I think that a fair number of your questions are based on small sample
sizes. Because women in science are uncommon, they get noticed more than
others, and any personality trait that is seen as a difficulty gets
magnified.
It is very easy to have one bad experience and draw broad generalizations.
For one example, I had a student who did what your boss doesn't like -- he
would ignore my requests rather than following-through and running the
experiment that needed to be done. Eventually I kicked him out of my
lab. He was the only foreign student I have ever had; should I now be
reluctant to accept any other foreign students because they won't take
advice? As another example, my first woman student moved out of town when
her husband was relocated, and then she dropped out of school and had a
baby. Should I refuse to take married women into my lab because they are
likely to be unreliable?
In my experience (about 24 years of student, postdoc, and faculty life),
nearly all graduate students have a "me against my boss" attitude,
regardless of sex. Some of them grow out of it, but the ones who are most
rewarding to train are those who try to act as colleagues from the start.
Much of the "me against my boss" behavior that I have seen is due to
immaturity; these students are still living out adolescent rebellion,
rather than acting like adults.
Do you have data on women collaborating less smoothly than men? It should
be pretty easy to look at authorships in journals in your field, and
calculate the joint probabilities of women or men being coauthors, based
on their representation in the field.
Your point about women being unwilling to accept inequality among women
may also be based on a small sample size. I can think of many women
scientists who are interested in helping any enthusiastic junior
colleague, regardless of sex, but I can think of none who actively or
passively impede the progress of their female colleagues. My experience
is also based on a small sample size; I've certainly heard that women are
more tough on other women than on men, but I have yet to see it.
cheers,
Chris
In article <359E59AE.40FE at biokem.lu.se>, ann.magnuson at biokem.lu.se wrote:
mostly snipped:
> I've started to wonder if there is really no difference in
> proffessionalism and fairness in male and female students.
>> Also, when he asks someone to do an experiment, he doesn't mean
> > it as a recommendation that the person is free to follow or not.
> > He says men just go ahead and do it, more often than women do. I have no
> idea if this is just his own view, what are your experiences?
>> In my own experience, the female world-view is often " me against my
> boss" whereas a man tries to be coherent with his superiors. Of course,
> as bosses are mostly men this is maybe not so surprising. How do you
> feel about your boss?
>>> Women also seem to collaborate less smoothly than men,
>> One important point, which I have only recently come to understand, is
> how women seldom accept that other women can be more competent or have
> higher ambitions.
>
