[Bolincentret-at-su.se] Trouble with childcare when attending conferences?

[Agatha de Boer]

Hi all,

Have you in the past, or do you imagine in the future to have 
substantial private costs related to dependents in your care when 
travelling for work? Or are you a supporter of equal opportunities? If 
so, please read the following article in the latest Stockholm University 
Universitetsnytt and leave a comment to the editor (per.larsson at su.se).
https://issuu.com/stockholmsuniversitet/docs/universitetsnytt_nr_4_2017-w/12

The article focusses on my own plight as a single mom which is perhaps 
an extreme case - I need to take my daughter with me when I travel and 
pay for the flights and daycare out of my own pocket which inhibits my 
ability to travel and thus my research opportunities. However, I'm aware 
that this is also a problem for many researchers in relationships, 
especially international researchers. Many western countries are now 
changing their laws and their research council rules to allow their 
funds to alleviate such expenses related to work travel (see article or 
email me privately for details) but Sweden has no such plans yet as far 
as I'm aware. This problem affects men and women but women to a greater 
extent and is therefore also an issue of equal opportunity. The 
Universtitetsnytt article has come about through a desire to raise 
awareness about this problem. The jounalist who wrote it couldn't 
believe that Sweden is behind on such issues and said he may be able to 
write an article for the VR Curie newsletter too. But whether this goes 
anywhere depends on the level of response to this arcticle. If there is 
no response it will be seen as a fringe issue that affects only a very 
few. So please, if you agree the rules in Sweden needs to change to 
allow one to use project money to pay for dependent travel and care 
expenses or to allow universities to support this cost, please do take a 
few minutes to email your support (per.larsson at su.se) and also forward 
the arcticle or this email to as many as possible, also at other 
universities and government institutes in Sweden.

Best,
Agatha

-- 
Agatha M. de Boer,
Associate Professor
Dept. of Geological Science and Bert Bolin Centre for Climate Research
Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Tel: +46 8 16 4730
http://people.geo.su.se/agatha