Bharathi Jagadeesh (bjag at ln.nimh.nih.gov) writes
> I am not willing to put up with not being taken seriously, and my worry
> is that some male scientists, who do not have experience with female
> scientists as colleagues, are _too_ careful in their discussions with
> female scientists, to the point where you're not actually sure what
> they're thinking about a piece of data. This is a form of discrimination
> that will prevent you from ever being treated as a colleague. The
> interaction basically means that the supervisor has decided you're not
> in the running for the top of the pyramid, not worth coaching. There are
> plenty of cases where people learn, when they're interviewing for a job,
> or up for tenure, that there were criticisms of their work that were
> never effectively delivered. But the criticisms are nevertheless used to
> judge the candidate.
This is IMHO a real problem with several forms:
1) the unwillingness to take women seriously. Sometimes this is
the inability of a senior person to realize that someone who does
not fit the standard mold of Aggressive Young Turk is in fact,
ambitious, talented, and able. The attitude becomes "I will save my effort
for the important young men." How many women readers of this group
have had the double take or surprised expression--oh, so you DO know
what you are talking about? Oh, you DID get that grant/prize/award?
(Yes and without any help from YOU!)
2) the discomfort level of older men mentoring younger women. They
are awkward and uncomfortable, as if they are always waiting for the
women either to cry or make a pass at them. MUCH easier for
them to put their efforts behind young men, whose style of
interaction they are familiar with. No difficult in communicating
there, since they are both reading from the same manual. Since
most senior faculty are men, this is a HUGE problem.
3) the walking-on-eggshell phenomenon--"women can't take criticism",
so we just won't give it to them, or "anything I do, women will
accuse me of harrassment" so we just won't interact with them.
4) the invisible women phenomenon--we didn't invite any women
to speak because there aren't any doing good work in this field.
Bharathi is absolutely right on this one and on its delayed effects;
once people are excluded from the give and take of scholarship,
once their questioners hold back on the challenges because
of gender, then they are treated as "special", which really means
they are marginalized and unlikely to succeed. You can go begging
for feedback but they will put you off with platitudes--does this
mean that there is nothing to repair, or that the situation is
irreparable?
And while I cast this as a women's problem, I believe that anyone
who does science quietly, or in any way differently, is subject
to this marginalization as well, regardless of their gender or color.
--
-susan
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