Thursday, February 2, 2017
Giving Ourselves Credit Where It is Due
Giving Ourselves Credit Where It is Due
One of the problems of academic life is that our productivity is measured very narrowly (published articles, classes taught, etc), while the amount of work we do is very broad. We all do committee work, student advising, and other social obligations as part of our job. If we didnt do them, we would not be doing our job properly.
However, they dont really "count" for work, either, since they are not something you can add to your vitae. This is not an uncommon feature of work in general, but perhaps felt more strongly in academia than other jobs in which, for example, sitting at your desk for a certain number of hours is an important measure of productivity.
Feminist scholars have long ago identified a gender component to the work that doesnt count as work, demonstrating very convincingly that women are socially obliged to do much more of this work that doesnt count than are, on average, men. They point in particular to the gender inequalities in domestic responsibilities, such as housework and child care. This sort of work, the unpaid variety, is not always counted as work, even by those doing it (although, at least one study shows that it is much more likely to be counted as work by women than men).
Personally, I find it is helpful to me to give myself credit where it is due for all the work I do, even when it doesnt "count" officially. And it is especially helpful for me to recall this gender imbalance of work when my male collaborators, for example, suggest what seems to me to be unreasonable deadlines for my share of our work. Maybe I could get a revision of our paper turned around in a single day, if I didnt have to also do all of the following*:
- four loads of laundry to fold
- one sinkful of dishes
- grocery shopping
- pick up some medicine for kid from drugstore
- cook of a healthy meal, hopefully with leftovers for another day or two
- unpack and take some clothes to the dry cleaners
- thank you and "nice to meet you" notes to people met at conference
- pick up kid from daycare by 5pm
- feed kid, play with kid, bathe kid and bedtime routine until 7:30pm
- figure out why the dog is sick and implement plan of action for return to health
- open all mail from last week
- pay bills
- file bills and other paperwork
Then again, maybe a one-day turnaround is unreasonable in any case. Regardless, Im giving myself credit for all of this work, even if my colleagues do not.
*Let me also give credit to my partner, who while taking care of kid without me for five days, managed to vacuum the floors, wash and dry (but not fold) two loads of laundry, manage all the dishes but that last sinkful, and take care of the dog, in addition to his paid labor.
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