Dear Laura and others,
It has been my experience too that many scientific meetings are laced with
way too much alcohol and sexual propositions. For example, I attended two
Cold Spring Harbor meetings and was, the first time, propositioned by a
prominent faculty member, and, the second time, by a couple others
(post-doc and grad. student). In both contexts, there was heavy drinking
going on. I have been in similar situations at a few other meetings.
I will be blunt and say that I don't drink for personal reasons and have
been in monogamous long term relationships and so, for me, I really have
to struggle with what I perceive as some over the line behaviour at
professional meetings. My experiences at them make me want to become the
classic introvert, in many ways. I don't consider it networking when you
are talking to some guy who is slurring their speech as they try to haul
you on the dance floor and beyond; I doubt them will remember their
behaviour in the morning. Anyway - my friends joke about me winding up
with the faculty position in the only dry town in Oregon, for the record.
How ironic!
I just wanted to add my two cents to this one because I have
found a lot of potential for people (WOMEN) to mess themselves up
professionally in the context of meetings. I say women because my
experience has always been with men doing this kind of thing to me. I
believe that men also have this potential (I certainly don't respect the
PI and students/post-docs who did it to me) but, because of the
gender differential in terms of power, men are usually the ones who have
the power to hire or make career decisions.
Sarah
