> Cynthia M. Galloway (c-galloway at TAIU.EDU) wrote
> I have always been perceived by my students as friendly,
> supportive, nurturing, someone they can talk to, until today. I spent
> the
> weekend grading 60 laboratory reports. It took about 30 hours and by
> the
> time I was done, at 1:00 this morning, I was steaming. Many of the
> students
> decided to turn in 100% identical lab reports, including summaries,
> discussions and answers to questions. The offending students were give
> 0's
> to 40% based on whether they had data with their reports or not. I
> passed
> them back, explained what I had done, and answered questions.
> Afterwords
> the students described me as cranky, bitchy, out-of-sorts and just
> plain
> grumpy. When a male colleague did something similar, they said he was
> allowed because he was male and a female shouldn't do the same thing.
> We're
> suppose to be nicer! They did come and apolagize for copying each
> others
> labs but, I still don't see why they feel a male can be critical and a
> female cannot without being called bitchy.
Cyndy, I think you were generous to give any of them more
than 0%. Copying is cheating, and that goes against everything
science and academics should be about.
A recent issue of the ASCB Newsletter addressed this in the WICB
(Women in Cell Biology) column. Naturally, it is adrift on my
desk under a grant and I can't find it, but the gist of the column
was that studies ahve shown that students expect women professors
to be "nicer" than men, and resent them if they are not.
it's a real problem, especially at
places where student reviews of teaching are part of the faculty
members' record.
I have found this myself in my teaching
experience. For example, a woman came up to
me a few years ago and
remembered me from way back as one of her TAs at MIT and
clearly, it wasn't a good memory. She had wanted me to
change her grade, but I wouldn't (wrong is wrong,
however well-intentioned), and I wasn't warm and sympathetic.
I'll bet she didnt expect that of the men, and I doubt she
remembered any of them. One student at Oxford
complained my standards were "too high". I wouldnt put
up with her copying or giving less than 100% effort;
nor would her male tutors, but somehow,
it was okay for them to be demanding. Well,
my standards ARE high, and my students have to
work hard to earn their grades.
If any of the 1st year Biology PhD students at UCSD are
reading this, You Have Been Warned. ;-)
This goes beyond teaching. I remember on one occassion asking
a number of questions at a seminar-- the sort that
the men at the same seminar asked.
One of my (male) friends said afterwards that I was giving
the speaker a hard time--another example of "men are
assertive, women are bitchy" that we've been talking about.
ANother problem is that the questions women ask can get
ignored or downplayed, until a man asks the same question!
By the way, Laura Williams who often writes the WICB columns does
a great job. Laura, if you read this list, are those columns
on line anywhere? (The ASCB web site is under construction and
the only ones there last time I checked were quite old).
--
-susan
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Molecular Biology and Virology Lab
The Salk Institute, La Jolla CA
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