click here to skip the menu and go to the page content

rebecca's pocket


about / archive / syndicate

.: July 2006 --> Barres: Does gender matter in the sciences?

Barres: Does gender matter in the sciences?

» NYT: Fascinating interview with Ben A. Barres, professor of neurobiology at Stanford. He started life as Barbara, and he has a unique perspective on sexism in the sciences.

Q. When you were a woman did you experience bias?
A. An M.I.T. professor accused me of cheating on this test. I was the only one in the class who solved a particular problem, and he said my boyfriend must have solved it for me. One, I did not have a boyfriend. And two, I solved it myself, goddamn it! But it did not occur to me to think of sexism. I was just indignant that I would be accused of cheating.
Then later I was in a prestigious competition. I was doing my Ph.D. at Harvard, which would nominate one person. It came down to me and one other graduate student, and a dean pulled me aside and said, “I have read both applications, and it’s going to be you; your application is so much better.” Not only did I not win, the guy got it, but he dropped out of science a year later.
But even then I did not think of sexism.


 [ 07.19.06 ]




WEBLOG / SPEAKING / ARTICLES / PORTAL / BOOKS / FILM / DOMESTIC / GOTHIC / GAIA



legend

» primary link / supplemental information / internal link

my book

» the weblog handbook
amazon editors' best of 2002, digital culture

recent posts