Return-Path: sendmail 8.6.4/UCSD-2.2-sun Mon, 6 Dec 1993 07:35:23 -0800 for socgrad-list Mon, 6 Dec 1993 07:35:21 -0800 for From: khaskin@merle.acns.nwu.edu Subject: academic couples To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Date: Mon, 6 Dec 93 9:35:19 CST In response to Del's message about academic couples, my department has three married couples on the faculty, and two of those couples are junior faculty. I.e., they were hired together as couples. So there are schools where they do try to do this. Of course, if the couples are not in the same discipline, that gets more complicated because it involves more than one department. According to our faculty, you should be up-front about being in a couple where both people are looking to be hired. Some people say to put it in your cover letter. Make sure that your references/committee members know about your situation and have met your spouse or significant other so that they can help you network for jobs. Karen Haskin P.S. I would not be surprised if the effectiveness of these strategies differed according to whether the woman in the couple is the "star" or the man. A man who is not desired as much as his wife is still likely to be given a tenure track position, while a woman who is less desired is probably more likely to get hired as an instructor. It would be interesting if we could get data on this.