Having the deck stacked against us sucks. Most of us women think of ourselves as equals, or superior to, the men we work with. I have zero tolerance for the bullshit men think they can get away with, such as commenting on my outfit that "makes me look like Xena warrior princess." Did I ask you how you felt about my outfit? No. If I want to wear boots because its raining/cold out/fashionable, do I care how it makes you feel? No. If I wear a dress or leggings because it's spring/all my jeans are dirty/I'm too bloated to wear pants with a waistband, does that mean I want you to look me up and down as I walk down the hall? No. My first year of grad school I remember saying to a friend, "I just want to be left alone to do my science" instead of participating in the meat market that fresh blood aka first year students unwittingly enter. I faithfully went to the women in science meetings hosted by my department because it seems like as a woman in science, we need to talk about how to be a woman in science.
However, after spending a lot of time discussing how and why it's hard to be a woman in science, and how to get one of those coveted careers where you can have a family and do the work you like, my answer is this. To hell with the circumstances, just go be good at what you do. Don't dwell on the gender differences. We're wasting time dissecting all the ways that the system works against us. It's distracting us from our research. I appreciate the power of groups to overcome systemic biases and stereotypes, but I think that the best thing each one of us can do is be a role model for other women in science. I finally realized that when a female professor came and spoke to our women in science group about her strategies for being a professor, having a family, and keeping her head screwed on straight. Don't put up with bullshit from your male colleagues. You're probably much smarter than them, work better in groups, and are much better looking. Most of us aren't going into research careers because we want 9-5 jobs. If you wanted that, choose a different career. I swear everyone just wants to be told they can work 9-5, have a family, and sail through their research careers. Being an academic is not a 9-5 job, no matter what career stage you're in or what your family/personal life is like. But most things worth doing take a little sacrifice. I don't think you should hide your beautiful face or try to play down your femininity, because as it turns out, good looking people get paid more and being androgynous makes people distrust you. Yup. Use the biases in your favor.
Not to me too much about me here, but my whole life I've been the one girl/gal/female in a group of guys. My kindergarten class had 4 girls and 21 boys. I was the only girl in the "blue" reading group (the most advanced) in first grade. I played hockey for six years until I was 13, and was usually the only girl on the team. That's an awkward stage for everyone, but since girls get their growth spurts earlier at least I was bigger than the guys and could check them. They didn't like getting checked into the boards by a girl. I was the only girl in my grade taking advanced math classes long enough that we ran out of classes our high school offered. They brought in a university professor to teach us math senior year, and I was the only girl among 10 students. I still faced my share of discrimination and stupid people saying stupid things about girls not being as good as guys, but at least back then I had plenty of achievements to remind me that I was as good as or better than the guys.
Fast forward to grad school when all of life is totally up in the air--your whole life depends on your research, and if something goes wrong then your whole career and future are in jeopardy. At least that's how it feels sometimes. Everyone doubts themselves, men and women alike, and you become dependent on superiors to allow you to pass from one stage to the next. This is where the floodgates of "it's hard to be a woman in science" open. Well it turns out it's just hard to be in science, regardless of gender. Science is hard, and academia is a tough career.
I had the realization lately that I've been living in a male-dominated world my whole life (haven't you? Most of us have), and being in science is not a radical shift away from anything else I've experienced. Yes I want to be respected as a person and no, I don't want people staring at my boobs all the time. Stares, comments and inappropriate behavior make me uncomfortable. I'm not a supermodel or anything, but I do get my share of unwelcome stares and comments and you know what, I just deal with it and move on. "Dealing with it" can take many forms, but ignoring it and letting it continue is not one of the preferred options. Science is by no means the only field (or set of fields) in which women face biases, harassment and assault. Ask a woman in the armed forces. Or the restaurant industry.
I'm not saying it's okay for sexual harassment or assault to happen, whether in the field, lab, hallway, on campus, on the train, or anywhere. Absolutely not. And yes, we do need articles like this one to open people's eyes about the disturbing, absolutely disgusting behavior of our colleagues. To be honest, that post and the statistics in it did not surprise me. Maybe I'm just less naive than the rest of you, but open your eyes up next time you do fieldwork with a mixed gender group. It is all of our jobs to not tolerate this behavior in ourselves or others. If you are a woman reporting a sexual assault, don't feel bad that you put the director of the field station in an awkward position. Someone else put you in a much-worse-than awkward position.
So in summary, be yourself, be good at what you do, and don't tolerate bullshit around you.
Fast forward to grad school when all of life is totally up in the air--your whole life depends on your research, and if something goes wrong then your whole career and future are in jeopardy. At least that's how it feels sometimes. Everyone doubts themselves, men and women alike, and you become dependent on superiors to allow you to pass from one stage to the next. This is where the floodgates of "it's hard to be a woman in science" open. Well it turns out it's just hard to be in science, regardless of gender. Science is hard, and academia is a tough career.
I had the realization lately that I've been living in a male-dominated world my whole life (haven't you? Most of us have), and being in science is not a radical shift away from anything else I've experienced. Yes I want to be respected as a person and no, I don't want people staring at my boobs all the time. Stares, comments and inappropriate behavior make me uncomfortable. I'm not a supermodel or anything, but I do get my share of unwelcome stares and comments and you know what, I just deal with it and move on. "Dealing with it" can take many forms, but ignoring it and letting it continue is not one of the preferred options. Science is by no means the only field (or set of fields) in which women face biases, harassment and assault. Ask a woman in the armed forces. Or the restaurant industry.
I'm not saying it's okay for sexual harassment or assault to happen, whether in the field, lab, hallway, on campus, on the train, or anywhere. Absolutely not. And yes, we do need articles like this one to open people's eyes about the disturbing, absolutely disgusting behavior of our colleagues. To be honest, that post and the statistics in it did not surprise me. Maybe I'm just less naive than the rest of you, but open your eyes up next time you do fieldwork with a mixed gender group. It is all of our jobs to not tolerate this behavior in ourselves or others. If you are a woman reporting a sexual assault, don't feel bad that you put the director of the field station in an awkward position. Someone else put you in a much-worse-than awkward position.
So in summary, be yourself, be good at what you do, and don't tolerate bullshit around you.
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