International Women's Day

So, today is March 8th, International Women's Day, and what better thing to talk about today than the role of women in science and science participation in women. Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) wrote a very interesting blog post about this last year, and this year commented that not much really had changed. And that's what's prompted this blog post. The comment that not much has changed. Well, really, would we expect things to change in just over a year? Are attitudes just going to do a sudden 180º turn and all of a sudden we'll have women flooding the physical sciences? (I'm going to talk mainly about astronomy, as well, that's what I know about.)

Well, first of all, let me say, progress is being made. Its slow, but there is progress, and you can see said progress almost every year. When I first started college, 12 years ago now, in my class of 120, there were 8 women. A woman wanting to go into science was still seen as a bit odd. I was warned away from certain grad schools because their faculty were known to choose their female grad students on less than enlightened criteria.

True story: when I was in high school, around 1996 choosing my A-Levels and chose physics & mathematics rather English Lit and History, my history teacher, a woman, rather than thinking that I was doing this because I found physics interesting, told me straight to my face that she "knew" I was doing physics because I had the hots for the physics teacher! Yeah, which is why I wanted to make a career out of it.

When I started grad school (in England), my intake of grad students had the largest number of women seen in years. We quadrupled the female grad student population, and doubled the number of women in the department in science roles. There were three of us in that year. My advisor, a woman herself, expected really high standards out of me straight off the bat -- "you're a woman, you have to prove your worth", whilst my faculty advisor, the head of department, still expected high standards, but from everyone and never singled anyone out. When I went to conferences, I would stick out like a sore thumb because I'm a woman. When people asked me what I did for a living and I told them, there'd be surprise and shock that a woman would be in that sort of role. When I went into schools, the boys would be all "no way! Miss, you're really an astrophysicist???!!" Girls would sidle up to me afterwards and tell me how glad they were that they now knew they weren't freaks for wanting to do science. The first residential course I taught was 100% male.

That was almost a decade ago. What about now though? Well, its a new continent, a new set of social mores, but I think the sexism is slowly disappearing. Yes, my department could do with a hell of a lot more women in science roles, but there just isn't that "women cannot do astrophysics" vibe amongst the general population, in my opinion.

All our astronomy grad students are female; in my group, all the staff/faculty under 35 are female. Yes, the rest of the department is very very male dominated, as are the senior positions in my own group, but there is a change occurring. When I go to conferences, I have more female peers/near-peers than when I started as a grad student. When I give public talks at the planetarium, the audiences have a lot of women and girls, the girls are genuinely interested and there isn't that same sense of "ZMG! Woman astrophysicist!!!" as I got 10 years ago; its more "ZMG!! astrophysicist!!" ;)

Girls are now seeing science as a viable career choice, but these girls have time before they go to college, before they go to grad school, before they become professional scientists. Yes, there are still problems. especially with my superiors sometimes, and yes it can be tough for a woman in science to be taken 110% seriously, but those problems are disappearing. My peers are totally comfortable with my being a woman, most of the older academics are perfectly fine with it too. A change is happening. Yes, the sexism is still there, there are still glass ceilings, and don't get me started on the whole work-family balance (though ironically I have a better balance here in the USA than I did when working in France!), but its not as prevalent, I don't think.

I suspect that in a decade's time, there will still be issues re gender and science, and that they won't go away overnight, but they won't be as severe. But before we make grand proclamations of "no change", let's give the programs that are in place now that are encouraging our girls to go into science and tech a chance to actually get those girls into science and tech. This won't happen overnight, but it will happen.