updated: 2022-01-23_12:32:31-05:00

Picture a Scientist Notes

  • 'triggered'
    • 3 yo daughter
    • told her I was a scientist
    • you really are a scientist mommy, I also want to be one
    • crying, imagining
      • someone treating her like trash
  • you don't belong here

Tip of the Iceberg

  • Nancy Hopkins (MIT Professor biology)
    • fish experiment
    • zebra fish
    • in the lab 365
    • cancer research
    • small private girls school, little math & science
    • went to radcliff
    • bio 2, Jim Watson
      • prof. discovered dna
    • working in his lab as an undergrad
    • Francis Crick visiting lab
      • he came in and put hands on her chest
      • didn't want to make a fuss
      • pretend nothing happened
  • Jane..
    • Cliff Retreat in California
      • figuring out how sea level rise is impacting costal zone
      • jane ..
      • how landscapes change over time
    • earth science
    • want to do fieldwork in antartica
    • Dave marchant mission to antartica
    • head out in early december
    • four ppl in group
      • dave, brother, master student alan lewis
    • there was a break between in mcmurdow (science office) to in the field
    • called her slut, whore, cunt
    • how slutty I was and how good I would be for other men
    • every time I had to go to the bathroom, throw rocks at me
    • embarrassing and demeaning
    • stopped drinking water during the day
    • blood in urine
    • bladder problems since
    • looking for ash
    • blew glass shards and ash into her eyes... "oops that went too far"
    • slope hard to climb, he pushed her down the hill
    • weeping at the bottom
      • decided at the moment to let everything wash over her
    • do something later...
  • National Acadamies of Science sexual harrassment report
    • 50% of women in the workplace face harrassment
    • Student-faculty dependence
    • sexual advancements are the least common
    • iceberg
      • tip: coersion,unwanted attention, assult
      • bottom: subtle exclusions
        • being left off email
        • exclusion
        • jokes
        • etc

Underneath

  • Raychelle Burks

    • Makes sensor arrays
    • Bio/chem weapons, explosives, tests for that
    • People need a testing metric for issues like flint hurricanes etc
    • info and statistics so end users have simple at home test
    • grew up in LA
      • Ohura TOS
    • No black women chemistry professors in school
    • got phd
    • 2.2% of phds in stem fields go to black women
    • "Some real Bullshit"
      • Different types of abuse
      • Walk into office and assumes she's the janitor
      • Ignored in meetings
      • How to deal with it diplomatically
      • Time I'm not spending working on grants, research etc, navigating oppressive systems

  • Back to nancy

    • enough discoveries to be known
    • approached by MIT for job
    • as a junior faculty member
      • treated like a technician
      • have to wait to use her own equipment
      • women had to be nice to everyone
      • didn't want people to avoid her
    • Publish the papers, have trouble getting credit for work
      • somehow different
    • Significant problems
      • going to setup zebrafish
      • needed 200 square feet of space
      • "you don't think you could handle setting up a lab"
      • measured lab space
      • compared space with numbers
      • refused to look at the numbers
    • "I became a radical activist beyond my wishes"

Data

  • back to jane
    • enjoyed the struggle of fieldwork
    • added unnecessary struggle made me think of quitting
    • Thinking of being a bus driver
    • "Him telling me I'm fucking stupid, never have a career as a scientist"
    • Questioning competence
    • Didn't talk about it
    • PHD->Postdoc->Faculty position
    • Told yourself you'd do something, but never did
    • He was still a faculty member there, still harassing
    • I tried to create a science friendly environment, but hadn't confronted him
    • Title IX complaint
      • first draft that night
      • Liberating, 17 years later
    • Waited for tenure first
    • Told Adam Lewis she thought about saying something
      • he said he always felt guilty and would be happy to write a letter
  • Back to Burks
    • conference, majority heavy
    • "manel" (only men)
    • whiter than the cast of friends
    • less than 1/4 speakers woman
    • less than 1/25 poc
    • Parking in faculty lot as faculty with faculty sticker
      • yells at her "do you work here"
      • look at my sticker,
      • "Well I've never seen you before"
    • Higher up the tower, the more white, the more male etc
    • 7% of deans and 3% of provosts & research unis
    • Insult us to our face, but we are meant to be respectful and civil
    • Talk a certain way, look a certain way, but even when you do, you are not considered one of them.
    • Being invisible
      • but also hypervisible in the "why are you here" way
  • Back to Nancy
    • looking at office and lab
    • did measurements at night and odd times when people aren't around
    • measured all the spaces
    • "I expected to fight alone"
    • I knew I was write
    • Gave MIT a last chance, wrote to president of MIT
    • Another woman faculty member to read it, Mary Lou Pardue, PHD
      • Corner table
      • Reads it
      • "I'd like to sign this letter"
      • I think we should go see the president together
      • Talked to each tenured woman in the school of science
      • spring of 94
      • 15 woman, 197 men
      • Half in the national academy
      • Meeting in remote location
      • Was it a bigger problem?
      • don't want to be perceived as a problem
      • No women had taken family leave and gotten tenure
      • walking to deans office as a group
      • intimidated, like we didn't belong there
      • asked for committee
      • Dean said you can have committee but I don't think it will fix the problem
  • Jane's wedding
    • adam lewis was confronted by brother
      • "you were there when she was ruined"
      • "holy shit that must have been really bad for jane"
      • "Jane says hey, it's time to file this report"
      • It needs to be dealt with
      • Write down what happened

Beast?

  • We don't need a computer to measure this bias, a sundial will do
  • men/women word association with science

Male colleague thinks it does not exist
you need to know the research, not personal experience

"human beings may not be the people we think we are"

Media ans science portrayal

Eyes to see?

  • Science communicator

    • youtube bbc etc
    • representation matters

  • Some unknown woman

    • Unspoken rule is either phd or military pilot
    • Boston University
    • New Professor
    • First grad student of dave marchant
    • second week he said he didn't want a woman as a grad student
    • foisted her on him
    • atrocious experience
    • bullying from day one
      • whore bitch cunt
      • he did not believe that women should be on the ice, altering the science for the worse
      • walked out of the camp
        • he said she would have no future in polar studies, no funding
        • grinned and walked off
        • Department chair, a woman .. you can go through this, but he has a sterling reputation and gets lots of funding

  • Nancy

    • ready to retire ~50, tired of struggling

Scouts before the Troops

  • MIT Evidence coming in

    • lab space for women significantly less
    • paid lower salary
    • no childcare
    • MIT Report
    • Complicated for the university
    • Prided itself on being a meritocracy
    • President endorsed the report
      • "I have always believed contemporary gender discrimination has been part fan`tasy and reality, I now believe its a majority reality"
      • owning the problem
      • based on data
      • Ripple, feel the resonance
    • Why are we not doing this? (departments around the country)
    • Daycare center on campus now, tenured woman doubled
    • Other provosts said "it's not in my institution"

  • Jane, Bob brown overruled panel recommendation

    • Provost of MIT then BU