The past week has seen a mild ripple across the science blogosphere over women in science. I've refrained from participating this round while Chris and I are hard at work completing our manuscript. But today while I'm presently somewhere miles up between coasts, I've scheduled this entry to point readers over to a great response to all the hullabaloo by Blue Lab Coats:
You see- the struggle I'm in daily in my own life and career is not about appearances, and it is not about symbolism or femininity- and it is not about who I am as a person, my likes and dislikes etc. It is a struggle to be heard and taken seriously for my ideas, plain and simple. . .it is about training the students in my group - who right now happen to be all women- to be the best possible scientists, and teaching them how the system works. It is about not having to repeat the same reasonable idea 20 or 30 times and have it laughed off by a group of colleagues for two or three YEARS, and then having a man mention it once and have it roundly applauded and implemented.
