Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 22, 2013 at 5:55am

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.in/2013/09/advice-being-ignored-in...!
ADVICE: Being Ignored in a Meeting
Posted by Joan Schmelz

Have you ever been in this situation: you're sitting in a meeting and make what you think is a great suggestion; you're ignored. Ten minutes later, someone else makes a similar suggestion and everyone thinks it's just the greatest idea. Are you invisible? Did you imagine it? Were you really speaking out loud? How can women deal with being ignored and/or having their ideas dismissed? Of course, this can happen to men too! Here are some suggestions:

Make sure you get an adequate seat at the 'table' (so that you are not hiding in a corner);
Choose your timing: wait for the 'right opportunity' to jump into the conversation (not always easy);
Speak slowly and clearly; offer more than a quick quip;
Make sure everyone can hear you; this may be especially challenging if you are naturally soft spoken or if English is not your first language.
Don't downplay your remarks: do NOT say, "I guess . . ." or "This may not be important, but . . ." or "This may be a stupid question, but . . ." or end with ". . . don't you think?"
Don't be afraid to say something like, "I am glad that xxx agrees with my previous suggestion . . ." if another person seconds your opinion.
If you notice this happening to someone else, try to find a way to attribute the idea to the original speaker: "xxx said that 10 minutes ago!" may not be as effective as something like, " xxx suggested . . . "
If possible, enlist the support of your peers. Example: a group of grad students meeting with their research advisor. Student xxx makes a suggestion and is ignored. xxx explains what happened off-line and asks his/her peers to look out for future examples. He/she suggests that they all try to back each other up at future group meetings.
The situation is tougher when you do not have supportive colleagues; you might be the only female director, department chair, manager, etc. at the table. Most of the advice above applies, but it might be even more challenging to be heard. If you know the agenda ahead of time and have one important point to make, you may want to rehearse it out loud; you might even over prepare so you can answer questions in the same well-rehearsed way. There is, unfortunately, still some truth to the old adage that women have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good. This is especially true when you are pushing up against the glass ceiling.

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I would add confident body language to the list. Sit up tall, spread your hands on the table, take up space. Don't hide behind your laptop or look down at your phone. Look around the table and make eye contact. In a group of scientists, many of whom are mild-mannered and quiet, displaying a little bit of social charisma is often surprisingly effective.

It also helps (if you plan to speak up in a meeting and have time to prepare) not to sit next to your friends and allies, but rather to make sure they are spread around the table or throughout the room. Ask them in advance to speak up in agreement with your comments, and it will sound like your ideas have a broad base of support rather than appealing only to a handful of partisan cronies.

Hat tip to the APS for their excellent Professional Skills Development workshops, where I learned these and many other valuable skills!
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Can anyone tell how to make a point at a meeting when you are not in the position of authority, which seems much harder for women. I find that my personality of being very direct and honest is perceived as being too critical and harsh, and I have been told by men that I need to soften my personality. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to balance the fine line between being assertive and just plain bitchy?
Reply: 1. my advice is to ignore. If you're less aggressive then that won't be good enough either. I think as a woman we are always being to do something different than what we are doing. The goalpost always moves, so just try to do the best with what you are.
2. Been there many times myself, but I have learned to fight back and make sure my point is not ignored the first time and if they do ignore to remind them that I had mentioned it earlier. I think it not just a gender thing but also a race and career level thing.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 22, 2013 at 6:31am

441

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 25, 2013 at 7:12am

"I'm not a female scientist, I'm a scientist." Fantastic!

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 2, 2013 at 9:52am

http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/10/01/first-research-network-...
First research network for female scientists launched

A new research networking portal designed to provide crucial career development exposure for female scientists and engineers within Chicagoland’s research community was launched today as part of the Chicago Collaboration for Women in STEM professional development program.

