What is this I don't even.

Ladies in the Sciences

momoneymoboolits:

An observation.

Read More

Ugh, sorry you had to go through this. Here are some thoughts (okay, a lot of thoughts) from someone who’s a little bit less fresh-faced.

Was this in a lab for a class? I can see where some dumbass undergrad (excuse the phrasing; I’m an undergrad myself for a few more months, but the vast majority of us ARE complete dumbasses) might say something like that offhand to flirt or to show off to you. Or to discourage you from really learning the material, thus making you less of an intellectual threat and belittling you into not outshining him in the class. Either way, it’s inexcusable behavior and it flies in the face of the principles science is based on—cooperation and peer review. Working TOGETHER to find the best possible solution for a given problem. If he can’t see the benefit in working as equal partners, then he has a lot more to learn than how to be a decent person to someone of the opposite gender.

I’ve always heard of this kind of thing happening “in science,” but in my four years of lab experience, I’ve actually been lucky enough not to experience it. It’s possible that I’ve just not noticed it, though. (Also, as a disclaimer, I’m a biologist, not a chemist. It seems that chemistry and physics are much slower to change with regards to this subject than biology has been.)

I’m not bragging by any stretch of the imagination, but over the course of the past few years in my lab I’ve become the person people go to with their problems—scientific and personal. Both undergraduates and even new grad students ask me about protocols, have me demonstrate equipment for them, request advice in their writing or presentation skills. The scientific problems people ask me are the ones I appreciate the most, since that means they trust my expertise and value my skills and opinions as a researcher.

Gender doesn’t enter into it because I have never allowed it to.

Women are sometimes taught to be submissive and to allow other people to do things for them, to be polite and to accept what others say, because who likes a girl who argues back? But adhering to that mindset will get you nowhere in science.

Forget about anyone else in your class, in your major. The most important thing you can do for yourself as a young scientist is to build up the skill set you will need for your future work, and that means not allowing other people to do things for you. Jump into the literature, the techniques, the equipment, read everything you can get your hands on (manuals, books, research articles) and then ask yourself if you understood it. If you didn’t, read it again. Talk to your professors about what you’re learning and please consider joining a lab as a student to get some experience at the bench. You’ll be amazed how much it will do for your understanding of your coursework and your field, and it will show you an entire world of science that you’d never know existed if you spent your time just reading textbooks. (That’s not to say that there aren’t bad things about research; it’s mostly heartache, to be honest, but somehow a good kind of heartache.)

Work on yourself and be good at what you do. No, be AMAZING at what you do, because you have it in you to be. You need to spend your time learning how to work both with other people and alone, because in the end your success will depend on both of those aspects of your work—what you can get out of working with other people, and what you can produce for yourself.

I’m not saying that you need to argue with people who act like this jerk did, but you have to hold your ground and not let them get their way. You know that you’re every bit as capable as anyone else in your class, if not more in this guy’s case, and you have just as much capacity to learn and think and flourish as the person sitting next to you in lab. When faced with this sort of behavior, don’t allow yourself to be trampled or shoved in a corner. Express your thoughts clearly and confidently and discuss your side of things, then propose a way you can work together to find a solution.

You can vary your methods for doing this—I would take the harder, “Speak politely but with a tone of voice that says ‘I know what the fuck I’m doing and I just want to make sure you do too’” approach, though you could instead be friendly and sweet as you throw some solid science in their direction. It’s up to you. Neither is better or worse, but the biggest thing to watch out for in responding to this kind of thing would be to demean or belittle them in return. That’s unproductive no matter how gratifying it might feel.

All I’m trying to say is, study and work hard so that you are capable, recognize that you are capable, and communicate your capabilities to the people around you through your actions. This is what I’ve done, and it’s worked for me.

I should say that lab culture, as in the way people work together and how they treat each other, varies so much from lab to lab. There may be one lab run by a dick who will only help his grad students if they wear low-cut shirts, or one run by a powerhouse of a woman who doesn’t accept men in her lab. I’ve seen both. And there are any number of variations on the human condition that will be represented in the people who make up a lab. It’s important for you to decide what kind of atmosphere you want to work in when you go into a lab, because there will be some that are awful places for a woman (or any kind of person) to be, but then there will be labs that are amazing and supportive and don’t give any kind of a shit what you are as long as you work hard. You’ll learn a lot about this just by joining a lab as an undergrad.

But just be careful not to paint an entire field with the brush of one or two or ten lousy experiences, because there will be good people out there… you just have to have the patience to find them.

Your profession (or your passion) should never be reduced to a party trick. Nobody has the right to tell you what you should or shouldn’t be based on what’s going on between your legs, and certainly nobody has the right to tell you what you should look like to fit in the role you’ve chosen for yourself.

And fuck the comment about beauty. Maybe they were flirting, maybe they were being stupid, maybe they were too awkward to think of another thing to say, but that infuriates me on so many levels. It assumes that an attractive girl should always take the easy way in life and let people do things for her, it assumes that science is somehow more difficult for women and they needn’t trouble themselves with all of that, it assumes that you’re doing something WRONG by challenging yourself and pursuing the career you want to pursue. And plenty of other things I won’t even get into. It just burns me up.

I’m really sorry people have said that to you. The only thing I can say to that is that the types who look down on your for your gender, your looks, your clothing style… will be all the more amazed by you when you succeed/excel/kick their ass later on.

Okay, this has been a really intense amount of text from a person who hardly knows you, sorry—but I just wanted to show my support.