Academic Couples Stymied By Attitudes in Workplace

ITHACA N.Y—In the late 1950s Mildred Dresselhaus was a post-doctoral associate at Cornell and her husband, Gene, was a junior faculty member there. But Cornell's rules barring nepotism prevented the couple from building physics careers there, and they packed their bags for MIT, which had an outstanding reputation for recruiting women faculty. Thirty years later, Mildred Dresselhaus is an institute professor of physics and electrical engineering and her husband is a senior scientist at the school’s National Magnet Laboratory. “If there were any nepotism rules at MIT, I wasn’t aware of them,” said Mildred Dresselhaus, who is also a past: president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In the past few decades women have made remarkable strides in science, and there have been noteworthy reversals in attitude. Nepotism is no longer an issue at Cornell, which a few years ago hired Barbara Baird as an associate professor of chemistry and permitted her husband, David Holowka, to work in her lab as a research associate. Last month, in fact, the university sponsored a conference on women in science. But several speakers made it clear that professional couples who hope to work together still face formidable obstacles. Baird and Holowka met at Cornell while she was a graduate student and he was a post-doctoral fellow in chemistry. They took post-doctoral positions at the National Institutes of Health, where their research interests merged. It wasn’t long, however, before they realized that applying for academic positions would mean head-to-head competition. Their solution was to send joint resumes with a cover letter explaining their need to have jobs in the same geographic area. “The responses were gratifying,” they said, although a few prospective employers were put off by the complication. The best offer came from Cornell, where Baird was offered a tenure-track assistant professorship and Holowka was offered the choice to work in his wife’s lab as a research associate. At the time of the initial appointment, Holowka requested and received permission to become principal investigator on his own research project. “We are one of those few, lucky couples where things worked out right the first time,” they said. “Our jobs allow both of us to feed our egos.” The couple have become somewhat specialized at work: while one focuses on writing grants, the partner builds the apparatus. And they have thought long and hard about their special situation. “You have to do some serious soul-searching about what is important to you,” said Holowka. “You can’t have everything. There is the need to finds balance, and to make progress in both your career and [personal] life.” Baird advised couples seeking jobs together “to push for what you want, be creative, persistent and flexible.” It helps, she said, to be able to “count on the enlightenment of the institution you are dealing with.” But such institutions are rare. Many professional couples are unable to find jobs together and must endure, at least for a time, the personal and financial tolls of a commuting marriage. Cornell’s Tove Hammer, associate professor of industrial and labor relations, and her husband, David, director of plasma studies, told the conference that such-marriages are feasible and, indeed, desirable, if they allow both partners to get the best possible first jobs. “That is critical in terms of future-positioning,” said Tove Hammer. Women often follow men to their first job with the understanding that the next will be prompted by an ideal opportunity for the woman, she said. But, she warned, "the ideal opportunity does not come to women who take a first job that is second-best." The Hammers had a commuting marriage between Ithaca and Washington, D.C., for four years in the mid-1970s until both found tenured positions at Cornell. They agree that “in any choice there are costs,” but view their past commute “as an investment in the future.” Kathryn S. Walsh, a senior program manager with the commercial aviation program of Singer-Link in Binghamton, N.Y, and her husband, Joseph Walsh, an advisory engineer with IBM’s product development laboratory in nearby Endicot, said that they sidestepped the problem of commuting marriages by working for large national companies. When Kathryn Walsh was offered an opportunity with her company in Texas several years ago, her husband arranged an internal transfer with IBM to join his wife. “Companies have a vested interest in retaining professionals,” she said. “Often they are willing to ac commodate transfers for professional couples.” Margaret Rossiter, a historian of science and author of Women Scientists in America, Struggles and Strategies to 1940, said that “unexpected moves” offer some hope for academic couples trying to manage their careers. Recruitment that acknowledges the special needs of professional couples could allow an aspiring institution to snare two experts at once and upset the pecking order in a particular field, she said. “People are getting tired of commuting,” Rossiter said. Moffat is a freelance writer in Ithaca, N.Y

Academic Couples Stymied By Attitudes in Workplace

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