 |
| Reaching to the stars by Ares Nguyen via flickr |
 |
| Illustration of Kepler-47, a many-body system. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle |
 Artist's concept that illustrates Kepler-47, the first transiting circumbinary system. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle |
1. Two Body-Problem Series: Navigating the Move
2. Webinar: Exploring the Latest Research on Women in Engineering
3. Vera Rubin Solved the Darkest Mysteries of the Universe
4. Indigenous scientists are connecting culture with science to get kids inspired
5. Six ways to juggle science and childcare from home
7. Inequalities faced by women in access to permanent positions in astronomy in France
8. Mental health in physics group
9. Can you help identify unnamed women scientists of the past?
10. The pandemic and the female academic
11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
We met in college, in the first few days after freshman orientation. We grew up in different regions of the same US west coast state. We're both white with college-educated parents. Our first interaction was when I asked if he had a car and could drive two friends and me to the store! He kindly agreed, but we wouldn't date for over a year after that. He was two years ahead of me, and majored in engineering; I majored in physics.
1. Two-Body Problem Series: Priorities Change
2. Nominate your colleagues for DPS Prizes!
3. Honoring the women who helped humans go to space
4. Research: To Reduce Gender Bias, Anonymize Job Applications
5. Elsevier global analysis on gender gap in research and innovation
6. An interesting Kickstarter project...
7. Astronomy's continuing harassment problem
8. These 10 National Parks Wouldn't Exist Without Women
9. Women with career gaps are being tapped for talent pool
10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
A few months ago I spoke with Kim-Vy Tran, a professor of astrophysics at New South Wales University, about her experiences with the 2-body problem. She agreed to have our conversation posted on the blog. It has been edited for clarity and to remove our discussions on being a cat mom. We can share that in a later post (only kidding).
We met in college. We both knew that we wanted to apply to graduate school and pursue academic careers (he's in engineering and I'm in astronomy).
 |
| Henrietta Leavitt, from item 3 |
1. Kick-off Post for Two-Body Problem Series
2. New Video Interview Series from the Europlanet Early Career and Diversity Committees
3. How Henrietta Swan Leavitt Helped Build a Yardstick to Measure the Universe
4. The Scientist Who First Showed Us The Double Helix: A Personal Look At Rosalind Franklin
5. Supporting Parents and Caregivers in Science, Engineering, and Medicine
6. The Long Road to Getting, and Keeping, More Women in Science
7. Navigating the 'Old Boys' Club' of Science, With a Friend
8. Why I'm not applying for promotion
10. 5 Ways to Welcome Women to Computer Science
11. The mental health of PhD researchers demands urgent attention
12. Are you guilty of equity offset?
14. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
15. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
The two-body problem refers to the complications of dual-working partners finding jobs in the same location. This is a special issue for academics for several reasons, principally 1) academics are more likely to be partnered with other academics and 2) jobs in academia are scarce and finding two in the same location is difficult. For women, especially those partnered with men, this becomes even more precarious as academics who identify as women are far more likely to have a partner in the same field or within academia. They are also more likely to “follow” their partner, resulting in compromising their career path for the ability to live with their partner and family.
The CSWA has recognized the impact of the two-body problem on careers for women in astronomy, and frequently posted to this blog. However, our last posts about this issue were in 2014, and we believe it is time to kick-off a new series, bringing in personal stories, insights from the hiring standpoint, and looking for solutions. If you would like to contribute a post, email the blog editors at wia-blog AT lists.aas.org.
In this kick-off post, we are sharing an interview with Timothy D. Swindle, Department Head and Director of the Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, who shared his insight into how departments and schools can address the problem. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Why is your department/school taking steps to address the two-body problem?Almost half the people that we want to hire, male or female, have a partner who is also in academia. If we want to successfully recruit them, we probably have to help them solve that problem. If their partner is an M.D. or a lawyer or a schoolteacher, it's not an issue that we can address as a university, although we will try to provide contacts in the community.
