Myra Strober and John Donahoe
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034388
- eISBN:
- 9780262332095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034388.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
Chapter 5 chronicles my doctoral program at MIT, where I’m a token woman and an “honorary man” starved for female companionship. I discuss several of my professors: Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, and ...
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Chapter 5 chronicles my doctoral program at MIT, where I’m a token woman and an “honorary man” starved for female companionship. I discuss several of my professors: Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, and Evsey Domar. I review my decision to conceal my pregnancy when I go on the job market and its ultimate revelation several months later. I contrast my career and marriage to Alice’s (she also has a Ph.D. in economics), and try to understand why I never ask Sam to do any housework. I discuss my difficult experience giving birth at the Bethesda Naval Hospital and my subsequent post-partum depression, which lifts instantly when I find a caretaker for my very young son (by far the scariest thing I have ever done) and begin teaching at the University of Maryland.
I describe my elation at completing my doctoral thesis and becoming an assistant professor at Maryland, and compare my ability to speak out and improve the situation during my second birth to my sense of powerlessness during my first. I discuss the mentorship provided to me by Barbara Bergmann.The chapter ends with moving to California and finding a job as a lecturer at Berkeley.Less
Chapter 5 chronicles my doctoral program at MIT, where I’m a token woman and an “honorary man” starved for female companionship. I discuss several of my professors: Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, and Evsey Domar. I review my decision to conceal my pregnancy when I go on the job market and its ultimate revelation several months later. I contrast my career and marriage to Alice’s (she also has a Ph.D. in economics), and try to understand why I never ask Sam to do any housework. I discuss my difficult experience giving birth at the Bethesda Naval Hospital and my subsequent post-partum depression, which lifts instantly when I find a caretaker for my very young son (by far the scariest thing I have ever done) and begin teaching at the University of Maryland.
I describe my elation at completing my doctoral thesis and becoming an assistant professor at Maryland, and compare my ability to speak out and improve the situation during my second birth to my sense of powerlessness during my first. I discuss the mentorship provided to me by Barbara Bergmann.The chapter ends with moving to California and finding a job as a lecturer at Berkeley.
