Because she wanted to bring her child with her on the panel to which she belonged AND she brought her baby to the conference without asking her hosts. It might surprise you, but there is a certain etiquette to be followed at an academic conference. Some won’t even allow non-participant spouses to attend.

Really? The child couldn’t wait 90 minutes? Even the author implies that the baby could. And this is an academic conference — she did not have to attend all of the panels, so she could breastfeed as needed. Just not during her panel.

Do you know what ‘helicopter parents’ are? Have you ever had a serious discussion with a K-12 teacher lately? Are you a university instructor, by chance? Ever talk to student-athletes? Many would tell you that disciplining students is next to impossible because the parents don’t believe that their little darlings would…

This is circular reasoning. One supposedly can’t judge until he or she has a child; if he or she doesn’t want a child, then he or she can’t judge until he or she does. No matter if that child affects them economically or socially.

Like we’re currently doing wonders for humanity?

This coming from someone who thinks “judgey” is a word?

Yeah, academia is pretty fucked up. In the ten years that I’ve been in, I’ve seen junior academics and grad students get shit-canned over the pettiest issues, not to mention routine racist and sexist behavior of senior members. Every PhD here has a horror story (or six) to share.

I feel like you may be arguing with somebody else, or with some set of arguments you hear frequently elsewhere - at no point did I imply women can or should be the only caregivers. If we are having this conversation based on the comment I think we are, I literally don’t mention gender or gender referents and am only…

First of all, my dear, you might want to re-visit your middle school English class:

Aside from the misleading presentation of climate change in these “textbooks,” it is also troubling that they aren’t being proofread for proper grammar and syntax:

Most women I know from my peer group don’t have kids. What I would say is that I think the atomization and extreme individualization you’re talking about is just clearly not working for anybody on any issue, regardless of kids - people need each other, we need each other’s help and each other’s slack, and the idea…

Agreed. Besides, very few Jezzies actually give two shits about the working class or women from areas outside of LA, Seattle, or New York.

And how many childfree women actually self-disclose? That’s the problem: if more did, you’d see working mothers and employers getting rid of them left and right because they’re “unnatural” or because they’re seen as an economic threat.

The self-created outrage was from the author of this article.

There’s a lot of supposition going on in your response, and I don’t think you’re a troll, so I’m going to respond to clear a few things up.

Then who should we hire to provide childcare? The (female) grad students? The adjuncts?

I don’t think it’s necessary that all conferences should cater to children - but it seems a no brainer that a conference based on empowering women - who are the primary caregivers of children in this country - should offer that. Why shouldn’t they? They’d probably increase their attendance and get some great PR. It…

They already have, multiple times. Back in the 90s, there was a series of incidents involving racism in the Russian and Slavic Studies program at UCLA. The University of Colorado-Boulder has, right now, several suits and Title IX violations (ACLU is involved somewhat) against it due to rape (no joke!) and sexual…

Not really. In the normal workplace, you can get away with a bad boss or two. You might have to work a lesser-paying position or one with less seniority, but it is certainly possible to continue working in your general area. In academia, if you piss off your advisor or a major player in the field, you are literally bla…

First, Geoff Marcy’s work is a joke. I know Berkeley and Harvard think their astronomers are first-rate, but they haven’t really produced jack shit in over a decade. Same goes for experimental science at Princeton.