After Anna Kushnir wrote a post for Wired Science called “Why Are Senior Female Scientists So Heavily Outnumbered by Men?,” she steeled herself for the usual backlash. But, as she writes on her blog, Lab Life, this time the backlash was even more “vicious” than usual.
In her Wired Science post, Kushnir noted that seven women and one man were in her graduate-school class, but the faculty members in her department were 48 men and seven women.
“What is happening to all the women en route from graduate school to professorship? Where is the leak? Then again, is it a leak, or more like a pressurized stream?”
“It would be all right if the scientific community is still paying catch up with the rest of society in accepting women into their midst and the ratio will equalize in the next decade (not sure there is evidence either for or against this, but I feel compelled to present it nonetheless). It is not acceptable if women are forced to choose between a family and a career in science. It is not acceptable if women are feeling unwelcome in the male-dominated, and occasionally inhospitable, scientific community.”
The comment section quickly filled with responses, many of them less than friendly and one of the worst being, “Go push out some babies and cook someone dinner, you useless ….” Her response on Lab Life:
“I had hoped that people would actually read the post before giving in to the knee-jerk reaction of labeling me a conspiracy theory-loving, man-hating bimbo who was awarded a Ph.D. simply for being a woman.”
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3 Responses to So Much for Reasoned Debate
johnadamdrew - April 4, 2012 at 9:58 am
Great post — I could not agree more. Here’s another dimension of this discussion: I spend much more time looking at screens than I like while I am at work. Looking at more screens during my free time is not something I’m interested in! It’s not that I don’t like reading off an iPad, it’s just that I need a break from glowing screens. Leisure reading happens mostly with physical books and magazines. But, I suppose, ask me in six months and maybe Flipboard will have won me over entirely…
sicetnon - April 4, 2012 at 1:20 pm
For me, the printed book is the perfect combination of form and function. Portable, accessible, glossable, and enjoyable. Batteries or power supply not needed. I can see that digital devices are attractive to those who are looking for better solutions to problems, but perhaps the book is not such a bad solution itself for conveying information efficiently and conveniently. I think so, in any case.
etsarticles - April 6, 2012 at 9:57 am
I agree. The container is a place that can support the act of metacognition. I have a plea. Don’t lock us in. Apps are personal choices, but our data (our notes, highlights, etc…) should be ours and should be mobile along with us regardless of the App. Many of the eReaders that are emerging have wonderful feature sets that do all that you are asking for (Inkling, Kno, etc.) but, as far as I know, haven’t yet developed common specs for the “above the book” management and mobility of the user data. These companies are young, in their start-up phases, now is the time to make that desire clear!