Thank you, Anita, for this summary. I was noticing the same pattern: the women describing their experience and the men classifying this experience as anecdotal and asking for studies. Where there are studies, I appreciate seeing them. When each generation of women scientists experiences bias, however, it is hard to see what the studies do, other than prove the bias is still there and that each woman's experience is not idiosyncratic to her alone.
I am white, but I have also noticed race bias. In my studies in the US from college through Ph.D., non-white classmates were from other countries. In Taiwan, aborigines are almost missing from biology programs. CL Anita Lahey wrote: >>From a survey of Virginia Tech faculty: > > "On-campus women respondents assessed every aspect of the climate less > positively than did men. While only a third of women respondents rated the > university climate relatively non-sexist, more than two-thirds of men > perceived the climate for women as positive," and, "Whites were largely > unaware of the extent of racism perceived in the university climate by > African-Americans. For example, 65 percent of African-Americans judged the > university climate as relatively racist compared with only 18 percent of > white respondents." http://www.dsp.multicultural.vt.edu/climate/ > > > > Similarly, on this listserve, 8 out of 9 (89%) women said there is gender > bias in ecology/biology, while 3 out of 5 (60%) men said that gender bias > does not exist. 3 out of 3 women were not concerned with age bias, while 2 > out of 3 men expressed concern about age bias. 4 out of 6 (67%) of women > believed that maternity/paternity leave or raising children poses an > additional challenge/problem, while 7 out 9 (78%) men said that > maternity/paternity leave should not pose a problem. > > > > Anita Lahey > > > > Disclaimer: My goal in citing a personal anecdote was not to indict (or > incite) a particular person, department, institution, field of research, the > American Fisheries Society or to "discourage undergraduate women from the > applied sciences". My goal was to shake up complacency. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cara Lin Bridgman P.O. Box 013 Phone: 886-4-2632-5484 Longjing Sinjhuang Taichung 434 Taiwan http://web.thu.edu.tw/caralinb/www/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
