Comments for Collisions with Reality

Comment on International Women and Pregnancy by Mike

Mike — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:07:01 +0000

Hear, hear. It’s so sad this debate is really even necessary.

Comment on From breast exams to the whole shebang by Rebecca

Rebecca — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:04:18 +0000

My hope is that there are a lot of people who, despite their conservative/libertarian politics, found themselves taken aback by Komen’s actions.

I do like your optimistic view that we’re slowly moving towards universal health care!

Comment on From breast exams to the whole shebang by Mike

Mike — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:36:00 +0000

Unfortunately, I’m not sure the whole country yet agrees that women should have free access to mammograms, and that men should have free prostate exams. There’s a pretty vocal conservative libertarian minority that would yell and scream about such things. Sigh.

That said, I a not-as-vocal majority does view this as a good thing. And while they might not be quite ready to make the leap to access to cancer treatment, and to universal health care, I think we’ll be there in a generation or less. Especially as employer health care gets crappier and offered to fewer people.

Comment on New Year, New Goals by Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:48:18 +0000

My problem is that once I get started I can’t shut up. (In addition to my resolution, I am mentally composing posts about libertarianism! And Jenny McCarthy!)

Comment on New Year, New Goals by Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:40:31 +0000

I “resolved” to blog in 2011, but never quite found anything useful to say. You’re already way ahead of the game as far as I’m concerned!

Comment on Double Dose of Sexism by Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:07:49 +0000

Hey, it’s kind of nice to know that I’m not just preaching to the choir. Thanks!

Comment on Double Dose of Sexism by Mike

Mike — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:33:19 +0000

All I can say is: =(

Perhaps a silver lining for you: I’m really glad you (& Jackie!) highlight such issues. My male douchebag-ness is sometimes oblivious to such issues when left to my own devices. So hopefully some good comes from this.

Comment on A one-sided balance is no balance at all by Mike

Mike — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:26:48 +0000

I don’t think there’s a single fix, I think you just have to fight it incrementally.

Dads need to be encouraged to be part-time stay-at-home, part-time worker. Benefits need to be available for such families. Give paternal leave. Women’s fields could pay more, or be more competitive (i.e., what if we paid teachers like engineers? I’d be real curious how our students would fare then). Women need to keep kicking butt in school (I actually worry about young men academically, but men still have such a ridiculous lead in the workplace). I’m sure I’m forgetting another half dozen easy ideas.

But even if all these were enacted, the cultural change would be slow. Probably at least a generation.

Comment on A one-sided balance is no balance at all by Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:34:01 +0000

I guess I’m a bit spoiled from my experience in astronomy, where there were a lot of men involved in the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, and a fair number of men attended a similar talk at a AAS meeting. (Then again, maybe that’s in part due to how many dual-career couples there are in astronomy.)

Low pay in women-dominated fields is a huge problem. I have no clue how to fix that — there are so many feedback cycles happening out there.

Comment on A one-sided balance is no balance at all by V

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:12:43 +0000

I probably wouldn’t show up to a “Women we Admire” speaker series because I would assume that it was primarily (if not solely) targeted at women. I think if you want to make it more inclusive, I think I would do the following:

Call it “People We Admire” (this isn’t to say that there’s no place for a women we admire series — just that I think most men (me included) would assume that they weren’t welcome.
Heavily skew the starting lineup (say the first 10 to 15 talks) towards female speakers (say, 70/30 or 80/20) before allowing randomness to assert itself.
Ensure that the beginning talks are focused on work/life balance, being at the top of your field and maintaining a healthy relationship, etc from both men and women.

I think if you set the stage as being one of “here are people at the top of their field, and how they maintain fair relationships in a structurally unfair society,” you stand a better chance of drawing

I don’t normally go to after-work events/talks/drinks because I usually like to get home in enough to do my part of the night time routine.

I think we have to do a lot to make this more equal: increase paternity leave and increase the pay of woman-dominated fields to start with. It made sense for me to keep working — the reverse was much less feasible.