Smileys don't counter negative or aggressive comments Dunham. If you don't want to come across as negative or aggressive, maybe you shouldn't write negative or aggressive comments.

Let's reevaluate the stats in 20-30 years then. I bet they are similar. Yes there are a lot of older male professors, but take a look at the stats for women getting permanent academic positions after a postdoc - they are similarly at 30% so there is already a reduced pipeline for potential professors.

It shouldn't be man faces women, but it is. The fact is many women have to make the choice between career and family and most men don't.

I'm assuming you are in the US; most people on here are from the UK.

I know a couple of people who had 20 hour GTA positions - they still had to work 40 hours a week on their PhD on top of this, so obviously with a child it's going to be very difficult.

Having said that, you wouldn't be the first person to do this, so if you want to do it, I'm sure you can.

So true, as soon as you finish one thing it's straight on to the next!

Agreeing with chickpea here, full support to you jojo!

It's great to hear of women getting ahead in science. Dunham and pm133 clearly have no idea of the reality for working women, supportive partner or not. Guess they have missed the stats where women only make up 30% of professors.

There's usually plenty of encouragement to be found here jojo so don't be discouraged.

The examiners won't say start it again. You will get a pass (no, minor or major corrections), revise and resubmit, MSc or fail. If you fail, you will have to enrol again as PhD student, which probably wouldn't happen.

Not really sure what you mean?

I don't think there's real sublevels but I think in reality someone who has been a prof for 20 years is going to have more authority than the newest recruit.

They are definitely not equal. It goes lecturer - senior lecturer - reader - profs. Everyone bows to the profs, so I'm not surprised you find the new prof throwing his/her weight around!

It's quite normal to need support from your supervisor - a PhD is a training program after all. You should not be expected to be an independent researcher from day one. Also, initial experiments are often quite sloppy early on. Please talk to your supervisor and say you need more support and see whether they can offer you a mentor or someone else that can assist. Say that you want to discuss whether your experimental designs are ok. Also consider seeing a counselor to help with your anxiety.

Do you think this is the same for Life Sciences though SocialJen?

I agree with Satchi - it won't make any difference.

Sometimes these things are asked just for monitoring purposes and aren't shown to hiring committees and other times they ask these questions because if you bring dependants you get extra stipend.

What do you mean specifically GC5?

Probably, but that doesn't really matter if you take advantage of all the opportunities on offer such as training, conferences, writing papers etc.

With life sciences though, your supervisors can be really important for networking and finding jobs afterwards... I don't know much about the open university to be honest or how well connected/respected their academics are.

What are your reasons for pursuing a PhD there?

I wouldn't worry too much about it, honestly. He's probably just having a hyper-critical day. Some supervisors get like this to prepare their students being ripped to shreds in the viva.

Plus, it's only his opinion - the examiners may think totally differently anyway. I've watched students that in my mind have done the bare minimum (and our supervisors have said this to them too) sail through their viva with just one extra page to write as corrections.

Just do what you can and I'm sure it will be great.

Depends how small the group is - if it's 10 or fewer I would probably sit round in a circle. If it's 30+ then I would probably stand at the front and talk, but it would be quite awkward!