I had an interesting discussion the other day with another physicist. He worked with my partner and is now looking for a new job in physics. The conversation switched from catching up with each others lives quite quickly when he said "I want to ask a question, but I want you to remember that I'm not sexist". In his search for jobs, he has seen "women" and it turns out it's really one women, talked up and encouraged to apply for positions that he wants to apply for. When I asked him if he thought that they weren't qualified he said that they were, but didn't like that they were getting their "hand held" throughout the process and he didn't feel like he got any help. He also then went on to complain about how most if not all applications have the whole we are an equal opportunity employer and encourage women and minorities to apply. He felt that this was also un-need hand holding for women. I understand that he is frustrated with how hard it is at the moment to find jobs, but it felt very unfair that he put the blame on women. When I mentioned the APS study to him, he still felt that women were being given an unfair advantage, and that all this "hand holding" was detrimental to our cause, being accepted as equals in physics.

On a similar note, I'm just finishing up my PhD and looking at post docs. I do not think that I've been given any extra special attention or advice about how to get a job. I did however receive an e-mail today from one of my advisors suggesting I might want to look for jobs in two completely unrelated fields. He also once suggested that I become a museum curator and tour guide instead of a Post-doc. When I asked him if he was suggesting this because he didn't think that my work was either good enough, or that he didn't think that I was smart enough or qualified to work in the field of study I'm currently in, he responded with no I was, but he thought I might like working more with children instead of research. I am not sure where he got this idea from as I've always stated how I am not sure I have the patience to be a good prof., and would really prefer a job in industry. I've had many friends with similar stories, they are in the process of getting a PhD and they get asked if they are planning on teaching high school physics when they are done. They are asked if they would rather go into policy instead of research, or my favourite, are they really going to go through the tenure process, since really wouldn't they be more interested in starting a family?

On a plus side, in today's aps' Women In Physics e-mail there was a note about a new initiative from the NSF. It will allow researchers to delay or suspend their grants for upwards of a year to deal with family obligations including a newborn child. Things are changing, but perhaps slower than many would like.

A bit but still interesting

In my search to find out about women in physics, google has few suggestions from the past year or two. I did find an interesting About.com article by Andrew Zimmermen Jones  which cites a book, The trouble with Physics, by Lee Smolin

There is heated debate among physicists over why there are not more women or blacks in physics, compared with other fields just as challenging, such as mathematics or astronomy. I believe the answer is simple: blatant prejudice. Anyone who has served, as I have, on decades of hiring committees and hasn't seen naked prejudice in action is either blind to it or dishonest.

 The comments were interesting. The one that struck me the most was about high school counsellors not suggesting physics to girls who are good in the math and sciences. I remember meeting with my counsellor as required at the beginning of senior year. I was in the top 10% of my class and had a 3.85 GPA. I was in the 90th percentile in the SATs, had taken AP calculus, and was in science olympia. I was already planning on going to college for physics and then going into grad school from there. My counsellor suggested that I think about maybe attending a 4 year college. When I told him that I was planning to go on to grad school he just sat there and ended our meeting early. I'm still unsure why he didn't say that I should really be planning to go to a 4 year program, and then suggest that depending on what I was going to major in think about grad school as well. I feel sorry for all the other girls he probably told the same thing to who then questioned if they really were smart enough for college.

This isn't the first time I've heard of high school counsellors turning girls off from going into math and science, and I really don't think the counsellors mean any harm. I truly believe that they feel they are doing their best to help these girls. I also believe that it just never occurs to them that these girls might not only enjoy a degree in the math and sciences, but that they might excel at it.

When I told my physics teacher what the counsellor had told me, he first laughed and then told me that I better go on to grad school and started listing off places that I might like and should keep in mind as I went through my BS degree. I was lucky, I had a great teacher who really pushed and supported me, he still does on a regular basis. I had an amazing father who was excited about my interests and went out of his way to study what I was interested in so that we could discuss it. I had a mother who was more than happy to take on the school and make sure that I got to take the science and math classes that I wanted to. I'm not sure I would be where I am today without them, I just wonder how many more women might be in the sciences and especially physics if they all had the support I received.

Please feel free to share any stories you might have had about how you got into the math and sciences, or why you maybe didn't.

- a women in physics -

Hi...

Hi...

As you may have guessed I am a women in Science, I hope not to give too much about myself away as I would like this to be a safe place for people to visit and share ideas. I will say that I've studied science in the US and Australia and the comparisons have really opened my eyes to feminism. I never would have considered myself a feminist until I moved to Australia. I'm not sure if it was seeing women in a different culture or if there really is that big of a difference between attitudes towards women in the two countries. 

The thing that gets me though is that no one really seems to want to talk about sexism in a field that in 2003 women were only 18% of PhD's graduating and that was a record high. It seems that in the sciences we believe that we judge people based on their work not their gender, sexual orientation, race ect. To say otherwise is a bit of a taboo. There are studies which look at women in the sciences in Academia, higher education, and in the private sector, but when this is discussed in seminars it feels like people listen respectfully, have their coffee and cookies, then go back to their offices and forget what they heard. When it is discussed in a more workshop forum, it seems that much of the blame is laid on K - 12, granted it is human nature to want to shift the blame to others. It may also be that this has been what I have felt in the departments that I have worked in and perhaps behind the scenes others do more than what they are willing to share.

The American Institute of Physics completed a survey this last year and it had some interesting results. Women are still behind men in the field. We are less likely to get talks at conferences, we are less likely to be advisors, and we are more likely to feel discouraged about working in our field. There needs to be an open, honest, and safe discussion about sexism in Physics. Too many times I've seen men gang up on women when they try to talk about this. I've seen men in the field bully women into thinking that there really isn't a problem and they just need to grow some thicker skin. Some times they are right, but other times they are wrong. It's not easy to point this out and not be labeled something not quite so nice. I hope that here I can find some answers or at least maybe a place to meet others with thoughts, stories or advice on how to be a women in physics.


 - a women in physics -