The Chicago Collaboration for Women in STEM is a joint initiative of Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. It is aimed at enhancing the recruitment and advancement of women faculty in STEM disciplines at the two universities and women researchers at two Department of Energy national laboratories, Argonne and Fermilab. The portal is built on Elsevier’s SciVal Experts platform and is the first professional development network for women researchers affiliated with the participating institutions.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 3, 2013 at 5:48am

http://awisblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/what-works-for-women-at-wo...!
What Works for Women at Work – Part 1: Prove It Again
Here are some examples of “Prove It Again” bias.

A hiring committee is reviewing resumes. The resumes of the male candidates show high potential, while the female candidates don’t have enough experience.
If a woman succeeds, co-workers say it’s because she’s lucky. A man? He’s skilled.
If a woman has an idea, no one pays attention. Later in the day, or minutes later, the same idea is presented by a man – suddenly everyone pays attention.
A woman makes a mistake and it is held over her and the heads of her female coworkers for months. A male counterpart makes the same mistake a month later with no consequences.
What are some strategies to overcome “Prove It Again” bias at your workplace?

Be confident. Avoid downplaying your successes (do not say “it was no big deal.”), embrace praise. Be confident in yourself, this will increase everyone’s confidence in you. Success from you should be expected.
Prove It Again. Demonstrate your confidence, rather than waiting to be noticed. Avoid burning out as a result of setting unattainable goals for yourself. Be realistic about how far you are willing to go (don’t compromise work-life satisfaction).
Build a network of allies. Identify coworkers and colleagues that will support and listen to you.
Keep careful, real-time records. List your accomplishments. You will need them for evaluations or to establish your credibility. Document incidences where you see bias at work. If you start seeing a recurring issue please refer to the next bullet.
Address the bias. Defend yourself in a calm and competent manner. “We should be judging everyone on the same standard,“ rather than criticizing them for being unfair.

Remember, bias is not always intentional. It is the result of cultural stereotypes that have been around for years, probably centuries. They will not go away quickly, so you need to figure out how to come out ahead while preserving your sanity.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 6, 2013 at 5:56am

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2013/1...
One of the take-home messages from the article is that gross numbers aren’t the only problem, and beyond a point they can even be a red herring. Higher numbers does not necessarily translate to lower barriers for entry and advancement. The article really hones in on two factors that Pollack thinks are responsible for the lack of women in science. One is self-esteem. It is clear that 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. It starts from childhood when boys are encouraged to play with lego sets and girls are taught to dress up dolls. Many of the women interviewed – including Pollack herself – said that their professors in college did not encourage them to attend graduate school, even when they were doing as well as the men in their class. This lack of self-esteem feeds into “imposter syndrome”, the feeling that you are successful quite undeservedly and not on your own merits. Imposter syndrome is a serious problem that rightly sparks intense discussion and conferences, and it’s certainly something that many women feel.

The other problem is also well-known, and this is the perpetuation of cultural stereotypes as portrayed for example in The Big Bang Theory. Even today many women are consciously or unconsciously discouraged from studying especially the hard sciences by their parents and peers because these sciences “are for nerds and losers”.

the most interesting parts of the article deals with how perception of women in science can differ between cultures and countries. In general American and Asian men seem to have a problem regarding beauty and intelligence in a woman as co-existing qualities. European men seem to take a more nonchalant view. Meg Urry who is the chairman of Yale’s physics department recounts her experience:

“Urry told me that at the space telescope institute where she used to work, the women from Italy and France “dress very well, what Americans would call revealing. You’ll see a Frenchwoman in a short skirt and fishnets; that’s normal for them. The men in those countries seem able to keep someone’s sexual identity separate from her scientific identity. American men can’t seem to appreciate a woman as a woman and as a scientist; it’s one or the other.”

This actually seems to me to be a very significant point. Most women do care about what men think about them, just as most men care about women’s views about them. 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. Men have to consciously change this attitude. As an aside this unnecessary choice between beauty and brains may lead to the slovenly looks sometimes seen among scientists and noted by stereotypical portrayals and TV shows; in this case the scientists have probably made their choice.