What negotiated resources, tangible benefits, or other offers have departments implemented that have been effective? What has not worked?Offering a tenure-track faculty line, complete with a start-up package that is large enough to allow for success, is usually effective. If the partner is not already in a tenure-track position, a staff position with a few years of security may be effective.
It is often not effective when the offer for the partner is (or appears to be) a step down in rank, e.g., from a tenured position to tenure-track or lecturer, or from tenure-track to staff.
Is it effective when departments make the offer or does the school/institution need to be on board?The institution needs to be on board to allow the departments to make effective offers. In my institution, we have usually been successful when the partner was also in the sciences. The science departments typically have 20 or more faculty, and the department heads all recognize that there is a good chance that we will be the one shopping a partner in the future. Additionally, the dean has not held partner hires against us for future hiring plans, even if the partner doesn't align perfectly with our strategic needs. On the other hand, we have lost hires when dealing with departments in other colleges, especially smaller departments. Even if they liked the partner for a position, their dean would give no assurances for planned future hires.
Every situation is different. It works best when both partners are very strong so that the department hiring the second partner can make a strong case. But we have also had some cases where one department (or college) would cover the startup or the first few years of the partner's salary, perhaps in return for some indirect cost return. The negotiations can become involved. But the bottom line is that it's essential that the university administration, at the level of dean and above, be supportive.
What improvements have you seen in the hiring process for faculty with partners?There is a growing recognition that a substantial fraction of the people a university wants to hire as faculty will have a two-body problem. Our department has been in an era of hiring, partly due to growth, partly to retirements, and our success rate for scientists with academia-minded partners, though not quite as good as for those who are single or have spouses in other fields, is not far off. Being better at solving the two-body problem does give an institution an advantage, given the number of talented couples on the job market.
Another improvement in the last decade or so has been the increased effectiveness of parental leave policies, allowing parents to take more time with newborns without it counting against the tenure clock. I have seen this both at our institution and at others. I know that is widespread, but a couple thinking of having children should check on that.
Anything else you'd like to add?One of the very difficult things about this is that, unless it is a targeted hire of a couple in the same area, there is usually one partner who is the second body. Will that person be accepted as a scientist in their own right? My suspicion is that it is easier in a larger department and in a department with a more substantial history of dealing with the issue. I know of cases where that has been a problem, and that can be hard on an individual and on a relationship. For a couple where one gets a job offer, it's worth asking if there are other couples or spousal hires in the department, and if so, finding out their perception.
Tim Swindle is a Professor of Planetary Sciences and Geosciences at the University of Arizona, where he is the Head of the Department of Planetary Sciences and Director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He has negotiated the hiring of 21 faculty members in the last decade.
1. Belinda Wilkes Appointed as Director of the CXC
2. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Tenure Track Faculty at a Small Liberal Arts College
3. Women are Less Successful in Getting Grants
4. What should I do if I witness sexual harassment?
5. Women Biographies Lacking on Wikipedia
7. 2014 Katherine Weimer Award
8. L'Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship Program
9. Research mentor training seminar - free guide available
10. Call for Proposals: 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting
12. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
1. STATUS newsletter for January 2014 now available online
2. Guest post: AAS Dinners to Discuss Dual-Career Couples
3. Addressing the Campus Rape Culture in the US
5. Additional Women's History Month Resources
6. Embracing Adventure, Achieving Success
7. APS March Meeting Events Focused on Women and Minorities
8. Summer AAPT meeting requests posters/papers
10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
My husband and I recently found a long-term solution to our two-body problem after seven years of hopscotching through job seasons. When we entered into the job season last year with the goal of permanence in mind, I asked many faculty people for advice on how to approach the job search as a couple. The advice was all over the place. From this experience, I gleaned that there is no established protocol for solving the two-body problem; each couple's set of circumstances makes each search and solution look a little different. And actually, this is one of the lessons I would like to impart to you — there is no one, straightforward, established path to a two-body solution.
 |
| Figure 1: The two-body problem. Image taken from this blog |
Image Credit: SXS, the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) project 