Gender and Violence
Hi friends of women in science,
A few years ago (Okay, many years ago now) when I was inaugurated as Vice President and Dean of Pomona College, I gave a talk on how important cooperation is in natural systems, and how over-hyped nature-red-in-tooth-and-claw is by news outlets. I argued that the male appreciation of competition is one cause why conflict gets much more press than cooperation.
So, I was quite interested in an article in Science (May 18 issue) called Gender and Violence. It discussed early rsearch by Mary Caprioli, later jumped on and pushed by Erik Melander, who first hoped to disprove it. He read about violence being high in societies with unequal treatment of genders back in the day, and thought that if one factored out all the other possible explanations such as statecraft or poverty it was probably not robust. However, he also found, as Caprioli had established, that countries that had the most gender inequality had the highest rates of political disappearances, killings, and incarcerations.
What does this imply for women in science? Not a new message: there will be violence and lack of support from departments where gender inequity is still entrenched, compared to other departments, probably. I realize one cannot really extrapolate down from whole societies to departments, but I think it's reasonable to speculate that a similar connection could apply. So I'd offer this as a warning to those seeking positions: take a close look at how the department works now, especially by talking with women who are functioning in it today. And let the buyer beware.
Any thoughts on this issue?
cheers,
Laura
Laura
Based on my (albeit limited) personal experience, organizations that have already accepted women into their ranks are more welcoming to additional women. Furthermore, the mere presence of women in the organization is not an adequate indicator; one must look at their roles and how they are treated to determine
I believe that the analysis is applicable to the workplace.
Marian
Dear Laura,
I think it's just another way of looking at the problem, but I rather like getting a really large context like this. Whole countries choose a hallmark way of organizing gender politics and that plays out in their more-violent or less-violent behavior. I was not aware that data support such a connection.
Well for departments, I think we don't use the word violence. But isn't it violence in some sense when a professor in an endowed chair tells a female applicant he'd rather have another (male) candidate, that she won't be a good fit with his department? I'd say yes.
SMR
Hi Laura,
This is an interesting idea, but it would have to be studied at the department level to really establish it. However, no harm in warning applicants to look at the attitudes and gender balance in departments they think of joining. I believe some all male departments are helpful to young women but not all...and caveat emptor is always good advice.
best,
MKS
