So Much for Reasoned Debate

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.”