If you want to have an idea of how hard even very smart women in science had it, you should read Sharon Bertsch McGrayne’s study of famous women scientists, including Nobel Prize winners. 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, even when there was a place for a third recipient. The interesting side-story to Bell’s discovery concerns the brilliant and controversial astronomer Fred Hoyle who publicly supported Bell and denounced the Nobel Prize awarded to Hewish alone. In 1983 Hoyle’s colleague William Fowler received the Nobel Prize for ideas which Hoyle had significantly contributed to; Fowler himself expressed astonishment that Hoyle had not shared the honor, and again there was a place for a third recipient. While it’s hard to say for sure, one cannot escape the nagging doubt that Hoyle was being punished by the Nobel Committee for his advocacy of Bell and criticism of the prize. Thus, not only women but even men who support women in science can see themselves being formally and informally reprimanded.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 6, 2013 at 7:10am

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-are-there-still-so-f...;
Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?
Women were leaving the profession not because they weren’t gifted but because of the “slow drumbeat of being underappreciated, feeling uncomfortable and encountering roadblocks along the path to success.”
One young woman had been disconcerted to find herself one of only three girls in her AP physics course in high school, and even more so when the other two dropped out. Another student was the only girl in her AP physics class from the start. Her classmates teased her mercilessly: “You’re a girl. Girls can’t do physics.” She expected the teacher to put an end to the teasing, but he didn’t.
Other women chimed in to say that their teachers were the ones who teased them the most. In one physics class, the teacher announced that the boys would be graded on the “boy curve,” while the one girl would be graded on the “girl curve”; when asked why, the teacher explained that he couldn’t reasonably expect a girl to compete in physics on equal terms with boys.
One student — I took her to be Indian or Pakistani — said she arrived on campus having taken lots of advanced classes and didn’t hesitate to sign up for the most rigorous math course. Shaken to find herself the only girl in the class, unable to follow the first lecture, she asked the professor: Should I be here? “If you’re not confident that you should be here” — she imitated his scorn — “you shouldn’t take the class.”
“The boys in my group don’t take anything I say seriously,” one astrophysics major complained. “I hate to be aggressive. Is that what it takes? I wasn’t brought up that way. Will I have to be this aggressive in graduate school? For the rest of my life?” Another said she disliked when she and her sister went out to a club and her sister introduced her as an astrophysics major. “I kick her under the table. I hate when people in a bar or at a party find out I’m majoring in physics. The minute they find out, I can see the guys turn away.” Yet another went on about how even at Yale the men didn’t want to date a physics major, and how she was worried she’d go through four years there without a date.
the cultural and psychological factors . gifted girls, even more so than boys, usually camouflage their mathematical talent to fit in well with their peers.”
at the space telescope institute where she used to work, the women from Italy and France “dress very well, what Americans would call revealing. You’ll see a Frenchwoman in a short skirt and fishnets; that’s normal for them. The men in those countries seem able to keep someone’s sexual identity separate from her scientific identity. American men can’t seem to appreciate a woman as a woman and as a scientist; it’s one or the other.”
That the disparity between men and women’s representation in science and math arises from culture rather than genetics seems beyond dispute. In the early 1980s, a large group of American middle-schoolers were given the SAT exam in math; among those who scored higher than 700, boys outperformed girls by 13 to 1. But scoring 700 or higher on the SATs, even in middle school, doesn’t necessarily reveal true mathematical creativity or facility with higher-level concepts. The scarcity of women at the very highest echelons “is due, in significant part, to changeable factors that vary with time, country and ethnic group. First and foremost, some countries identify and nurture females with very high ability in mathematics at a much higher frequency than do others.” Besides, the ratio of boys to girls scoring 700 or higher on the math SAT in middle school is now only three to one. If girls were so constrained by their biology, how could their scores have risen so steadily in such a short time?
The most powerful determinant of whether a woman goes on in science might be whether anyone encourages her to go on.
When I mentioned shyly to Professor Zeller that my dream was to apply to Princeton and become a theoretician, he shook his head and said that if you went to Princeton, you had better put your ego in your back pocket, because those guys were so brilliant and competitive that you would get that ego crushed, which made me feel as if I weren’t brilliant or competitive enough to apply.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 6, 2013 at 7:21am

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-are-there-still-so-f...;

Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?

