H
After two years in a PhD program in a science field, it was time for my doctoral exams, in which you have to stand in front of your thesis committee and answer any question that they throw at you in order to progress. It is a big deal. I was working in my chosen specialty, and my advisor was a young superstar in the field. My (male) partner was a new professor in another department, and coincidentally had gotten his job after I was accepted into my program. So the day of the PhD exam, I’m standing in front of my (all male) committee after having studied for months, and my (male) advisor ‘introduces’ me (even though I knew all of them well) with “H came here to study for a PhD because her partner got a job here.” I was so shocked I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t answer a single question. Just stunned. And nobody in that room thought twice about it. After a few stuttered attempts to answer their questions, they cancelled the exam. I did finally earn my PhD, after having to move away and block out of my mind all of the other sexist shite that my advisor said to me over the years. When asked, all the other (entirely male) faculty would say about him was “oh, he has issues with women.”