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Due Dates
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By Susan O'Doherty
March 14, 2010 5:19 pm
I have been meaning to write about "Paula Bolick"'s witty article "Giving Birth to 2 Babies" in The Chronicle. It brought back my own experience of defending my dissertation two weeks before my son's due date (four before his actual birth).As Bolick points out, having a due date can provide a needed firecracker under an otherwise dilatory graduate student. I had spent the evenings and weekends of ...
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Have the Rules Changed?
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By Susan O'Doherty
March 7, 2010 7:37 pm
I sometimes feel unqualified to write this column. I work with clients who teach, but aside from the occasional speaking engagement, I have not been personally involved with academia for over 15 years. So what I have to say may be outmoded. If so, I count on you to set me straight.I have three graduate degrees from two universities: a master’s in drama therapy from New York University and both ...
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Of Music and Men
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By Susan O'Doherty
February 28, 2010 4:19 pm
Last week, our family traveled to Ireland for my son’s winter break from school. While there, we visited a pub known for traditional Irish music. There are no scheduled performances; musicians just show up with their instruments and sit in a circle and play and sing.About ten men showed up with a variety of instruments, including guitars, pennywhistles, bodhrans and two bouzoukis. The music was ...
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What Constitutes a Safe World?
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By Susan O'Doherty
February 21, 2010 6:28 pm
Thanks to everyone who commented on last week’s post. As always, every comment made me think. I’m especially grateful to those who pointed out the fallacy of my assertion that the world is more dangerous (for middle-class children) than previously, because it made me think a lot. Obviously, I should have done some research before I mindlessly repeated that myth. I could even have looked in my ...
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'Balance' Is a Women's Issue
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By Susan O'Doherty
February 14, 2010 5:14 pm
Thanks to everyone who drew my attention Kerry Ann Rockquemore’s very interesting post on the myth of balance. As noted last week, I’ve been too overwhelmed to do a lot of reading lately, and this post is definitely worthwhile.In the comments to last week’s post, "Doug" pointed out that the issues I described "aren't restricted to women, alas. I've been where you're at, and so have plenty ...
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One Plate I Definitely Don't Want to Drop
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By Susan O'Doherty
February 7, 2010 6:12 pm
For a few months there, I thought I was finally getting a handle on this “balancing work and life” thing.My private practice was doing pretty well. I felt I’d found my groove at the part-time supervisory job I started last fall. The work is sometimes intense — some of our clients are fairly high-risk — but the therapists I supervise are all competent, creative people; the cases tend to ...
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Some Heartening News
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By Susan O'Doherty
February 1, 2010 1:55 pm
When wives earn more outside the home, and husbands take on more housework, marriages tend to be happier!Men are now doing twice as much housework, and three times as much childcare, as they did in the 1960s!It says so right here in the New York Times, so it has to be true, right?Seriously, there seems to be increasing recognition that although gender roles may be stubborn, they’re apparently ...
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The Privilege of Not Recognizing Privilege
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By Susan O'Doherty
January 24, 2010 5:09 pm
I am a regular guest panelist on the British literary podcast Litopia after Dark. One of the topics discussed on last week’s show was the success, or lack thereof, of men writing in a woman’s voice, and vice versa. All of us had examples of writers who had convinced us (Roddy Doyle and Henry James are my personal favorites), and others who had missed the mark. One panelist, though, had a ...
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Measures of Equity
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By Susan O'Doherty
January 17, 2010 5:35 pm
I was surprised to read a comment by “mb” on Dana Campbell’s recent post, “Marketing Pink,” pointing out that women outnumber men at community colleges and stating in part, “I humbly propose that this missive completely misses the mark: The fact is, girls and women are doing just fine vis-a-vis educational achievement, it's the boys and men that are in trouble and who need the ...
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Advantages and Drawbacks of Attending a (Mostly) Women's College (Part the Last)
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By Susan O'Doherty
January 10, 2010 8:12 pm
Over the past several weeks, I have discussed the impact of attending a traditionally female college in the early 1970s. I wasn’t there that long — like most students of the time, I got on the train at 18 and disembarked at 22 with a diploma. But those four years were formative, shaping the rest of my personal and professional life in some important ways:--Valuing female friendships: Most ...
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