Science

KS

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I work as a data scientist at a tech company. AI hasn’t replaced this job yet, so I occasionally get recruitment messages from other tech companies on LinkedIn who are trying to hire in this field. On one such occasion, I received a message from a recruiter that described the data scientist they were looking for: “Educational background: Statistics/Machine Learning/Data Science; Should have some industry experience at least 1 year or so working in ML/DS in companies; Has done some coding in his projects (For example: hive, SQL, scala, pyspark, python, scikit, one of the tech mentioned above that is).” Upon reading it more carefully, I noticed it said “has done some coding in HIS projects.” What an unbelievably sad way to reveal the situation for many women in science and tech – that the recruiter and hiring team were already imagining a man for the job (even if subconsciously or accidentally) as they wrote up the requirements before they had even started reaching out to candidates.

N

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I have recently been baffled by a professor X saying to me “I am really doing my best to encourage women to pursue a career in science, but it is really hard. I’ve started thinking that maybe it is just something in the women themselves. I talked about it with Y and we’re pretty much on the same page.” I’m noting here that both X and Y are white, middle class, male full professors, but that I consider especially X to be a very nice, kind and helpful man. I explained to him all the reasons why I think what he said is BS. However, I do not think he has changed his views. And I wonder: if this man, of all the academics I know probably one of the fairest, nicest and most helpful, thinks this way – how are we ever going to make a change? And how do I convince the man otherwise?

Amy

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I remember that back in sex education, in Year 7 (aged 11) we were told about the ‘penis’. A friend of mine asked what the woman would do. The teacher told her, and I quote, ‘the females have a time of the month.’ That’s it. I asked her, and she sighed dramtically and says, ‘the female genitals produce and egg.’ So then, on our test for reproduction, the title says, ‘The penis and female genitals’. Bit vague, in my opinion.

Scientist / Engineer

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While I was at University, a colleague from my sponsor company, in a superior postion to me, tried to rape me while on a work trip. I said no, he didn’t hear me, I said this is a bad idea, he told me he couldn’t have kids, that it was fine, I said about his wife, he said it’s fine. I couldn’t get away but fortunately for me, my fight response kicked in, I punched him and swore and kicked and yelled and felt so angry and violated and how dare this person try to take something from me without my permission, I wanted to kill. I was very lucky, someone heard me yelling which meant the person had to leave and couldn’t do anything else. I had a fight response out of fight, flight, or freeze (you don’t get a choice it just happens). Both of us had been drinking when this happened, that doesn’t make it okay and it does not stop it from being attempted rape. I said no, they heard and didn’t care, continued acting for what they wanted anyway. When I talked to my friends about it, most of them told me to go to the police to get the bastard. Enough of my male engineering friends/ colleagues that I talked to said, what was I playing at, I could hurt this guy’s career; he could lose his job just because I couldn’t make my mind up; that I needed to get my act together; no one will believe you anyway; it’s your fault, stop being such a little bitch. Now, I know they were wrong. At the time having been immersed in the sexist, derogatory, backwards culture I believed at least some of what they said. I didn’t report it, I told very few people after that and I essentially had a year of battling between trying not to feel anything and trying not to kill myself because the anti-depressants I started taking damn near made me do it. I pulled my shit together, what the nice counsellor I saw several years after, as the mental health support in the UK is wank, told me is called post traumatic growth and have my docotorate and a successful career in STEM. My attempted rape was less than 5 years ago, I still experience sexist shit most days. Engineering is one of the worst sectors for it and if you’re not willing to keep your head down and let the toxic culture be, then prepare for it to be all the worse. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth fighting! I probably did experience sexism and microaggressions when I was at school, I seem to remember being called a dyke and fat and remarks about my large boobs, but it didn’t really bother me, because I was very lucky that my parents had raised me to believe that I was amazing and it was my body, my rules – no one else got to make me feel bad about it. Unfortunately, when I moved to University and then into work I had a very different experience. I was in a far less liberal part of the UK and most of the compliments I received were along the lines of: that’s a good set of tits to get you in here; lucky you’re not like us, cis white men are the new underprivileged; ah, you’re just like one of the lads really; to name a few. With this culture change I began to slip into habits that I would now say threw my own gender under the bus for the sake of belonging. I thought I really felt I belonged that I could be myself completely, until university or work socials happened and I experienced sexual harrassment multiple times, mainly in the form of bum pinching and groping, colleagues would try and get me to have sex with them and when I didn’t want to they’d try to persuade me and keep touching me, cornering me instead of letting me walk off. Through all of these experiences I began to believe what was spouted back by the group of male colleagues that I talked to, ah you had one too many; ah they had one too many; no harm done; nah it’s not weird, just blowing off steam; god, you’re slutty; lads lads lads. It just became part of the status quo. When at university the gropers included staff, at least one of whom had a wife and children. When I outline it like this it sounds obvious, in your face, but it wasn’t. It was insidious, subtle and daily and it was the culture that likely made that attemped rape possible, it definitely made me so unconfident in the system that I couldn’t report it until almost 2 years later. When I did, no one wanted to know.

