Hi Everyone,

Just to take a different but important take on this.

Many years ago a woman collegaue of mine, an archaeological
conservator, became pregnant and we actually had to modify her work,
curtail many of her activities, and extend her leave to significant
time before the birth. And these issues also extend after the birth if
the mother is breast feeding her child.

Any woman who is pregnant is extremely vulnerable to harzadous
exposures from not only chemicals but also dusts and mists. This not
only meant that she could not use resins such as B-72 and almost all
solvents but even doing air abraison on iron artifacts was an issue
because exposure to iron oxides and also the alumina dusts can affect
a pregnancy. She ended with modified duties and switched over to doing
a conservation survey of the archaeological collections and also more
managerial tasks and then took an extended leave starting before the
birth - and even after she returned her duties were modified until she
had stopped breast feeding her daughter.

So, you really need to develop a core list of hazards specific to
pregnanacies for ALL museum employees and try to anticipate finding
other, safer, duties, or modifying the leave policy to recognize this
issue.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, CA

On 1/11/08, Jill Chancey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Gayle,  I didn't see any women man-bashing on the list.  Nobody
> disagreed that all parents should get parental leave.  I do find it
> interesting and maddening that, within hours of a query about maternity
> leave, people are immediately shouting "BUT WHAT ABOUT TEH MENZ?"
> Heavens forbid we should talk about women's rights for ten minutes
> without some dude coming in to tell us how oppressed he is, too.
>
> Randy, congratulations!  You've just managed to win a round of
> "anti-feminist bingo" in only one semi-coherent email.  See the link
> below for details:
>
> http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=431
>
> Jill R. Chancey, PhD
> Curator
> Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
> PO Box 1108
> Laurel, MS 39441-1108
> www.LRMA.org
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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