Part 2: suspects that raising a family is often the excuse women use when they leave science, when in fact they have been discouraged to the point of giving up.
women running the tenure race must leap hurdles that are higher than those facing their male competitors, often without realizing any such disparity exists.
the marginalization experienced by female scientists at M.I.T. “was often accompanied by differences in salary, space, awards, resources and response to outside offers between men and women faculty, with women receiving less despite professional accomplishments equal to those of their colleagues.”
the discrimination facing female scientists in the final quarter of the 20th century was qualitatively different from the more obvious forms of sexism addressed by civil rights laws and affirmative action, but no less real. even when women win the Nobel Prize, someone is bound to tell me they did not deserve it, or the discovery was really made by a man, or the important result was made by a man, or the woman really isn’t that smart. This is what discrimination looks like in 2011.”
broader studies show that the perception of discrimination is often accompanied by a very real difference in the allotment of resources. In February 2012, the American Institute of Physics published a survey of 15,000 male and female physicists across 130 countries. In almost all cultures, the female scientists received less financing, lab space, office support and grants for equipment and travel, even after the researchers controlled for differences other than sex. “In fact,” the researchers concluded, “women physicists could be the majority in some hypothetical future yet still find their careers experience problems that stem from often unconscious bias.”
Male scientists told Handelsman: I have women in my lab! My female students are smarter than the men! “They go to their experience,” she said, “with a sample size of one.” She laughed. “Scientists can be so unscientific.”
The results were startling. No matter the respondent’s age, sex, area of specialization or level of seniority, John was rated an average of half a point higher than Jennifer in all areas except likability, where Jennifer scored nearly half a point higher. Moreover, John was offered an average starting salary of $30,238, versus $26,508 for Jennifer. Handelsman told me that whenever she and Moss-Racusin show the graph to an audience of psychologists, “we hear a collective gasp, the significance is really so big.”
Biologists may see women in their labs, she says, but their biases have been formed by images and attitudes they have been absorbing since birth. In a way, Handelsman is grateful that the women she studied turned out to be as biased as the men. When she gives a talk and reveals the results, she said, “you can watch the tension in the room drop. I can say: ‘We all do this. It’s not only you. It’s not just the bad boys who do this.’ ”
people’s biases stem from “repeated exposure to pervasive cultural stereotypes that portray women as less competent by simultaneously emphasizing their warmth and likability compared to men.”

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 9, 2013 at 8:07am

http://www.amazon.com/Nobel-Prize-Women-Science-Discoveries/dp/0309...
Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous
Since 1901 there have been over three hundred recipients of the Nobel Prize in the sciences. Only ten of them -- about 3 percent -- have been women. Why? In this updated version of Nobel Prize Women in Science, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores the reasons for this astonishing disparity by examining the lives and achievements of fifteen women scientists who either won a Nobel Prize or played a crucial role in a Nobel Prize - winning project. The book reveals the relentless discrimination these women faced both as students and as researchers. Their success was due to the fact that they were passionately in love with science.

The book begins with Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics. Readers are then introduced to Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, Emmy Noether, Lise Meitner, Barbara McClintock, Chien-Shiung Wu, and Rosalind Franklin. These and other remarkable women portrayed here 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.

Nobel Prize Women in Science is a startling and revealing look into the history of science and the critical and inspiring role that women have played in the drama of scientific progress.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 15, 2013 at 6:26am

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=2417876&type=me...

said women living in a fictional parallel universe where classism, sexism, racism, ableism and their various intersections were solved by everyone having cookies and milk. Denial is not a sustainable strategy.

