Not accepting females
Yesterday, I finished selecting students to admit to my group for next year and made several offers. One of the students who I had not admitted emailed me to ask about the status of his application. I told him I would not have room in the group for him, and referred him to a male colleague of mine at another university who was looking for students.
My colleague later thanked me for the referral and sent me the CV of a different student that I might be interested in. The student was a female with an undergraduate degree, as opposed to a having a masters degree already. As he put it, he was unlikely to admit a female undergraduate student and thought she might be better suited for my group, since I was also female.
This struck me as a little odd, so I inquired for details. Was he unlikely to admit female students in general? He explained that he found female students (myself excluded) very timid and not very tough. As a PhD student, he had worked with a female student who reacted very badly to his criticism and left the group. So he did not think he would advise any female students, at least not any time soon.
On the one hand, I thought this was terribly unfair, since his attitude will reduce the chances of women being admitted to his department. More generally, if enough men think like him, it will be very difficult to increase the number of women in the field. On the other hand, I agree with him that he would probably make a poor advisor of female graduate students, and would not recommend female students to work with him.
I get so tired of this. Yet another example of which sex that need to confirm to the rules of the other.
Comment by hypoglycemiagirl — February 29, 2008 @ 6:00 pm
While I don’t think his reasoning holds (I work with many very fragile men who can’t take criticism), I think I have to acknowledge that at least he passed the CV on to you. Many in this position would just reject it so perhaps he sees some potential in this girl to warrent passing her along. I’m not excusing his attitude.
Comment by Propter Doc — February 29, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
Yikes. To just write off 50% of the population based on a single negative experience is inexcusable. But at the same time, when I was a prospective student, I was concerned about labs where there were no other women, and I always made sure to ask around. In the end I chose a lab where the grad students were all male when I entered, but they were all female when I left, and I think my (male) advisor actually works better with women.
Comment by ScienceWoman — February 29, 2008 @ 6:50 pm
It is sad to hear about this sort of thing on Earth, but at least there is another planet where female engineers can work.
Comment by Lab Lemming — February 29, 2008 @ 10:18 pm
Wow. Awesome link from Lab Lemming. Go take a look.
Comment by drshellie — March 1, 2008 @ 1:53 am
Coming from continental Europe, this does so not surprise me. Both in MyCountry and in Germany, I have heard of a number of groups where females are not accepted or strongly warned not to go.
Comment by Schlupp — March 1, 2008 @ 2:10 am
Did he ever consider that his style of criticism might be over the top? That it might be him??
Comment by Silver Fox — March 2, 2008 @ 4:25 pm
Lovely. And I did stay away from a lab of 30(!) guys just in case there was a reason no women survived there; it’s an issue that is tough to investigate in a couple day long visit prior to picking a graduate school to attend.
Comment by sciencegirl — March 3, 2008 @ 3:51 am
When people hear I’m ‘too sensitive’ they either say 1) you need to have a thick skin to do science or 2) responded by referring me to info on the way gender influences communication style…Anyway, the most important lesson of all of it was that *there is a particular communication style that is considered more valued* and *that it is possible to learn it*. As far as your colleague goes, it’d be best if someone could encourage* him to learn more options for offering criticism… but, if he’s like most male professors I know, he won’t see it as worth his time, and it is (as you point out) very hard to recommend anyone serve as his guinea pig.
*encourage is really the right word-he’s being a coward himself by being afraid of this
Comment by Becca — March 9, 2008 @ 3:15 am
I think women and men do approach science differently, but I don’t think it excuses the comment nor the subsequent action. But, I have thought much about this and blogged about it in a post: http://girlpostdoc.blogspot.com/search/label/science%20as%20soccer
Comment by GirlPostdoc — November 8, 2008 @ 6:10 am