Resources for Dual-Career Couples

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If being part of a dual-science-career couple is so bad, then how can one explain a science-only dating service? There must be something to this scientist-couples thing.

Indeed.

Despite the problems, being part of a two-scientist couple has its advantages. For one, despite the geeky stereotypes, some of those scientists are interesting and--dare we say it?--sexy. Besides, most scientists love to talk about their work, and it's even better if the person you're talking to can understand what you're saying.

Not hetero but still want a partner with whom you can talk bench during dinner? Then check out Science Connection's companion site, the Alt Science Connection.

The Dual-Science-Career-Couples Web site was born from a survey of the difficulties scientist couples experience when trying to find employment in the same location--far from giving a bleak perspective, the site offers solutions and useful links.

One very promising approach to meeting the dual-career challenge, while also helping colleges with faculty recruitment, is to create a special fund for paying the trailing spouse. It's a rare approach so far, but it exists.

Britain's Royal Society is offering Relocation Fellowships to start in 2004 in response to the Greenfield Report which concluded that women are more likely to be the trailing spouse, to the detriment of their own careers.

The Mellon Foundation has funded a similar program at a consortium of five colleges in Massachusetts. Look for this practice to become more common in coming years.

The British Council is pointing women towards sources of advice to help them tackle the different aspects of the work/life balance.

Partnerjob.com is a job database for dual-career couples on the move. The site tries to facilitate the geographic mobility of certain member companies' employees (among them Hewlett-Packard, Danone, and Schlumberger) by helping find partners a job at a new location. The participating companies are mostly European but not exclusively: Hewlett-Packard is a founding member.

A few colleges and universities have made their spousal hiring policies explicit and posted them on the Web. We're sure it isn't comprehensive, but here's a list of links. If you know about other institutions with Web-posted spousal hiring policies, please let us know by sending e-mail to jaustin@aaas.org.

• Zurich's Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's Dual Career Office is one of the first examples for support schemes for academic dual-career couples in Europe.

  
  http://www.dca.ethz.ch/index_e.htm
   

• Purdue's Spousal Relocation Assistance Program Web site has lots of information on dual-career couples, including the results of an excellent study by Twombley and Wolf-Wendell. (Look for an essay by Wolf-Wendell on Science's Next Wave later on this month!) http://www.purdue.edu/humanrel/HTML_Files/SpousalRelocation/

  
   

• Back in 2001, Cornell University decided it needed to do more to help dual-career couples in order to stay competitive in recruiting new faculty members. This news release describes their recent initiatives.

  
  http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/01/2.15.01/recruiting_issues.html
   

• The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has a Dual-Career Hiring Policy . http://www.provost.uiuc.edu/provost/appointments/facac.html#II,F

  
   

• Ohio University's Web site hosts its Dual Career Network .

  
  http://www.ohiou.edu/dual/
   

• The University of Wisconsin, too, has a Dual-Career Couple Program .

  
  http://www.wisc.edu/provost/hiring/spousal.html
   

• Northern Arizona University has a Partner Accommodation Policy .

  
  http://www.nau.edu/affirm/forms/partner.html
   

• The University of Arizona provides Information and Guidelines for Hiring and Retaining Dual-Career Couples .

  
  http://info-center.ccit.arizona.edu/~vprovacf/couples/
   

• The University of Maryland has a Dual Career Employment Assistance Program .

  
  http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/FacRes/programs/#dual
   

• Here's a link to the Shell Oil Spouse Employment Center .

  
  http://www.shellspouseemployment.com/
   

• The University of California (UC), San Diego, provides Relocation Assistance for Dual Career Couples .

  
  http://blink.ucsd.edu/Blink/External/Topics/Policy/0,1162,818,00.html
   

• Not to be outdone, UC Davis provides a Partner Opportunities Program .

  
  http://provost.ucdavis.edu/pop/popcvr.cfm
   

• UC Santa Cruz, too, provides a Web site to serve dual-career couples.

  
  http://www2.ucsc.edu/ahr/dcs/
   

• The University of Nebraska has a Dual-Career Program .

  
  http://www.unl.edu/svcaa/faculty/dualcareer.html
   

• The University of North Carolina, Charlotte, has a Dual Career Couples Employment Assistance Program .

  
  http://www.uncc.edu/humanres_is/DualCareer/DualCareerHome1.htm
   

• On the other hand, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas's approach to the dual-career situation is not exactly inspiring: UNLV provides a list of links to area employers and to the local paper's Want Ads. So good luck with your job search if you're headed to Las Vegas.

  
  http://hr.unlv.edu/Employment_Svcs/dualcareerlisting.html
   

• The University of Colorado's Policy Statement on Dual Career Couples is here:

  
  http://www.cusys.edu/policies/Personnel/dual.html

Other Resources

Peter Taylor of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, has written a set of proposals intended to help administrators deal with the two-body situation.

http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~ptaylor/partnerhiring.html

The University of Illinois Press has published a book on the subject, Academic Couples, Problems and Promises , which you can purchase from its Web site.

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f97/ferber.html.

The University of Michigan's Graduate Student Services office provides advice aimed at graduate students on job searches for dual-career couples.

http://www.cpp.umich.edu/cpp/students/grad/academicjob/dcarcont.htm

One Ball State University professor provides some reassurance: Happiness is possible, apparently, even for dual-career couples.

http://www.bsu.edu/news/article/0,1299,3054~~,00.html