Women in academia.
Sep. 24th, 2009 10:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaI 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.
"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.
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Date: 2009-09-25 12:56 pm (UTC)Right, I see. It occurred to me after I posted that maybe I was being presumptuous in saying "I'm surprised that you would mind them knowing", because I didn't really know what kind of environment you were talking about. I am in the humanities, too, so maybe they are a bit more open-minded than science types? I don't know.
It's great that you breastfeed in public and haven't received criticism for it. I confess to being one of those crazy extended breastfeeders who has still not entirely given up nursing my 4 1/2 year old. I don't nurse him in public any longer, though.