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jerseyfabulousOn the heels of yesterday's Style article about how the ladies are paid less in the science and tech sector, the Boston Globe says there are so few women in hard science and tech cause the girls just aren't interested.
And then fails utterly to examine both societal conditioning and the abysmal attitudes of the male of the species that might feed that "lack of interest". But there I go with the crazy talk again. I mean, why would a girl who actually likes science or tech NOT want to go into a field where every damn day is a fight to be taken seriously, you constantly wonder if you're being treated fairly (and I mean a whole lot more than just the pay), work/life balance is set and determined by the guys- and largely driven by the basement dwelling subset who are willing to work round the clock fuelled by Jolt and takeout.
Basically, there's a vicious sexist undercurrent in the science/tech sector. But as we're seeing in the primary campaign, overt sexism is still accepted as normal in society in a way racism isn't*, which means that fighting subtle sexism is correspondingly more difficult. I say all this as a girl who is interested, but is starting to think that I should do something else. I'm smart enough that I can probably get paid well to do something that would involve a lot less battle on my part. And fighting that battle is just exhausting.
*I'm not playing Oppression Olympics here. Both are still alive and kicking, and given what I've heard when a certain type of person assumes they're among "their own", I know darn well that racism is as nasty as ever. But we're to the point where overt racism isn't acceptable in polite society, whereas all too often, overt sexism is, and God help you if you say anything about it, you humorless feminist bitch. If you can't even fight the overt stuff, you're screwed when it comes to the subtle version.
And then fails utterly to examine both societal conditioning and the abysmal attitudes of the male of the species that might feed that "lack of interest". But there I go with the crazy talk again. I mean, why would a girl who actually likes science or tech NOT want to go into a field where every damn day is a fight to be taken seriously, you constantly wonder if you're being treated fairly (and I mean a whole lot more than just the pay), work/life balance is set and determined by the guys- and largely driven by the basement dwelling subset who are willing to work round the clock fuelled by Jolt and takeout.
Basically, there's a vicious sexist undercurrent in the science/tech sector. But as we're seeing in the primary campaign, overt sexism is still accepted as normal in society in a way racism isn't*, which means that fighting subtle sexism is correspondingly more difficult. I say all this as a girl who is interested, but is starting to think that I should do something else. I'm smart enough that I can probably get paid well to do something that would involve a lot less battle on my part. And fighting that battle is just exhausting.
*I'm not playing Oppression Olympics here. Both are still alive and kicking, and given what I've heard when a certain type of person assumes they're among "their own", I know darn well that racism is as nasty as ever. But we're to the point where overt racism isn't acceptable in polite society, whereas all too often, overt sexism is, and God help you if you say anything about it, you humorless feminist bitch. If you can't even fight the overt stuff, you're screwed when it comes to the subtle version.
