Handbags and Windbags
In my shiny new hippy-ass handbag today is that Barres article everyone's talking about. It's good. The stories about Dr Barres' sex change are necessarily anecdotal, as I don't see many of us queuing up for a randomised trial, but they give us information we couldn't get any other way: the same person is afforded more respect as a male, and the same work perceived as better. I doubt any woman scientist will be surprised by this, but maybe people will start to take discrimination seriously if they hear about it from a man.
Don't worry about that thumping noise.
It's just me banging my head on the desk.
It's nine parts exasperating to one part hilarious. We know that women are discouraged and short-changed in science from very early ages. We know that the scientific career structure makes things unnecessarily difficult for mothers. We know that women do an unfair share of childcare and housework, taking valuable hours out of their week (all hail Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard for spotting a simple way to help with this one).
These handicaps seem to me perfectly sufficient to explain the lack of high-level women in science. But some people, for some reason, unnecessarily postulate that women are also innately less competent. Professor Plum is caught in the act, but they arrest Miss Scarlett anyway.
Are you reluctant to take Occam's Razor to deep-rooted superfluous assumptions?
Then try NEW Occam's Bikini Wax!
If the truth hurts, apply teething gel.
Also today, a paper I wrote in 2003 finally came out in Thoroughly Reputable But Unfeasibly Slow Journal. Hurrah!
posted by MissPrism at 6:46 PM
20 Comments:
Yay on the paper coming out! The journals move on a different time scale sometimes, but it's still good when papers finally appear -- building the body of knowledge at all that.
try http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcevolbiol/
We're really good, honest :)
J
"the same person is afforded more respect as a male, and the same work perceived as better. "
Interesting thought. How have views of Deirdrie McKlosey’s work changed now that she’s no longer Donald?
McKloskey, darn.
I don't know, she's not in my field! Is there an economist in the house?
Opinions of Joan (was Jonathan) Roughgarden's work are complicated by the fact that her ideas are pretty unconventional, or wacko depending on how you look at it. But I have heard that many male to female transsexuals find, when they become women, that people start to talk to them as if they were children.
Excellent news about the paper! I hope you're celebrating appropriately (by sticking a copy on the fridge with a magnet and a big sticker that says "Well done!").
I'm very grateful that the humanities began as "women's interests" (early novels were feminine literature, for example). In my experience, it's rare to encounter an English department that has more male than female professors, so women tend not to have the same problem with being taken seriously that you see in the sciences. Of course, it does mean that entire disciplines are tainted by being associated with "feminine" studies, but that's slowly changing. I hope.
Haha! I love the fridge idea!
Nice to meet you.
My name is Lauro, i´m from brazil.
I´m 27, married, and i have two children, nowsdays i´m studying business and agribusiness administration.
My native language is portuguese it´s similar to spanish, i was living in south korea for few years that´s why i know some korean too, i´m writing to you because at first i like to make friends, and because i wish to learn another languages and improve my English, and if possible work abroad, that´s why if you can help me in this matter i will be very happy, you can help me by the way that you are able to do.
It´s a pleasure to meet you.
Take care...
Lauro from brazil
lbjmorais@hotmail.com
www.laurobrazilian.blogspot.com
I don't much like the Nüsslein-Volhard solution to the unfair distribution of domestic labour though. The person paid to come clean your house and look after your kids will invariably be a woman (who then has to go home and cook dinner for her own family after she's finished working for you). Tranfering the burden from one socioeconomic class of women to another socioeconomic class of women is not feminism in my book.
It's time women who want to be successful outside the home adopted the strategy used to great advantage by men for the last, well, all of history, i.e. get your children's other parent to look after them. In other words, a father needs to be more than a sperm donor with a cheque book. Grants for paternity leave, perhaps?
There's been various stuff about this recently. The argument is that it's a global class thing since many of the au-pairs/nannies etc are immigrants from poor countries who leave their own children behind to come and look after other people's kids.
Sadly I can't remember the reference but I can dig it out if anyone is interested.
Arthur
Maybe women ultimately do make lesser scientists because repeatedly banging our heads against things concusses us and dims our talent. I recommend hanging a punching bag somewhere handy as an alternative. An added bonus to this approach is that if you hurt your hand while using it, someone else will have to do the dishes at home for awhile.
(This is meant to be funny, of course. I apologize if it's not. I do share your frustration. Meanwhile, congratulations upon finally having your article published.)
Deidre (Donald) McKloskey is still pretty well regarded and taught at undergrad level in economic history. Was the music of Wendy (formerly Walter) Carlos less regarded?
I think that a large part of Barres' story is about how the same person is afforded more repect as a male when his status as a transsexual was not known by the individual(s) that made the comments in question. It's not implausible that Carlos & McKloskey continue to be well regarded by those who are aware that it's the same person (i.e. that Wendy is not Walter's less-talented little sister).
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My goodness but you do attract some interesting commenters, yes?
Congratualations on the paper, and I'm definitely going to use "Occam's Bikini Wax."
PS: Is your name really Laetitia or is it a pseudonym? It's Latin for "joy" or "triumph." I ask for personal reasons, as it's a name not often encountered where I live.
Hedonistic, no, Laetitita is mentioned as being Miss Prism's first name in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. I played Miss Prism in an am-dram production once and thought the name was nicely self-deprecating as the character is so pompous yet ignorant. Fewer people than I expected recognise it, though, Lady Bracknell being an obvious exception.
Nic, yes, I suppose the Nusslein-Volhard solution is a bit superficial. I should have thought more deeply before cheering!
Do you think paying someone else to do your dirty work is inherently a bad thing - that people as a general principle ought to clean up their own mess and look after their own kids - or is it made bad by the fact that wages and employment conditions are so crappy?
I was horrified by the cleaning agency chapter in Nickel and Dimed, especialy the 'our girls do it on their knees"-style advertising pitch. I'd like to cling to a fantasy of one day employing the Fair Maids Workers' Co-operative Cleaning Service for Guilt-Ridden Pinkos, but maybe that's a product of similarly shallow thinking.
Do you think paying someone else to do your dirty work is inherently a bad thing...
No, not at all, there's nothing inherently wrong with outsourcing. I don't buy into the idea that making your own pasta makes you a better person or that DIY counts as a leisure activity. And I don't think children have to be looked after by a blood relative all the time.
It's just that all that domestic work and caring work is seen as women's work, even though it's necessary work and both men and women reap the benefits of it, and when it gets outsourced it remains women's work. That needs to change, men need to do their share.
Childcare workers and cleaners get crappy wages because their work is women's work, and women's work is low status even though it makes the world go round.
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I love matt&nat their bags are perfect! Occam's Bikini Wax sounds great! Ill have to check it out.
Oh and before i go congrats on the paper!!!
Cheers,
Leah
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