Rosalie B. wrote:
Emily wrote:


P. Tierney wrote:

Given that, the "no" responses don't put me off much. If one
is to answer the question "no", in fact, I'm not sure what other
reasons they could give. What "no" rationale could a parent
give that would be logically acceptable to a working parent?


How about - she is taking the job from a man who is supporting his
family?

Dear Rosalie,

I think that that argument might not make sense in the
context of the sort of jobs in question. That is, we're
talking about the scenario where the family is economically
fine with just one parent working, but the other chooses
to work as well. I'm guessing that it would be very rare
for a parent in that situation to be, say, flipping burgers.

Most of the folks that I know in academia could be making
more money doing something else. If I'm taking a job from
someone, they could likely be doing something else and making
more money at it. Which isn't to say that there aren't more
people who want jobs like mine than get them, but it doesn't
make sense to talk about it in terms of economic need: the
people who want this job could all be doing something else,
but they want it because they want to be academics. In that
sense, I think I'm as deserving as anyone else, even though
my family could get by on DH's salary.

Emily