At least europe it has kind of switched to the opposite in recent years.
I did a doctorate in physics and women had a much easier time finding PhD/post-doc positions because there is just much more funding available.
Most groups in my institution were majority women.
Professorships are still nearly all men, but that’s largely down to the sexism of the previous generations (back in the 60s-90s when they got their positions). This will slowly shift in the coming decades.
I began my Master’s study a few years ago and had to retake a course since I’ve switched to another university and they claimed that my Bachelor’s study wasn’t equal to theirs. A female friend of mine did the exact same and had exactly the same education as me. The dean of our new study wrote her personally and said that he will make sure that she doesn’t have to retake any courses if she starts studying here. I’m still kinda pissed about that tbh.
We literally can’t, not while the structures we live in are built to benefit men.
Equality will only come with structural change, which at times will look like reverse sexism. But if a woman is hired with half the publications, and it is twice as hard for a woman to get published (just as a fictional example), then it’s not really reverse sexism even if it looks like that on the surface.
In the US this is true in academic philosophy and probably the humanities more generally. Women get tenure track positions with, on average, half the number of publications that men have. Most tenured professors are men, but it’s slowly changing as the strong preference for women at the junior levels percolates upward. Within the next twenty or thirty years we’ll need to address the bias against men in junior positions or we’re going to end up with the same problem but in reverse.
This was my wife’s experience while in her doctoral program in the States, as well. The structural misogyny and firm barriers to career progression kicked in when she moved to the private sector afterwards.
I blame (in no small part) Hollywood and movies like Jurassic Park for pushing stereotypes about the field being dominated by creepy, obese, and gross “computer nerds.”
I mean I can say for the us, 35 years ago my bachelors program for microbiology had a majority of men but there were still a lot of women. 30 years ago in a PhD they accepted 4men and 4woman but one guy never showed, another dropped mid first semester, another dropped between semester, and I dropped mid second semester. As of that time all four women stayed in the program but I know one was thinking of switching (non of the men continued to seek a doctorate). I worked in diagnostic assays a bit but saw the same thing. More women to begin with and guys left in droves. Most got mbas and did managagement or went for tech jobs.
At least europe it has kind of switched to the opposite in recent years.
I did a doctorate in physics and women had a much easier time finding PhD/post-doc positions because there is just much more funding available.
Most groups in my institution were majority women.
Professorships are still nearly all men, but that’s largely down to the sexism of the previous generations (back in the 60s-90s when they got their positions). This will slowly shift in the coming decades.
I can somewhat confirm your first statement.
I began my Master’s study a few years ago and had to retake a course since I’ve switched to another university and they claimed that my Bachelor’s study wasn’t equal to theirs. A female friend of mine did the exact same and had exactly the same education as me. The dean of our new study wrote her personally and said that he will make sure that she doesn’t have to retake any courses if she starts studying here. I’m still kinda pissed about that tbh.
Yey, reversed sexism ! That sure will solve every problem !
Can’t we just treat people as equal ?
We literally can’t, not while the structures we live in are built to benefit men.
Equality will only come with structural change, which at times will look like reverse sexism. But if a woman is hired with half the publications, and it is twice as hard for a woman to get published (just as a fictional example), then it’s not really reverse sexism even if it looks like that on the surface.
In the US this is true in academic philosophy and probably the humanities more generally. Women get tenure track positions with, on average, half the number of publications that men have. Most tenured professors are men, but it’s slowly changing as the strong preference for women at the junior levels percolates upward. Within the next twenty or thirty years we’ll need to address the bias against men in junior positions or we’re going to end up with the same problem but in reverse.
This was my wife’s experience while in her doctoral program in the States, as well. The structural misogyny and firm barriers to career progression kicked in when she moved to the private sector afterwards.
Outside of a few niches like computer science this is increasingly true in the US as well AFAIK.
Interesting how computer science is an outlier here when (IIRC) the first programmers were women.
At least math being outlier “makes sense”.
I blame (in no small part) Hollywood and movies like Jurassic Park for pushing stereotypes about the field being dominated by creepy, obese, and gross “computer nerds.”
Damn it, the stereotype is basically me
I mean I can say for the us, 35 years ago my bachelors program for microbiology had a majority of men but there were still a lot of women. 30 years ago in a PhD they accepted 4men and 4woman but one guy never showed, another dropped mid first semester, another dropped between semester, and I dropped mid second semester. As of that time all four women stayed in the program but I know one was thinking of switching (non of the men continued to seek a doctorate). I worked in diagnostic assays a bit but saw the same thing. More women to begin with and guys left in droves. Most got mbas and did managagement or went for tech jobs.