I just read a shocking blog post on the Science Matters blog about shocking study done in 1995, showing that in despite the fact that 46% of the 114 applicants for 20 Swedish medical post-doc positions, only four women won positions, compared to 16 men. From the blog:
“Being female was a major liability: a candidate would need to have 3 extra articles in Nature or Science (or 20 in decent specialist journals) just to counteract the disadvantages she faced for being a woman. There were two women in the pool so prolific that they won post-doc jobs this way, but for most good female scientists there was only one hope for getting a position: knowing someone on the review committee”
I can only think of three explanations. It’s possible that the hiring process has a sexist bias. It’s also possible that academia systematically oppresses women, making it more difficult for them to prepare themselves for post doctorate work. And it’s possible that our culture systematically fails to provide equal preparation to men and women for doctorate work. But it’s probably a combination of all three.
Which just confirms in my mind that all the women I know who are either in grad school (Wendy, Camille, Lauren, Chantel, Brynn and other ladies in my cohort, Erica, Andrea, Ally, Amanda, Allison, Julia, Marisa, Vasu, Anne, Kerry and Gina) have graduate degrees (my mom, Mel, Emily, Kynthia, Tiffanie, Jackie, Kristy, Schweta, Kaya, Amaya, Monal, Shaowen, Kim, Marisa, Erin, Carol, Jen, Christy, and all my other women colleagues), or are grad school bound (my sister, Lilly, Katt, Jen, Lucy)…
…are all even more badass in my mind than they were an hour ago.
(who did I forget?)
I always knew we were that cool, it’s about time you realized that!!
Your three explanations are equivalent to an entire month’s worth of gender theory from Prof. Blair-Loy of Sociology at UCSD. Oh, the memories. And thanks for the badassness cred