by, for, and about women in science, technology, engineering, & math

at 4:40PM 04/28/10 clara said:

Hi Carol! Welcome to Stemming and thanks for sharing your first blog post with us! You might want to get in touch with some of the other users on the site who are into astrophysics – I’m sure some of them will have some good advice/inspiration!

at 9:50AM 04/29/10 joanwolk said:

Don’t listen to that crummy advice. Just keep working at what interests you and talk to professors (or other people around campus or elsewhere) who are working on projects that interest you. Don’t be afraid to ask about positions on those projects. I know a woman who took a year off undergrad to go to Antarctica with the astrophysics project she’d been working on with a professor from her campus!

at 8:18AM 05/07/10 AlexInSpace said:

Did you ask why he thought that?

at 9:05PM 05/20/10 rareflwr41 said:

I have my Masters in Astro-Physics at the University of Virginia and am currently working on my dissertation. Our full graduate program is about half female on the whole — and that only because in the past few incoming classes there have been few females.

At the Graduate School level Astrophysics has lots of females. Its not until the PostDoc/Faculty levels that there is an overall significant gender mismatch in AstroPhysics.

So I don’t know where your friend got the impression that getting a Masters in AstroPhysics would be difficult because of your gender … thats not true at all.

at 9:08PM 05/20/10 rareflwr41 said:

Also, if you haven’t settled on a program yet, please consider the University of Virginia program. We spend a large fraction of our time involved in teaching/outreach at all levels. I can send you more information if you would like! There is also a Masters in Physics Education Program in the Curry School of Education!

at 7:39PM 06/18/10 battlestarlet said:

Hi Carol C! I wanted to revive this post to add my two cents.

I have experienced this type of resistance myself in the physics community. About ten years ago, I needed some after-class help from my physics professor on a particular problem. I went to his office but found that he was busy. He told me to “just sit outside and do my nails or something” and that he’d “be right with me.” My boyfriend at the time was also a student of his… and one day that same professor told me that I didn’t have to take physics classes just to get this boy to marry me. I guess it never occurred to him that I might actually have an interest in the subject.

Now that I’m returning to the field ten years later, every now and then I experience the same kind of thing. When I was trying to decide on schools, it seemed like just about every male physics professor asked me the same thing, “And why exactly do you want to get a physics degree??” And each time I had to defend myself… instead of these professors welcoming me and encouraging me, they made me feel like I had to defend my reasons for being there.

Despite all that, I am really optimistic about my future. I find that those kinds of sexist comments are the exception to the rule. I think most people really dig the idea of a woman in the field. Like you I still plan on pursuing my goals but, yeah, it always takes me aback when I’m confronted with comments like that.

at 9:41PM 06/30/10 parclair said:

New blogger here. Haven’t written anything, ‘cause I’m not sure how this works. To the women commenting here about being dissed:

sigh I thought the resistance you are receiving would be gone by now. Yes, it hurts. Yes, ignore it and forge on. I didn’t have a group like this in the late ‘60s (I mean, I had a pile of geek girlfriends, but we didn’t have a clue of what we were up against, so no support areas). I didn’t ignore the male teachers who dissed me (yes, that’s what you’re getting, disrespect) so I followed another path.

It says more about their cock-eyed ;-p view of the world than it does about your abilities and intelligence. Ignore them, and keep on going.

JoanWolk’s advice is good. I didn’t really have a mentor until the last quarter of my senior year. I was quite surprised when the male professor (who everyone hated) called me into the office to give me great career advice. (Do you want to go on in science? Teach? Research? These are the options). I’d say look for sympatico professors of either gender, and get some astro cred.

As far as your male friend, he might have been trying to be helpful even tho’ his choice of words were not. Or, he could have been a total jerk. Either way, his comment is not your problem.

My parents raised my sisters and me as feminists, but (in the 60s) always said “The only place women are going to get equal pay for equal work is in nursing or teaching”. Well, I gave up on nursing after seeing a mock MASH unit at an airshow. I didn’t like teenage boys when I was a teenager, so I couldn’t imagine teaching them. (My “friend” Danny Schaefer told me “You shouldn’t go to college because you’re just going to take a job away from a man.”)

So, that left the harder path. Honestly, I thought the days of “you can’t” were over. Clearly not. So, ignore the haters and do what you love. Look for fellow travelers (stemming looks to be a great place for connections). In fact, I’ll be recommending this to some youngun’s I know.

My door is open for chat.