RESPECT
I can hear Aretha Franklin singing that song, R-E-S-P-E-C-T in the back of my mind. Do we have respect as women scientists today? When I was a beginning faculty member, I remember teaching biochemistry to a mixture of biology and chemistry majors. The chemists were all male and they reveled in asking me hard questions about the chemistry background for the topics I covered. I did fine, but I saw them sitting in the back row like a bunch of vultures, waiting to pounce on me if I ever made a mistake, and it gave me a sense of dread whenever I went into that classroom. One even came to an office hours and complained he could never trap me into saying something wrong about Chemistry.
Then there were the male students in my laboratory sections who kept urging me to go and drink whiskey with them in the park. I felt like if I was six feet two, male, with glasses, the respect would have been automatic, but not for young, short, high-voiced, female me.
Then the colleagues were another story. I was the only female in my department. I'm thankful that no one hit on me, but several called me "Honey." On the topic of space, I got the smallest lab and yet most of the others did field work and needed little lab space. When I asked about that, they said, all together now, "Don't worry about that."
Tell us--how are things today? -- in academia or industry, on the score of respect for young women entering the field?
A. Respect is no problem now.
B. Nothing has changed since what you described.
C. It's getting better, but slowly. Sexism is more diguised now.
I think some of my junior colleagues are surprised at scientific meetings sometimes that they (as wonderful as they really are), today, still encounter bias. Myself, I haven't had a problem for many years so for me, A would be fair, but I see and hear about things that happen to others that still worry me. So, for the society in general, I think C is probably right, Helen.
cheers,
Laura
Hmmm. This is a tough one because for myself I would say A. but there are obviously many women for whom C is true. If you're at the top of your game and aren't "super feminine" (lots of short skirts and make-up) in biotech you do just as well or better even than the men. All that focus on multi-tasking and time management that women do really pays off in an active project management environment! But I will say that if you have "doe-eyes" like one of my associates who gets scared if anyone says "boo" to her during a meeting, or if you have the "umm" disease when you present, then you won't be considered worth listening too. But I don't know how much of that is male. It annoys me too actually...although I make sure to give credit where credit is due regardless of how tiny the voice is that brings up something worthwhile.
My problem is my voice. I don't know if men block out anything above middle C, but it seems that way. I say something in a meeting and no one responds. A guy says the same thing a few minutes later and they're all over it saying what good idea it is. I'm frustrated!
