Women, science and time | Science

All over the world, women are a minority in science institutes. The reason for this has deep roots in the structure of the society in which we live and, although different initiatives are proposed to change it, none seem to achieve the expected effect. One of the causes of this phenomenon, which has been minimized, is time, or rather, times. Because yes, times are privileges, and we already know that if we talk regarding privileges, women lose out.

What times are we talking regarding? Let’s start with a time that little is talked regarding. Mental time or time to think. As in other professions, those of us who do scientific research do not think regarding our work only during working hours. Ideas spin around in our heads every time we have time to think. It can happen when doing activities that we do automatically, such as transporting ourselves, bathing or cooking, and there are many stories of people who found solutions or ideas at unexpected moments, such as the famous story of when Archimedes came out of the bath shouting “Eureka!” Having time to think is very important to dedicate yourself to scientific research and that is where the differences begin. It is generally women who use our mental time to resolve the logistics of our homes, such as making lists of things to do or buy, remembering the dates of commitments, tasks, medical appointments, medication doses and even birthday. On many occasions, if a man does some housework or family chore, the one who had to ask for it was a woman and knowing that this was needed takes up mental time. Common phrases like “where is my wallet?”, “is there still milk?” or “I didn’t do it because you didn’t ask me,” are a reflection of the assumption that women are the ones who are obliged to use our mental time to know what is needed at home. Thus, statistically, the time that a woman can spend thinking regarding work issues is much less than that of a man and, even, instead of using mental time for work issues outside of working hours, we use mental time during working hours to solve problems. domestic matters, such as when in the middle of a workday they call us from home to ask us things that might be resolved without our participation. This starts from the beginning of the career, at the university.

People who study this phenomenon have called it mental load and when we give it a name it is easier to understand it. Even in homes where men and women distribute household and family tasks equally or there is domestic service, it is very common that the mental load is not distributed equally and this inequality increases greatly if there are girls, boys or boys at home. people who need care. Our society, in general, respects a man’s mental time more than that of a woman and this is a serious problem that is not given the importance it requires and that applies to everyone, regardless of what we do. And returning to the case of Archimedes, I am sure that before shouting “Eureka!” He wasn’t thinking regarding what was needed for dinner nor were they yelling “dad” at him from the bathroom door.

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Another important type of time to devote to science is time to travel for work without worries. For a person to be able to travel for work with his mind focused on what he is going to do, he must have a support network to be able to be away from home for the necessary time without those who live there having problems. It is common that if a man does this, he does not even have to ask for support, since it is assumed that everything at home will be resolved and, quite possibly, he will even be helped to pack his luggage, remember the time of his trip and , when you return, you will be given time to rest. For women to do this, we often have to resort to the help of people who do not live in our home, either to stay at home in charge or to accompany us if we have to travel with our daughters or sons, which implies high costs or problems. relatives. Furthermore, when we returned, instead of time to rest, we found an immense list of complaints and things that were not done and now we have to resolve. If we also put into the equation that academic trips involve spending time in environments where women are a minority, it is very common for women to have problems at home due to jealousy, which becomes a mental burden and does not help them to concentrate the same as their colleagues. And we are talking regarding short-term trips.

To get a job in research, it is very common to ask to have spent at least one year abroad or if you already have a place, the possibility of spending a sabbatical year at another university opens up. Again, a man’s family is much more likely to support him or even accompany him to spend a year or more abroad. For a woman, this is often simply impossible. And we are talking regarding women who can travel, something, for many, unthinkable.

The third and last time I want to talk regarding is the time it takes to obtain a stable job in scientific research at a university. If we count the years required to study a bachelor’s and postgraduate degree, do some years of postdoctoral work, the possibility of obtaining a stable job begins more or less at the age of 30 and some calls for university places require that men and women not be less than 37 years old. 39 for women. That is, between the ages of 30 and 39, a woman must show that she has the merits and capacity to be a researcher, which implies being very active in academic events, publishing quality scientific articles and training students. And this brings us to the need to have a lot of mental time and a lot of time to travel. For women who decide to be mothers, many times these same years coincide with the years in which we will have our pregnancies and in which we will give birth, breastfeed and start raising children. That is to say, they are years of many physical and life changes, a lot of fatigue and very little mental time and time to travel. And that’s where it gets complicated, the more time we need, the less time we have.

I consider these three points to be very important when thinking regarding programs to expand the presence of women in research institutes. From what I have observed and read, the majority of women who reach permanent positions in scientific research have a private life that supports and accompanies them. Without that support, it is very difficult to achieve. This is evident in the fact that many of us who achieve it come from families where there are people who are dedicated to science (or similar jobs), who understand the needs of those who try to follow that path and have the emotional and economic possibility of accompanying them. The fact that what helps a woman achieve success in the scientific world depends so much on her private life makes it very difficult for university programs to reverse the situation. What they have done in several universities is to try to make the work of women and their opinions more visible, asking that every committee have at least one woman. When we are such a marked minority, this only means that the few women have an extra workload and that reduces our time to think and travel, which works once morest our professional development.

The solution is not easy and depends a lot on our society being more equitable. That is, the solution is deeply linked to feminism. For women to have equal opportunities in the sciences or in whatever we want to do, we need fundamental changes not only in institutions but in society in general. A society where things as simple as having time to think or traveling for work are not a privilege.

Dra. Lucía López de Medrano AlvarezCuernavaca Unit of the UNAM Mathematics Institute – Morelos Campus.

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