rivka: (rosie with baby)
rivka ([personal profile] rivka) wrote2009-09-24 10:25 am
Entry tags:

Women in academia.

I just called the Institute director's assistant.

"Uh, hi, Beth, this is Dr. Rivka calling about the Faculty Retreat. This may not be a situation that's come up before, but I have a nursing baby at home, and so I'm going to need to pump milk during the retreat."

"Oh!" Beth sounds flustered. "No, that hasn't ever come up before. Oh. Um, well, I guess that when you need to, you just excuse yourself and go pump."

"I'm going to need a private place with an electrical outlet."

"I don't know if any of the bathrooms have electrical outlets..." The retreat is held at an old mansion that's been converted to a conference center. I wouldn't normally be willing to pump in a bathroom, but I know that the bathrooms in this place aren't grungy at all. If they have outlets.

"Yeah... should I call the conference center?"

"No." Now she sounds much more assured. "You know what, you can go into a bedroom and lock the door."

"I won't be staying overnight." Many of the faculty do, but I have always resisted.

"That's okay, we can still make one of the women's dorm rooms available to you. We can definitely make that happen. Just, when you get to the conference center find me and we'll set it up."

"Thanks." I wanted to say, did not dare to say, and hope I didn't need to say: Please don't mention this to Dr. Gallo or any of the other [male, it goes without saying] senior faculty.

I hate feeling awkward about this.

[identity profile] mizchalmers.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I worked from when my daughters were 7 weeks and 13 weeks respectively, and I breastfed them both for over a year, so I pumped. A lot. I carried my Medela in a little brown suitcase that looked so much like a clarinet case that a colleague assumed that's what it was, until I corrected him. He was mortified.

A few years later he said: "You were so diligent! You carried that thing around with you every day!"

I said: "I think you are unclear on the biology."

I'm a bit of a scorched-earth working mother. Men make me feel uncomfortable every day, so I don't mind embarrassing them to death every once in a while.

[identity profile] anthologie.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
It's ridiculous that anyone would be mortified at the idea of pumping milk. I know it's common, but it says a lot about our culture that it is.

[identity profile] rivka.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I remember seeing something in an advice column recently where a woman had written in, aghast, to complain that a coworker was leaving sealed bags/bottles of breastmilk in the office fridge without hiding them in paper bags to protect people's sensitivities. The advice columnist agreed that this was horribly unprofessional.

The kicker? The woman who wrote in to complain said that she had nursed and pumped for her own kids. She just, you know, showed a proper sense of shame about what she was doing.
Edited 2009-09-24 17:32 (UTC)

[identity profile] klwalton.livejournal.com 2009-09-25 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, holy shit. My younger daughter is 28, and I traveled in Japan for two weeks when she was three months old. With a theater company. On a bus. I pumped in the back of the bus.

Okay, I'm looking at this and realizing it's sort of a long story. Let's just say I would have hoped that nearly 30 years later "sensitivities" would be a little more... mature? *sigh*

[identity profile] rivka.livejournal.com 2009-09-25 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, no freaking kidding.

Here, I found it (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/07/13/where_breast_milk_shouldnt_go/). It was Ms. Conduct, whom I usually like. Grr.

[identity profile] rivka.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I said: "I think you are unclear on the biology."

Hee!

I once saw someone complain on LJ that if women wanted to pump milk for their babies they should do it at home, outside of work hours. And she wasn't being sarcastic.