The Chronicle of Higher Education: Colloquy

COLLOQUY

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I'm a female physicist who is working towards tenure. One minute I'm lecturing to a class or attending a faculty meeting, and the next minute I may be cutting metal in the machine shop, climbing ladders, or crawling under my equipment. I worked in a major national lab for seven years where it was easy to tell the women scientists from the women secretaries. The secretaries dressed "professionally," often in suits, while we scientists wore grubby blue jeans. Now that I'm a professor, I find it difficult if not impossible to balance "professional" with "practical" clothes. I can't crawl or climb while wearing a skirt, and vacuum pump oil doesn't wash out of nice suits. I have to walk a tightrope between dressing down enough to function in my laboratory, while dressing up enough to "fit in" during faculty meetings and such.

I am the only female faculty member in my department, which means that there are no models for me to follow. The question is: How can I dress "professionally" enough to satisfy the expectations of my students and my (especially the non-scientist) colleagues, yet be "practical" enough to actually get my work done? I'd appreciate hearing from other scientists regarding their opinions and solutions to this problem.

-- Vickie Frohne, Assistant Professor of Physics, Western Illinois University (posted 2/10, 4:40 p.m., E.S.T.)
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