Stanford University

"The building I work in has about a 50/50 ratio, so Stanford is definitely hiring women in my area of campus. I am fortunate to have wonderful colleagues who support each other. If it was not for the welcoming community, then I would have left two months into employment (like I said, my supervisor is not the easiest person but I think the relationship has improved). Stanford has an active sexual harassment and discrimination office and offers mandatory training for all incoming employees. Supervisors are required to take a special class on sexual harassment (they are in a position of power). Lastly, many of my colleagues are parents, married or about to be married. Given my experiences, I would suggest Stanford to other women."

"The pay and hours are pretty standard "work hard so at you at least have something nice on your resume." Men and women are treated just as poorly when you're at the bottom of the totem pole in a research lab, but generally women have fewer pay raises, if any."

"Your experience as a graduate student at Stanford will depend almost entirely on 1) your department, and 2) your PI. If you plan to have kids in graduate school, make sure to have a boss who is explicitly cool with that, or else your life could become hell..."

"There are a lot of women in graduate school, but fewer in the upper ranks of professor."

"The "paid" portion is actually disability pay, for which there is a bit of effort needed to enroll and maintain. Pay is either at 55% or 60% of your normal salary. The 2 weeks unpaid is actually the waiting period between disability and CFRA benefits where they can take, on average, 80 hours from your vacation time for those two weeks if you have vacation time saved up."