up getting better offers elsewhere.  It seems that there are so few women applying, that they are actual more valuable (the department realizes the need to have at least one woman on staff), leading to them being able to get offers better than what our university can give them.  Our university does have recruitment issues.  It's a small university in a small, expensive city.  The climate is also not very good, so there are other factors besides the compensation leading to attracting and keeping good candidates.  All of these factors are leading to the fact that it's proving very hard to get a good woman candidate here. 

One thing that the head did tell me was that a lot of women are leaving academia at the post doc level (honestly probably where I will be leaving as well).  He couldn't tell me why women seem to leave in droves at this point, and I'm not really sure either.  Personally I can't see me persuing an academic career for multiple reasons: long (very long sometimes) hours, no regular schedule, low pay, no stability etc.  I like research a lot, but I don't love it enough to deal with all the factors you have to in order to have a successful academic career.  This is on top of the fact that the Harper government has absolutely decimated science funding.  Even well established researchers are having trouble coming up with money now, and I can see many departments shrinking if things keep going the way they are.

Overall I was really happy that I went and talked to the department head.  I've always had respect for him and it really made me feel better to know that they had been trying to hire female faculty members, and that it was an issue he was aware of.