Cait

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I am a female geologist and I’m very attuned to what is sexist in the work place/academia since my field is essentially a boys club. Whenever I find myself listening to a podcast or radio segment where a female scientist is discussing her findings I tend to think she’s not as educated as her male counterpart. I can’t explain this feeling. I’m personifying all the messed up stereotypes that I work so hard to disprove. Sexism is rampant in our society if even females think poorly about their own kind.

Geo

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Age 14 in year 9, I am ambitious about getting to the ‘Triple Science’ (the top science class), because I wanted to be a vet, however I was told ‘oh a ve? You’re not that good, how about a vetenairy nurse’, nothing wrong with a vetenariy nurse but I wanted to be a vet and study it at university I was also told that I was too ambitious for triple science, so I worked my ass off and took my top grade to her and got into the class However in the class, boys spoke over me as I answered a question, I was laughed at for being wrong, my teacher placed me at the back after a bad grade and ignored my pleas for help in the subject. I was oppressed in my lower school science classes for esentislly being female as my male classmates were encouraged and praised. I now hate science, please girls don’t give up on it DOMINATE THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM!

MITgraduate

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At age 24, I introduced myself to a UC Berkeley admissions officer to ask about applying to their Bioengineering PhD program as a non-traditional applicant. She looked at me and warned, “You should think carefully, what are you? Approaching 30? Do you think about family? Research isn’t for everyone, you know.” I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say.

JC

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A new science institute has opened, and staffed itself with lead researchers. New recruits were announced today – 2 out of 16 are women. They had thousands of applications from all over the world, and this is the gender balance they came up with (the senior hiring team all men). Welcome to the ‘meritocracy’ of academia in the UK. Adding to my recent experience of being the only woman in an interview with a candidate pool of 9, I feel so defeated. But don’t feel I can comment publicly, as I might need a job or grant from one of these men in the future….

A.

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I am a early career scientist. I love my work but my negative experiences are grinding down my resolve to continue in this carreer. A few years ago I was raped by a man I considered my friend at a conference and since then I suffer from panic attacks prior to attending scientific meetings. At a conference this year I was groped by a company rep while walking between seminars. The majority of attendees at that same conference attended a wet t shirt competition at the hotel bar. When I wrote to the organising committee to complain they brushed off my complaint. I have also experience sexual harrassment and attempted rape from the manager of the facilities where I conduct my research. As he held me down on the floor he told me “I can do anything I want and there is nothing you can do about it”. Following the assault I had to go to work every day with him. It appears he has done similar things to multiple female students, including getting one former student pregnant. This week I will file a written report of his behaviour to protect other female students on this farm and to prove him wrong. NO he can’t do anything he wants – not to me and not to other women – and YES, there is something I can do about it.

K

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I was recently writing up a paper for my psychology degree which involves a lot of statistical tests in which everything must be coded into numbers. The male and female participants must be coded into numbers. So usually 1 for male and 2 for female, or 0 and 1 etc. Without a second thought I coded women as 1 and men as 2, just because it didn’t cross my mind. When speaking to my tutor she informed me that I would have to go back and do the entire statistical section again as in the science world it is vital that men are coded and mentioned first. This seems astonishingly old fashioned. And it felt wrong when writing my participants section to put male first as there were far more women in my study, and I have always used a loose rule of most first. In addition to this, there have been numerous occasions where my professors have mistakenly called influential researchers “he” when they are women. Last year I had a developmental module where most of the content was about childcare. Not once did the lecturer say “primary caregiver” but relentlessly labelled this role as “mother” – the worst part being that I was the only one to put my hand up and mention it. He was swift to brush my comment aside and continue drumming sexist ideology into the lecture hall (which was over 90% female).