I am a real professor

September 29, 2008

"Surely you can’t be a full professor?" asked the man on the airplane.

I don’t think he was referring to the formal academic rank. I think (as FSP has talked about before), he was wondering whether I was a "real" professor.

I am still wondering whether to wear suits to work. Or on the airplane.

In a way, it doesn’t matter: the students I teach know that I give them their grades. The PhD students I advise know that I run the lab. Random men on the airplane? Not really a problem.

And yet: it hits me, over and over again, that our society has a hard time believing that 30-something women can be professors. Why am I asked if I am a student every day? Some of my friends claim I look young. I don’t think so. Whenever I ask someone to guess my age, they get it just right (plus or minus two years). I think it just doesn’t occur to anyone that someone who looks like me could be a professor. And when I do wear a suit, I get mistaken for an admissions officer (yes, that too happened on an airplane). 

 

6 Comments »

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  1. Yup. I deal with similar questions all the time. Perhaps if I went grey and had a more severe facial expression?

    Comment by profgrrrrl — September 29, 2008 @ 4:56 am

  2. How old was the man? I suspect that most people assume professors must be 10-60 years older than they are.

    Comment by Lab Lemming — September 29, 2008 @ 6:05 am

  3. I just stumbled onto your blog by pure luck! I can’t believe I didn’t grasp the fact that there were young female professors blogging. Your blog is on my google reader subscription list now :D

    Comment by Shelly — October 8, 2008 @ 5:27 pm

  4. A beard and a tweed jacket were required to look professorial at the first school where I taught. I keep hoping that things are changing.

    Comment by Kim — October 13, 2008 @ 12:55 pm

  5. Yup. And still afraid this is part of why I’m having trouble getting a faculty position in the first place.

    Comment by msphd — November 2, 2008 @ 11:49 pm

  6. If people don’t think 30-something women can be professors, is there any hope for us 20-somethings? I’ll be 28 my entire first year as a professor.

    Comment by anon — December 2, 2008 @ 11:34 pm

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