Why Aren't More Women Tenured Science Professors?
21 Jun 2009 14:09:50 UTC
Topic 194410
(moderation:
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
Why Aren't More Women Tenured Science Professors?
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Hmmmm ... "This job is not designed for me" and then they go elsewhere.
I recall that the fraction of women in orchestras began to increase only when auditions were done behind a screen ( thus obscuring all but the sound generated by the applicants ). However a job designed by men for men will still miss the mark. But with some industries/endeavours the job prescription is based on the market not the supplier - and that defines the mold one has to fit into. Also many men and women avoid, quite sensibly, certain areas of risky business so the job queue isn't long. But blokes are less risk averse overall, it's a macho thing.
As for women's contribution to science, it is definitely under-rated.
- Otto Hahn got the Nobel but not Lise Meitner for essentially the same quality work on Uranium transmutation in the 1930's.
- Watson and Crick got a Nobel on DNA, but not Rosalind Franklin. She did the superb X-ray crystallography work only to hand the pictures over for unwinding from momentum space to distance space, thus giving the spiral structure.
- the inventor of the compiler for computing was Grace Hopper.
- not sure why hardly anyone seems to be aware of Emmy Noether, a confidant of Einstein no less, who found/formalised the principle that all continuous symmetries have an associated conservation law.
- I have always been surprised that Rachel Carson, for the DDT to eggshell connection, was not better recognised.
- mind you Marie Curie did get two Nobels ( a Physics and a Chemistry ).
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) I've just looked up the only other women's Physics Nobel here. A quarter slice at that ....
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
I think its more I am not
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I think its more I am not recognized here, therefore its not designed for me therefore I will go elsewhere. In Academia I think there is a definite glass ceiling in science and engineering
To bring more women into the mainstream science engineering fields you are going to need tenured women science professors.
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
RE: I think its more I am
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At the cost of getting it wrong I'd say that women are really more risk-averse, and to their credit. That is, it's the guys that do the dumb things ( see The Darwin Awards ). If so this would apply to their own careers, so they would tend to avoid the scenarios of lesser reward.
I had the good fortune of being lectured by a real star of a person ( a woman in the male dominated domain of Medicine in the 1970's ) by the name of Priscilla Kincaid-Smith. A world standard nephrologist and very passionate about pathology, making quite lame this recent fad of forensic TV shows. Literally wrote the textbook.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) Another female lecturer we had was notable for shoving the spike of an umbrella through the speaker in the elevator of the faculty building - "... bloody musak!". Ah, Silence is Golden. This was a widely applauded move. :-)
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Margherita Hack is a well
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Margherita Hack is a well known Italian astronomer. Also a woman discovered pulsars but got no Nobel prize: Jocelyn Bell.
Tullio
RE: RE: I think its more
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From my experience in business where I also believe there is a glass ceiling, I worked for a woman president of a division who I believed put battery acid in her morning coffee. I worked for a lot people in that position all men. I found most women were regulated to positions in human resources and finance. I think for them to break that ceiling they have to overcompensate the toughness just to be taken seriously by the old guard. I could be wrong
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
Yes, Ms Bell. A splendid
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Yes, Ms Bell. A splendid example. Finds a whole new class of astronomical objects, now quite a key feature of the cosmos at many levels, and is under-applauded for sure. So she did try harder than the guys for sure, to what avail.
Just to clarify or avoid the impression that I am some sort of Sensitive New Age Guy or other, I'd like to point out that the Nobel Committee deliberations are sometimes/frequently arcane or obtuse. But, it's their prize after all and we don't have to take it seriously.
For instance I don't believe that the invention/discovery of the Polymerase Chain Reaction was all that clever ( as admitted by the chap himself ), more of an engineering point.
Or why Penzias and Wilson scored the Nobel on the CMB, when they fell over some radio static and had no idea of it's import ( their previous best explanation being pigeon dung ) before contact with Dicke and Peebles who certainly did!
Also Einstein himself remained alive and Nobel eligible for a long time after his Relativities were well verified experimentally. Yet he never scored on account of those.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: I think its more I am
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I think it also has to do with the old sterotype of women just don't understand higher math and science stuff. Of course we all know that is not true, but for some people it is still true and until they die off things will not change much. Now to their credit they are dieing off pretty quickly and women are being encouraged to pursue their dreams too! As stated lots of women could be at the top of the heap, they were just overlooked because they were women! If anyone is not encouraged at the crucial times in their lives, or is always pushed to the back of the room, they will find somewhere they can be treated better. Fortunately women are both standing up for themselves more and being treated more fairly worldwide. There of course are always some notable exceptions, Mulsim Countries seem to always top the list of suppressing women. BUT Christian Countries can be right up there fighting for the top honor too!
RE: Just to clarify or
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Just admit it Mike.. Your secret is out :-)
I usually get that way after a couple..:-)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
RE: Just admit it Mike..
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Ok, the game's up. I admit it! :-)
.... of cups of battery acid with a splash of coffee ? :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
I guess Gloria Steinem Words
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I guess Gloria Steinem Words ' A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, just might come true..
First Live Births
:-)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold