Being a woman is no obstacle in science if you are determined and have the will to succeed

 I came across this quote when I was in school. Since then I wanted to be like an eagle - reaching the heights no adversity can touch. It made me go above the clouds whenever it rained. Now I welcome the rain and more challenges in my life!

Recently I read an article in SA. You too can read it here:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/07/12/women-in-...

It says being a woman is really an obstacle in science.

"Wait a minute", I thought after reading the article, "This attitude of women should change." And I am going to help them change it.  

So I gave this reply to the author:

Yes, to some extent what you said is true in some parts of India and the developing world. But I never ever faced any discrimination just because I am a girl/woman. Nor did I suffer more than any man while pursuing my career in science in India.
In fact I feel this discrimination and suffering you talk about should make us more determined and strong. Don’t complain. Smash those glass ceilings and boulders in your way and let me see who dares to stop you. If you want equality, don’t expect someone else to give it to you or help you in getting it. Grab it with both hands and move forward. Nobody and nothing can come your way if you really have a will to follow your heart.

Agreed the system has loopholes. But women have waited for centuries for the system to get corrected. It might take much more time in the future too because you cannot correct the centuries old system overnight. If we wait for the perfect conditions to launch ourselves, it would take much much longer time for women to progress. So an effort must be made now at individual levels too!

Another one here says how stereotyping makes women scientists' confidence go low:

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/12/156664337/stereotype-threat-why-women...

My reply  : Interesting article. But I never ever felt low before my male colleagues. I always feel confident because I am well informed about not only my subject but also has adequate knowledge about other things ( if you don't have good knowledge in your subject nobody will respect you!). Maybe that gave me real confidence! I was never psychologically effected by stereotypical statements like "women are not as good as men in science subjects". Why  should you feel you are inferior to men when you are not just because somebody says you are?  Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent!

How much truth is there in the above articles and statements? Here is a confident reply from a woman scientist with whom I fully agree:

Being a woman made it even more challenging, given the social norms, but the support of my parents, close family and teachers was overwhelming. It made me what I am today. I chose Nuclear Physics against electronics and solid state physics at BHU simply due to the “outstanding” set of teachers. I always admired women who worked through adversities and did pioneering work. In addition, my mother is the epitome, of diligence! My father had an amazing confidence in my abilities;
My dreams lay more on the basis of being able to do something meaningful and impactful in life than to just earn money. http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article3639263.ece?homepage=true

Women give several excuses for not moving forward in step with their male colleagues. Let me discuss a few now.

(1) They can't find men who can date them when they go into the fields of science like Physics! ( are they complaining unintentionally that it goes against their femininity to enter the male dominated fields and exhibit their grey matter and therefore have to choose between their femininity and science research/being good at doing several things?).

My view: This is funny. Because when I was doing my PG and  Ph.D. in sciences, I used to run away from men/boys who pursued me constantly because I thought dating men was a hindrance to my work! And that these things were obstacles to my science career! The more I ran away from men, the more they followed me! Who says beauty (of feminine fame) and brains can't go together? It seems if a woman thinks that a man will always look at her intelligence and her looks as mutually exclusive properties, she will feel much more pressure to pick between the two. Women, you need not feel this pressure! You can have both the things at the same time confusing and driving men mad! And enjoy it too! I don't think this is a genuine excuse!

(2) They have to look after their young children.

My view: When two people are involved in a marriage alliance even the husbands have equal responsibilities in looking after children. Several men do help their wives. I have seen many successful women who can juggle several things at a time! Women are very good at these things! I looked after my old and ailing parents too - which was equally difficult. I set up a mini lab at home  to continue working whenever I have to stay at home because of my responsibilities! If women think they can't do both things of  bringing children up and scientific research at the same time,  they can take some time off, take part time work, work from home or go back to work again after a few  years (keeping in touch with their  subject constantly during this off -period is important so that they don't lose their confidence), when their children have grown up.

Try new things. Take the unbeaten path. Just because everyone else is doing something, doesn’t mean you have to as well. When I couldn't work outside of my home for some time because of my responsibilities, I started communicating science which is as important as  doing research in science.

(3)Women's treatment – both subtle and sometimes blatantly non-subtle – at the hands of their male peers, parents and society at large leads to low self-esteem and lack of self confidence in their ability to succeed in science.

My view: Women, don't let the external factors dictate your life. If you think you have the ability to do a work, just do it and show the world what you are capable of. The world then will have no other go but to accept your talents and intelligence ( please read one of my poems "The power of a strong will" which says this here : http://kkartlab.in/group/theartofwritingpoems/forum/topics/the-powe...

(4) Lack of encouragement from their family members/ male colleagues:

My view: Ladies, haven't you heard about self motivation? If you have the determination, nobody or nothing can stop you!

(5) History tells  how difficult it is for women (1) to win a Nobel prize or any other prestigious award. Highly accomplished women like Gertrude Elion, Emmy Noether and Gerty Cori had to play second fiddle to their less accomplished male counterparts even after publishing groundbreaking research. The example of Jocelyn Bell Burnell is well-known. Bell discovered the first pulsar while working for her advisor, Anthony Hewish. Ideally she should have shared in Hewish’s Nobel Prize but she didn’t. 

My view: I feel before complaining women should think about Marie Curie, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, Emmy Noether, Lise Meitner, Barbara McClintock, Chien-Shiung Wu, and Rosalind Franklin. These and other remarkable women struggled against gender discrimination, raised families, and became political and religious leaders. They were mountain climbers, musicians, seamstresses, and gourmet cooks. Above all, they were strong, joyful women in love with discovery. Derive inspiration from them, learn lessons from their lives and move forward. Why should we enter the field of science with thoughts that depress us instead of stories that inspire us?

(6) It seems even though women are 'gifted', because of the “slow drumbeat of being underappreciated, feeling uncomfortable and encountering roadblocks along the path to success” ( are we nervous?!) are stopping them from moving forward.

My view: But don't forget that if a woman is 'really gifted with abundant grey matter', she is also gifted with the ability to overcome these obstacles. Make this ability work at full throttle to overcome all the roadblocks, ladies!

(7) Being the only woman in the company of several males  makes them uncomfortable !

My view: My dears, I myself faced this situation several times during my career! I was never nervous or felt I was a woman during these situations! I never felt I was different from men in any way! ( I will tell an interesting story here: Once we went into a forest to collect samples when I was doing my Ph.D. There were eight men and I was the only woman in the group. One of the men teased me and said: "Krishna, what will you do if we come across a Tiger now?" I casually replied, "I will do the same you guys would do". "We will climb trees. Can you climb a tree with this dress of yours? ( Yes, I was wearing a saree then), they all laughed. "Why not?" I said firmly without reacting much to their laughter.  "I bet you cannot, wearing this dress", one of my male colleagues challenged me. " I can and I will", I said firmly. They all started laughing. I immediately kept my bag down, selected a nearby tall tree and to the astonishment of all my male colleagues, climbed up the tree! It wasn't easy, I was then - like I am now- a very delicate person, my hands and legs ached,   blisters formed on them but still to show the men, they cannot take me lightly, I did this. The men were  shocked into silence! They all started taking me seriously since then. And they took pictures of me climbing the tree and showed them to everybody in the university campus, especially my professors and although my professors smiled at them, they scolded me gently too. My colleagues tell me they still have those pictures with them! I am sure they learned the lesson of not taking my words  lightly or doubting my ability to do things again! So?!)

I will again tell one of my other  experiences. We had a conference on toxins in a very dangerous place of North India where we had to travel through a stretch of forest by train where you would frequently come across dangerous bandits. Our group leader was a woman. All my male colleagues refused to go with her because of the danger involved. Then one of my female colleagues and I volunteered to go with her. Our group leader spoke to my parents about the danger involved. Then my father told her he had faith in me to face the dangers and that he had no objection to send me to the conference. That gave me more confidence.
And we traveled to this place called Bhagalpur, a backward place in Bihar, we encountered the bandits on our way, faced them with tact and escaped, presented our papers and returned back safely. Then everybody started praising us - the group of women who bravely had gone to a place where men feared to go to present their science research papers!
Need I say more? This is a different situation but still I feel women have to take these chances to progress through the male dominated field of science.

{One lady said after reading this: The 'blood and sweat' people like you have had to expend to achieve in your field could have been used to even better effect to achieve even more, if we can acknowledge the obstacles that do exist.

And my reply to her: Most of these obstacles have been identified long back. Several Governments around the world took steps  to tackle the problems too like giving monetary assistance to women and girls  to get educated in the science subjects -  sometimes even waiving fee, giving special preferences to women in jobs etc., relaxing age limits for women to enter the field of science and bringing laws to stop women being harassed in male dominated fields.  I have seen all these positive steps  being taken in this part of the world. Problems have been identified and corrective steps have been taken by the States. But it takes time to change the mind set of people. Laws alone cannot change them. We must do our bit too to counter backlash, resentment, and lack of respect and support from male colleagues because of affirmative actions and reservations.

