Slashdot Mirror
A Plan On How To Stop Sexism In Science
StartsWithABang writes: If there's nothing else that science has to offer, it's this elegant notion: that anyone, anywhere, at anytime, can investigate and uncover the mysteries and workings of the Universe simply by asking it the right questions in the right ways, listening to its answers, and putting the pieces together for themselves. Anyone can do it. Only, for various and sundry reasons, not everyone gets to do it. Some people don't have the economic ability, some don't have the sustained drive or interest, and some simply can't cut the mustard. But some people — some really, really good people — are driven from their passions for a sad, simple and completely unnecessary fact: that they were treated in unacceptable ways that they refused to just accept. And in a great many cases, that unacceptable treatment came simply because of their gender. Sexism sometimes looks like what you expect, and sometimes not. Here's one opinion on what we can all do about it to create the world we really want: where science really is for everyone.
Posting anon because I'm in a STEM academic field.
First off I don't know what kind of places the author worked at. I saw that kind of behavior when I was a young TA, where the age differences between "teacher" and "student" were very small, but in my professional life I see my fellow professionals acting...well, professionally. I of course may have internal biases and filters that may prevent me from seeing everything like this, but without hard evidence of these scenarios either way, that's all we have.
The author describes several instances of truly inappropriate behavior, but is that really "sexism"? Did the male professors/teachers/authority figures do the things they did to *all* women, or just the ones they found attractive? Did they punish or reward students based only their sex? If not, then I don't think that's sexism.
Flip the situations around: if a woman professor flirted with a male student she found attractive, would that be considered sexism? If a homosexual teacher favored with a student of the same sex, would that be considered sexism? If a student of either sex flirts or checks out or writes cute notes on their homework to a teacher they find attractive, is that sexism?
And don't pretend that the above situations don't happen.
I'm not saying that the instances the author cited shouldn't be considered inappropriate and disrespectful behavior. Far from it; treating your students that way is an abuse of the teacher-student power differential, and should be highly discouraged. But lumping it all into "sexism" dilutes the real problems that women face in STEM and misses a larger opportunity to discuss how to build professional relationships.
Men are actively rooted out of teaching roles, sweetheart. And scientists arent paid much more than nurses for the same level of education.
In case you have missed it, Nursing and Elementary Ed pay VERY well these days (especially over the long haul of a career). A good experienced nurse can easily command in the $100,000/yr range (even higher for Nurse Practitioners) in almost any part of the country. And Elementary Ed teachers get mandatory regular raises, mandatory step increases for many certifications, and job security that many of us code monkeys would drool over. A Nursing or Elementary Ed Bachelors is almost certainly going to make you more over the course of your career than a CS degree will these days, and you won't ever have to deal with ageism or job insecurity ever again either.
Here is a telling example. Where I live, entry level teaching positions start at about $25K. Entry level programming jobs start at about $30K. Entry level nursing positions start at about $40K. And care to guess which of those fields offer better job security, benefits, retirement, and raises? (here's a hint, they don't involve any "if...then" statements).
Remember that its the feminists that are in the position of power.
"His name was James Damore."
I have been in STEM for 25 years and have not fund any indication that the claim is true, except for rare isolated instances that do not matter in the greater scheme of things. On the other hand, I have observed some women that did try to get by with their charms instead of scientific skills and hard work or that _expected_ preferential treatment and _they_ faced strong backlash and then claimed "discrimination" and such. Professional victims are a plague.
So, no, I am not ignorant. But I have actually looked at what is going on, because I expected to find something in these 25 years. I found nothing.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
/. recently published a story about a research article in which it was prove there is a gender bias in the hiring of academic faculty in the sciences...the bias was against male candidates. If women want to be treated as equals then stop demanding special treatment. Little wonder male children seek to change their birth gender in alarmingly high numbers these days. You rarely hear of women opting to become men through "gender reassignment" surgery and testosterone therapy.
Sure you hear about it all the time - you just haven't been listening. Searching for "female-to-male transsexual" or "male-to-female transsexual" yield about the same number of results.
Nobody goes for gender assignment to assume the privileges of the other gender - not with all the hassles, stigma, and damage to relationships and employment - this video ("Where's the dress") to the contrary
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
How do we get "institutionalized sexism" from this?
Feminist Handbook, page 1: "Its always institutional sexism."
"His name was James Damore."
You must be pretty naive. Why do you think companies like Google are actively discriminating against boys by having programs targeted at girls? Because they are secretly misogynists?
There's an couple pat answers to that, though:
F: "Bad thing X happened to me! I'm being oppressed because of my gender!"
M: "Bad thing X happens to everyone"
F: "Stop mansplaining, shitlord oppressor!"
F: "Bad thing X happened to me! I'm being oppressed because of my gender!"
M: "What are you talking about? Bad thing X happens to me all the time"
F: "It's not about YOU, shitlord oppressor!"
Yep, inertia is a powerful thing.
Here's another example for you: If meritocracy were a real thing, GM and Chrysler would have gone out of business in the 1980s (probably Ford too).
Chrysler was on the brink of bankruptcy in 1981 (ish), but was bailed out. Then a few years ago - along with GM - they were on the brink of bankruptcy and were bailed out. Meritocracy (in the form of people spending their money) really tried to exert its will on the car companies.
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
Well that is a very interesting claim...that proves upon examination to be FALSE. In fact women constitute 80% of the student population of veterinary schools. It may once have been true, but it is no longer so.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Since vet schools are 80% female, I assume you managed to accidentally reverse the genders here.