Thanks for the reply, Ms. Gomez. Your reply put a smile on my face. If you think, I didn't face any problems and therefore live in a fictional parallel universe and deny them, it really is a success of my attitude! I myself faced several of these 'problems'. Seen several women facing them. My route to success wasn't easy at all! It was full of blood and sweat. But I never thought the problems are unsolvable. I think they are not as daunting as people would see them. Different ways of looking at them, thinking and strategies would work wonders. The strategy worked wonders for me. The first quote I mentioned says it all : 'Problem is common to all. But the attitude to solve the problem makes all the difference.' If you think there are problems, there are problems. If you think you can solve them, you can solve them. The purpose of writing this article is to make women see and think about the problem in a different way Whether you want to follow a different route or stay in the same state of things it is up to you! The choice is yours.

•  

  Dream Gomez

  Experienced Systems Engineer providing enterprise wide solutions for globally distributed clients.

  Thank you for the conversation. As I read your thoughts, what I inferred is that you overcame the obstacles that you faced with an attitude that supported you on your path to success. This is not the same as saying that there are no obstacles.
  I truly believe that determination and the will to succeed are important elements while acknowledging that there are extra burdens that are imposed based on different societal
  -isms. And sometimes those extra burdens get the best of even the most determined and willful.

   

• Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

  Scientist, artist, writer, poet, designer, Runs a network- http://www.kkartlab.in, www.kkartfromscience.com

  Thank you once again Ms. Gomez. What you say is true and let me tell you, according to the UN reports those extra burdens on women are more in developing countries of South Asia to which India belongs. But history tells us only when women become strong enough mentally and can resist the burdens can they progress.By the way, I find this funny, men find my article more interesting than women because they appreciated it more!

•  

  Carolyn Dougherty

  Project Engineer at Tata Steel Projects

  I think part of the point those of us concerned with underrepresentation of women in science and technology are making is that we question why it should take more 'blood and sweat' for a woman, or a nonwhite person, to achieve a certain level of success than for a man, a European, or a person with other kinds of privilege. We think that 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 then help create a just and fair baseline of opportunity for everyone by addressing them.

•  

  Dream Gomez

  Experienced Systems Engineer providing enterprise wide solutions for globally distributed clients.

  I find your article interesting and I appreciate your story of success and determination. We agree that mental will and strength of purpose can lead to great success. To the extent that your article addresses what women can do to make a difference in their endeavors when faced with obstacles, there is no denying that there is an individual and personal component that has a great impact.
  
  Where we diverge is in the assessment that all one needs is to have will, determination and mental strength. It sets up the false assumption that women who struggle and fail to make it past barriers must be lacking sufficient quantities of these characteristics. I know too many women for whom such an assessment would be patently false. Additionally, it absolves us from the work of removing obstacles in the system in toto and focuses us too narrowly on the individual.
  
  Thank you Dr. Kumari for sharing your experiences and perspectives.

•  

  Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

  Ms. Dougherty, thanks for your comment. The 'sweat and blood' aspect is common to both men and women in developing countries. Only thing that differs in the success of men and women is women need more mental strength to achieve this because of various reasons. I am asking women to develop this so that they can surmount the obstacles they face and succeed.
  Ms. Gomez, the will and determination should be proportional to the obstacles we face to overcome so they are not vulnerable to external factors.
  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 perfect conditions to launch ourselves, it would take much much longer time for women to progress. So an effort must be made at individual levels too!

  Ms. Dougherty, thanks for your comment. The 'sweat and blood' aspect is common to both men and women in developing countries. We struggle more here than the people in the developing countries. Are we wasting our time because of this? It wasn't a waste of time , 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), learn how to conserve things and increase mental strength and confidence. Like Shakespeare said 'sweet are the uses of adversity' (only if you are a good learner!) Only thing that differs in the success of men and women is women need more mental strength to achieve this because of various reasons. I am asking women to develop this so that they can surmount the obstacles they face and succeed.
  Ms. Gomez, the will and determination should be proportional to the obstacles we face to overcome so they are not vulnerable to external factors.
  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 perfect conditions to launch ourselves, it would take much much longer time for women to progress. So an effort must be made at individual levels too!

  Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

  Thank you ladies, with each comment you add here I am improving my article by addressing your concerns. So keep them coming in!

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 17, 2013 at 8:41am

Women scientists, Wikipedia under microscope
http://www.usnews.com/science/news/articles/2013/10/16/women-scient...
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Look up a female scientist or technologist on Wikipedia, and you might not find what you're looking for. Many don't have detailed pages or any page at all on the free online encyclopedia created by contributors, the vast majority of them men.

It's a symptom of a larger problem for women in so-called STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — where men far outnumber women. Even women who have done pioneering work in these fields don't always get recognition. Since 2009, no woman has won a Nobel Prize in science.

A Brown University biology professor and an alumna hope to help chip away at the problem with a Wikipedia "edit-a-thon," one of many that's been held in recent years to help increase the representation of women on Wikipedia.

They gathered dozens of students and some faculty members this week at Brown to train them on how to add and edit pages. They also provided lists of suggestions for women to add, entries to clean up or those who needed more detail, along with links to source material.

Among those listed was Ingeborg Hochmair, who does not have a page even though last month she won the prestigious Lasker Award for medical research for her work developing the modern cochlear implant. By contrast, her husband, Erwin Hochmair, an accomplished engineer who helped develop the device but did not win a Lasker prize, has his own page.

Another is Anny Cazenave, who last year won the William Bowie Medal for outstanding contributions to fundamental geophysics. She's on Wikipedia in French, but not English.

Maia Weinstock, a Brown graduate, organized the Tuesday event with Anne Fausto-Sterling, a professor of biology and gender studies. They held the training to coincide with Ada Lovelace Day, an annual observance started in Great Britain in 2009 to highlight women in technology and named for the English mathematician who died in 1852. Lovelace is often described as the world's first computer programmer.

Weinstock, who has run other edit-a-thons for different fields, said she's targeting Wikipedia because it's so influential and is one of the most popular encyclopedias in the world. It's the first place many people go to find out about a subject.

"You're helping change what everybody else gets to see on a particular topic," she told trainees.

She said she also hopes to increase the number of women who contribute to Wikipedia. Fewer than 20 percent of Wikipedia editors are women.

Sara Hartse and Jacqueline Gu, both Brown freshmen and computer science students, said they first became aware of gender inequity on Wikipedia during an uproar in the spring when someone began systematically moving female novelists including Harper Lee and Ann Rice off the "American Novelists" page and onto the "American Women Novelists" subcategory.

They've both seen big gender imbalances in science and technology classes and activities and heard their female computer science professor bemoan the fact that talented women often leave the field. Neither had edited a Wikipedia page before this week, but spent the evening cleaning up and adding details to pages for botanist Katherine Esau and oceanographer Sylvia Earle.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on October 20, 2013 at 6:14am

Elizabeth Jane Tasker · Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido, Japan
Before taking a position that was specifically for women, I was completely against the process. My concern was that people would believe that I (and by association, many women) had only gained my position because of positive discrimination, not because I was the best candidate based on ability. Such an opinion would cause all female scientists to be viewed as inferior to their male counterparts; completely defeating the purpose.

However, after two years at Hokkaido University, I have seen the difference these schemes make. Female students have specifically told me that they hadn't considered continuing to postdocs before I arrived and the number of girls in my undergraduate class has increased even over the last year. What changed was the ability to see women in the positions above them: after all, if you can't see any females at faculty level, how do you know it's a reasonable prospect to aim for?

.... I appreciate I've ultimately provided the opposite argument to what this post asked for! I just wanted to offer a first-hand point of view.
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.in/2013/10/request-for-arguments-a...!

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