BINGO to link articles I have written:
Men have more gray matter in their brains/Boys Score better in the upper tail is using flawed science to justify sexism and discriminatory hiring and promotion in STEM fields, especially in ‘harder’ fields like math or physics.
Pulling up the ladder. Women who ascend the career ladder in STEM are often rewarded for adopting ‘masculine’ traits in the workforce: blunt communication style, internalized misogyny, and pull up the ladder for other women.
“Just Learn to Code”. Us Millennials were told to ditch the humanities (why major in history when Wikipedia exists?) and go full-in on STEM, especially computer science and engineering. That worked out great for me as I’m currently unemployed.
‘Be one of the guys”. Women who didn’t conform to dominant expectations in STEM culture were often caricatured.
Sensitive. Women are often branded as ‘overly sensitive’ and try, in vain, to get compassion when struggling.
‘Are you sure?" Fearmongering and imposing scarcity mindset can cause women to question their ability.
Science is Objective. The supposed meritocracy of the scientific method (and even that is often up for debate) does not extend to hiring and retention practices in academia and industry.
Under-utilized. Since women began obtaining doctorates in the late 19th century, their skills have been underutilized. Less likely to get hired, and if so, at lower pay in a lower-ranking job like research associate, rather than professor.
Making a high salary is easy! Unemployed engineer. Sounds like an oxymoron, but institutional resistance results in higher attrition rates of women in engineering and tech than men. Women are also paid less.
“Laughed at For Breastfeeding”. Women in STEM events are shallow and provide little strategies for actually navigating institutional spaces.
DEI Admit. There have been large attacks on affirmative action and diversity initiatives in the United States. Without federal mandates, diversity drops.
Hide your disability. It is very difficult to navigate academia or STEM spaces with a disability. Universities were literally designed for the able-bodied.
You’re not thinking logically. Science is associated with ‘masculine’ traits like rationality and logic. Yet poetry can take on sexism in STEM culture.
Sexual Harassment. Do better, academic conferences. Let’s stop harassing people based on their sexuality.
FREE LABOR. Academia thrives upon women’s unpaid labor.
Motherhood Penalty. Women if they were married, often found it extremely difficult to get a full-time position, the exception being during WWII.
Men Bonding over golf (or a cigar bar I saw in one post). The STEM environment has a great opportunity for commercialization—men have bonded and formed huge companies that discriminate against and exploit women.
Science is a meritocracy. Sexism is baked into the development of lab experiments, computer algorithms and even math.
Princess-themed outreach towards girls. Puffy-pink feminism is alive and well but only serves to reinforce sexism and heteronormativity in STEM spaces. There is little evidence that this actually works as a recruitment tool.
Admitted By Mistake. Faculty often have negative views of graduate student ability and writing and blame the admissions process rather than their own failures in mentorship for attrition.
The pipeline myth. The ‘pipeline’ has technically been full for decades in most STEM fields…yet women still are not ascending to top positions.
“You lack confidence”. A way to gaslight women into thinking that they are the problem not the institution.
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One thing that will always stay with me was during my postdoc. ACS had a presentation for women in science. I happened to be having some beers at the end of the day with a bunch of guys and one made fun of the Women in Science talk and another called my field of science a “boys club.” That was 15 years ago. I refuse to accept those douche bags feelings.