Science has slowly become a social left wing rag rather than the heads on competitor to Nature, the standard in scientific publications. Think Watson and Crick in 1953. In a recent Science piece the author writes:
t was 3 a.m. I was exhausted from taking care of my 3-month-old baby, but I couldn’t sleep. As I tried to recall the topics of the five conference calls on my calendar for the morning, I again had the haunting thought that I wasn’t good enough for my job—a director position I started shortly before my baby was born. I imagined I would make mistakes in my presentations and my team would lose respect for me. Tormented by these thoughts, I reached for a book from the pile on my bedside table to distract myself. By chance I grabbed the Bible, which I had been too busy to read since my baby was born. As I opened it to a random page and happened on the verse “For when I am weak, then I am strong,” tears filled my eyes, and I could breathe again. My upbringing gave me an “achiever” personality. From childhood class president to prestigious university degrees to a leadership position in a large company, I was regarded as a “star.” People see me as confident, ambitious, competent, and energetic. But I always feared seeming imperfect in the eyes of others. I worked as hard as I could to make up for my flaws.But after becoming a new mom and starting a new job, I was unable to excel no matter how hard I worked. The job required me to attend meetings with almost no break between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m....
Let me go back some nearly sixty years. When my daughter was born at Lying In in Boston, across the street from the Med School on Longwood Ave, I scurried across the street while my wife was in labor and ended assisting in the process. Got credit for the one, the OB was late working on another delivery. Then back across the street till the next AM, I think 6, take wife and daughter home and then back again....Take kids to school, then off to class, teaching this time, then sports, then etc. Never thought it was a problem. Did not bemoan.
When we did a second round financing of one of my companies my daughter was then 9 months pregnant, and at 11:45 we needed letters posted at an all night Post Office, and off she went with the boxes...never whining about the process.
One did what was required, one did not moan and whine, especially in public and especially not in some world class scientific journal. But I found out a few years ago that this is now de rigueur. We were financing an MIT start up when the erstwhile CEO said he needed his parental leave. His wife just had a child and she worked at MIT and had her 3-4 month paid leave and he wanted to be certain he got his in the new company. He wanted us to fund his leave!
In the old days one would have expected both to show up the first day with child in tow! No whining! But alas we have new rules. Guess there is a benefit to getting old.
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