women in science

I read a post the other day at Am I A Women Scientist and decided to respond in the comments.
“…I finished my PhD two years ago and did an 'inventory' where my former colleges are today. Of the women, 7 out of 9 (78%) are on a nontenure, nonscience, nonuni track but only 1 out of 6 (16%) of the men. Of the two women still in the scientific field (or what to call it?! t-t?) one is employed for another month and then she will change careers into nursing. So, that leaves me doing a post doc abroad and one woman working as a researcher in t-t. I guess 20% rate (2/10) from PhD to t-t might be considered ok??* If it wasn't for the almost opposite (84%) ratio in the male group...”

*on the other hand I am not sure I am on t-t at the moment… and not what I’ll do later but in all fairness, I am comparing with the men so I have the same situation as them (post doc with publications).

This set off a trail of thoughts in my head and I am not sure that it is relevant either. But no matter if one would be claiming that men are evil or women are meant to be home with children, one must say that there is a difference in outcome a few years after the coveted PhD degree is acquired between men and women (at least in biology from my old department).

I guess in order for it to be significant I should link to those studies that are published showing that indeed there are a difference and unfortunately the difference in ratio between men and women are not in fact decreasing. The ratio men/women with a PhD might decrease but the ratio t-t men/women a few years after the degree is quite stable. (I guess I need to dig up some references for believability?)

Together with this thought process I remembered that I got an email from a friend, female, the other week where she wrote that she is considering returning to science and get a PhD degree. This after being working as a teacher for a few years while her two children have been born and they as a family needed the solid money rather than replying on her husband’s grant applications (yes, he is in research and had his PhD a few years back).

I probably sounded like a cynical women in my reply when I really wanted to say “Yes damn it! Go back! Give yourself that opportunity that we talked about when I chose to start my graduate program.”, and instead sound like a bitter feminist maybe? What I did write was a more nuanced “I think you should be happy with going back. And no, I don’t think you are too old. And I think you should think about what you want to do with your life!” but I think I kind of under minded the whole argument by adding “being a little cynical and scared of being without money I need to point out that I have no idea what the social security for you as a mother looks like when it comes to the funding situation. I’d check it up prior to making a solid decision. On the other hand, I am sure it is ok, it is just me being overly cautious.”Hopefully, I didn’t scare her off the prospect even if this specific PhD position might not have been what she was looking for.

I don’t know. Life is recently turning into much more complicated than I would have liked it, and would like it to be. For example, every now and then I am contemplating how much I am doing this post doc thing in order to prove to other (women) that it can be done, when in fact I think it might be either like reinventing the wheel (there have been and will be other women who have ‘done it’) or making me suffer all in vane since I don’t want to do science after all. Then I remember the happy feeling of testing my theories and looking at my PCRs or, as last Monday, realizing that the mutant I made actually seems to be a solid good mutant.

On the topic of women in science and the historic perspective I would like to point to a new book by the (British) History professor Ruth Watts. Women in Science: A Social and Cultural History (Routledge, 320 pp). Definetly something I want for christmas, especially since the review/comment I read the other day was quite intruging if not depressing in a historical context. In other words, the notion that ” it is getting better, i.e. more women in science, would be due to history and that we are in fact better off today than previos times is not exactly accurate...