 The 'sweat and blood' aspect is common to both men and women in developing countries at higher levels of education and career. We struggle more here than the people in the developed countries. Are we wasting our time because of this? It isn't a waste of time  as we develop new skills, learn how to do things creatively and efficiently with the limited resources we have {this came to light during studies on different systems (3)}, learn how to conserve things and how to increase our mental strength - especially our resilience and confidence. Like Shakespeare said, 'sweet are the uses of adversity' (only if you are a good learner!). And I have learned how to climb a tree, face bandits without fear and how to tackle them with tact,  how to efficiently use my limited time for various things I do,  above all how to progress efficiently as a woman with all the limitations around me. These lessons are as important in my life as my research in science! Like one of my female colleagues says -  if a woman can work and succeed in a scientific research institute in India,  she can face anything with confidence anywhere in the world! “Life without problems is like a school without classes. You don’t learn your lessons”.}

(8) They are paid less than men for doing the same  work.

My view: Refuse to accept it. Challenge people to show that you are inferior to any man either in intelligence, creativity, ability to do the work, confidence, less skilled or any other thing that is responsible for such discrimination.

 But then I was never discriminated. I was always asked politely to put forward  my expectations of salary and was offered what I deserved and expected in all the fields I work in!

[ This in a region ( South Asia) where, according to recent UN reports (2), women to a greater extent than men – are in vulnerable employment, paid less than men, girls are more likely than boys to perform unpaid work ! According to these reports,  in the less developed regions, many young girls aged 5-14 take on a large amount of household chores, including care-giving, cooking and cleaning, and older girls do so to an even greater extent. Here, girls generally work longer hours than boys. Long hours of work in developing countries to which India belongs, affect children’s ability to participate fully in education. Analysis shows that school attendance declines as the number of hours spent on household chores increases – and declines more steeply for girls than for boys. So, ladies,  don't think the situation here favours women. In fact it is worse than developed countries! ]

So what is the reason for people making me one of the exceptions? It is because....

Whenever I participate in debates/conferences/seminars in any of the fields I am associated with, I try to be in the forefront, see that my voice will be heard and noticed by everybody, say things with confidence using reasoning and the right logic,  make use of all my talents, and show people why they are wrong when they oppose me. This really made people respect me. So usually nobody dares to sideline me or ignore me. In fact people -  including men   - come to  me for guidance and support! And when some men told me I was their inspiration, I was pleasantly surprised!

I am an introvert but knowledge in several fields gave me strength and the ability to move forward without any hindrance. It gave me the thrust and I am as good as any extrovert in putting my views across even in the presence of all experts. I am not worried about anything or anyone now.  Knowledge has great power. So women get armed with it if you want to succeed in  male dominated fields.

To show the world, especially men, my capabilities I entered all  the three fields which are treated as  'reserved for intellectuals' - science, art and literature. I was trained only in science and developed skills in several other fields on my own. I became a polymath and display all my capabilities along with my name so that men can never belittle me - even if they do it they do it out of jealousy and not because of lack of abilities on my part! And you should feel proud if you can make any man jealous!

Once a person called me Lady Da Vinci. I told him not to call me a Da Vinci because although he was a legend (and I am not) - he was not known for his literary capabilities. Call me Krishna Kumari, with my own name. Let the world recognize and associate the name with female mind power!

Most of these 'obstacles' women say they face appear more daunting  because of insecurity, nervousness, lack of confidence,  self assurance and determination. So one must make an effort to tackle them first. Then you don't feel these road blocks at all!

To become successful in science for that matter in any field, you need perfect confidence, will to succeed, tight grip over your subject (this is a must!), awareness of the latest things happening in the field, creative capability to connect things, belief in your abilities and a little bit of support from your parents and teachers - if you don't get outside support, self -assurance works best. And, magic, magic, magic, magic, you will be on the top of the world. Gender has no other go but to become irrelevant!

1. Don't speak…
2. Just do it…
3. Reach on the apex..
4. So, revenge will have been done.

The only bird that dares to peck an eagle with its beak is the crow.
She sits down on the eagle's back and pecks him in the neck.
The eagle does not react or fight with the crow. He doesn't waste time or energy on the crow.
Instead, he simply opens his wings and begins to soar higher into the sky. The higher he flies, the harder it is for the crow to breathe and eventually the crow just falls down because it lacks oxygen.
Learn from the eagle and don't fight the crows, just keep climbing higher.
They may still be sitting on you, but they will soon fall down.
Don't get distracted.
Concentrate on the things above you and keep climbing up.

The Lesson of the Eagle and the Crow, Solara

References:

1. http://www.amazon.com/Nobel-Prize-Women-Science-Discoveries/dp/0309...

2. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/Worldswomen/WW_full...

3. http://www.ted.com/talks/navi_radjou_creative_problem_solving_in_th...