International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Alternate title: Why Men and Women Are Different

or

What We Refuse to Acknowledge About Women

or maybe

Why Women Are Set Up For Failure In Modern Society

On February 11, it was "International Day of Women and Girls in Science" Day.

Did you know?

You didn't?

What's the matter with you!? Do you live under a rock? How could you have missed this day? It addresses everything that we, as women in STEM, have been squawking about for years!! I can't believe you missed it.

The United Nations has a website on it:
http://www.un.org/en/events/women-and-girls-in-science-day/

But it has barely a quarter page of text. So what is it for? What does this day do? And why did it quietly pass for 99% of society without them even knowing?

You can find stats all over the place for women in science, if you're interested. But has anyone really NOT heard that this is a problem? Did anyone NOT know that there are less women than men in the professional sciences?


Image from acendia.com

We don't need any more awareness. 

Please don't wear a ribbon. Please don't purchase a colored garbage can. Please don't tweet, text, snap, pin, post, swipe right, email, fax, mail, or even send an owl about this issue. Until we are willing to make changes to systems that suck, I don't want to hear one more person "help raise awareness" about this issue. I don't want to see even ONE MORE young girl or woman get lured into the "times have changed" mantra and "girls can be/do anything" bullshit.

Because we don't need help attracting women to STEM fields.

That's right, I said it. Because girls are already interested in STEM. Check out this freely available peer-reviewed piece on women in STEM. The first line of the Introduction reads:

According to the National Science Foundation, women earned more than 50% of the bachelor degrees yet are underrepresented in the science and engineering workforce.

 Let that sink in.

That means that we don't need help showing women and girls that STEM is fun, cool, interesting, and at the forefront of pretty much all of modern technology. We need help KEEPING them in this field. And is that, you may ask?

Because as a society we don't deal with change well, and we certainly don't want to talk about the biological differences between men and women. *ICK!*

It's true. In some ways, we are ever changing and evolving. Did anyone else think that in the span of only a decade we would go from having, on average, less than one large clunky computer per household to having a tiny hand-held computer for each person that links us to the entire body and breadth of human knowledge at the touch of a button? Me neither!

But in other ways ... we are pretty prehistoric. It's still seen as odd in some places to breastfeed your baby. If you step outside of the societal "eew" reaction for one second and think about that, it's quite ridiculous. We have evolved, as mammals, to feed our young the milk that we make in our own bodies. We did that for generations and generations before it became taboo. In fact, there is evidence that women held a far more alpha role in early human societies. But for some reason, that changed. And now you can get kicked off of a plane for a glimpse of nip while you try to feed your baby. Did we all forget that at one time WE WERE ALL BABIES? It just makes no logical sense to me.

I'm not an anthropologist so I won't get into the how and why things changed but they did. 

At some point, menses (periods), breasts, vaginas, and the whole female condition became anathema. You must HIDE the biological differences between yourself and the boys/men because ... well ... WHY? Why is talking about your period or breastfeeding, or what happens to your body during/after puberty or pregnancy so intolerable? We hear everywhere and anywhere what happens to men during/after puberty. We are lectured about their urges and how we, as girls/women need to be aware and protect ourselves from them. I can't tell you how many times I've seen dudes grab their junk to make a point, or heard stories about a dude's conquests or heard them congratulate themselves and their buds on some [stupid] manly "thing" that happened last weekend. Women aren't like: EEEEEEEW OMG STOP TALKING ABOUT YOUR PENIS YOU ARE DISGUSTING AND VILE!!!!!!!!!

Maybe we should be.

Imagine if we sat boys down at puberty and lectured them: "Now Johnny, it's time you knew about a woman's time of the month...It's beautiful and natural ... but don't piss them off during that week." What if, just like women are taught to dress modestly and not to give in to pressure from a boy, men were taught to be nicer to women during that time of the month and not to view it as a taboo subject?

image from pinterest - which isn't really a reference but I found it on a google image search and it linked to pinterest.

What will it take to get women to stay in STEM?

To be honest I think we are in a cyclical holding pattern right now. We need more women leaders that we can look up to and emulate and seek advice from. As of now, many of the women leaders that I have come in contact with do not represent my life choices. I struggle to find a woman above middle-management in a place of power that is a first-generation college grad without a nest egg to rely on or a family full of free babysitters. One who has a long and healthy marriage and *GASP* maybe even a child that she wants to see play soccer and actually go to band concerts now and again. 

I have had the pleasure of knowing many great women that are super smart, conscientious, and competent from academic science and industry. I've learned a ton from them. Notably:

1. Sexism is not dead. The old boys club is still alive and well and it will take at least one more generation for it to go away naturally. 

2. Sometimes you have to fight to get what you deserve or what you want. Sometimes you have to fight just to stay equal with male colleagues. 

3. Some part of your life will always suffer. If you have it all "together" at home, you're a mess at work. Vice versa. No one is perfect and frankly, perfection is not achievable.

4. You will need help. You need to be comfortable either asking for it, or surrounding yourself with other women in similar positions that will be able to support you.

5. If you stand up for yourself, if you speak in a forceful tone or take the offensive position, you will be judged as bitchy, emotional, volatile, etc. If you don't act as a happy automaton at all times, you will eventually be judged for having emotions.

There are certain things that make it really difficult to commit to a life in a STEM career and particularly a STEM career in academia. Academia being research institute affiliated with a university, a medical school department with mostly research and little teaching, or a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) where some research is done but more teaching.

This topic is HUGE. We need to delve into each one of these subjects. Let's do that. Tell me what you think needs to happen for women to STAY IN STEM careers.