Take a look at this multi-book review in BioScience
Dear Friends of Women in Science,
Anne Rosenwald has a review of five resources on the status of women in science in the newest issue of BioScience. She discusses Beyond Bias And Barriers, the NAS report from 2007; my memoir, Breaking through the Spiral Ceiling; Every Other Thursday by Ellen Daniell; The Madame Curie Complex by DesJardins (see the discussion earlier on the forum about Amy Bug's review of that book); the essay collection Motherhood, the Elephant in the Room; and Women in Science, Then and Now by Vivian Gornick. Anne points out what each of these books can contribute to our understanding of how women are faring in science today.
She also gives an anecdote from early in her own career, about a male scientist at a Gordon Conference who, having heard that Maxine Singer had just been appointed Director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, asked Anne "What more do women want?" The tone was probably a bit sarcastic, implying women already had more than they deserved. Anne didn't snap back at the time, but today she says she has her answer ready: just a fair shake, for there to be enough women in STEM fields so they won't seem exceptional, won't be a "they" with so much misunderstood otherness that such a question could be asked.
Have you ever been asked a question that you found yourself trying to answer years later?
cheers,
Laura
Yes, I think it's ironic that those who ask what women really want generally don't want to know the answer. Just to be treated fairly is the right answer but not one they would accept.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Laura,
I've been on search committees and had all the guys behave themselves well, only to hear later on that they asked a question like this when alone with the candidate. Usually the women didn't take the job if it was offered to them, and no wonder.
My own question experience was being asked, "Will you quit if you get married later on?" by a prospective grad school mentor. I just walked out and tried someone more empathetic. Wish I had said, "What if I did? I would still have a brain and hands!"
Hi Misty,
Yes, it was definitely illegal for him to ask that if it was after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. But I keep hearing that people still ask these forbidden questions.
Sorry it happened, but I love your post-facto answer!
cheers,
Laura
probably illegal for him to ask, but one of my grad school interviewers asked me, 'Why should we waste a space on you when you'll probably take leave to have kids and so we'll lose out scientific discoveries in the long run?"
I was speechless at the time, but later I wished many times that I had argued quality over quantity, that I had said I could discover things he hadn't dreamed of...
Oh, well, shoulda coulda
