I subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and thoroughly enjoy the
eclectic mix of articles within each issue.
Recently, I read a profile of Lucy Jones, who is one of the foremost
seismologists in the world today. Lucy
is 57 years old and grew up during the 50’s and 60’s when girls weren’t
expected to pursue a career, let alone one in the sciences. Lucy aced her high school science aptitude
test, and her high school counselor accused her of cheating. In a quote from
the article, the counselor stated, “Girls don’t get those kind of scores.” Really?!
Further, one of her other teachers suggested that she attend Harvard because “they
have a better class of men to marry.”
She chose Brown and studied physics and Chinese but took a geology
course during her senior year… the rest is history. Jones eventually obtained a PhD in
geophysics from MIT. I guess “girls” can do well in science, what do you
think?
In reading her story, I was reminded of an interesting story
involving a colleague of mine – Dr. Janet Solomon. Janet is a professor, a published author, an
expert on financial planning and management.
Yet, in finding her way into a challenging and fulfilling career, she
dealt with bias and obstacles similar to Lucy Jones.
Janet’s Story
“I was a liberal arts student
majoring in Germanic languages at Syracuse University in the 1960’s, but I had
grown up the daughter of an economist and had heard economic and financial
discussion at the dinner table all my life.
After my academic advisor insisted a girl was not eligible for admission
to the business school, she forced me into an education minor so I would have a
career if I didn’t get married and needed one (!). My intention had been to use the languages to
work at the U.N. or travel around the globe.
Despite her advice, I enrolled in
the only two business courses that would accept a liberal arts student:
economics and marketing. While all the
male business students struggled with the material, I enjoyed the course
immensely and earned an A grade.
Although I also thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the marketing
course, when the professor returned the graded mid-term exams and I got an A,
he commented: “J. Stern is a girl? A
girl got an A? I won’t let that happen
again.” Then he turned to the entire class and said, “I don’t know why they let
girls into these classes anyway. They
just take up space that belongs to the boys who will use their education.” Turning back to me, he added, “From now on,
you will sit in the last row, and I don’t want to hear a single word from you
for the rest of the semester.” I got a C
for the course, as did the only other two girls in the class. It really didn’t matter what we did on our
papers and final exams.
After many years working in
business, in 1973 I decided to go for my MBA degree. Not sure whether I wanted
to major in marketing or industrial relations, I decided to visit the lead
professors in each of these fields. The
marketing professor suggested that women might not be well suited for business
and since I was married, I would probably be starting a family, so an MBA
degree might not be as useful to me as perhaps a degree in home economics!
Six years later, at a different
university in a more sophisticated city, I discovered not much had changed when
I decided to get a doctoral degree. By
1979, I had acquired the MBA in labor relations and made the transition from
industry to academia. Once more I
visited the lead professors in marketing and human resources. This time the marketing guru wanted to know
what exactly I was willing to do about his loneliness in order to get my Ph.D.
in marketing? His expectations were
clear as his eyes traveled anywhere over my body except my face. Now I was a few years older and wiser, so I
responded that I would have to confer with my husband, who was a lawyer and a
professor at the law school of the same university. Would the marketing professor like to meet
him? There is nothing as sweet as a
great comeback. I got the Ph.D. in human resources and labor economics, but
what is it about marketing professors? “
Now, you might be tempted to say, “Okay, that was then but
in today’s world, we women don’t have
that type of bias to deal with.” I say,
don’t be too sure.
Need I remind you of the famous Larry Summers debacle? In January 2005, Larry Summers, at the time
the President of Harvard
University, gave a controversial lunch time speech to a group of
Harvard faculty members on the topic of why there were few female professors in
the science and engineering fields. He suggested that it was attributable to a "different
availability of aptitude at the high end" between men and women, rather
than patterns of discrimination or socialization.
The good news:
the backlash was immediate and severe.
Larry Summers ended up with a “no confidence” vote by his Harvard
colleagues and resigned from his position in 2006. The bad news:
he publicly stated what I suspect many men and, dare I say, some women in positions of influence throughout
our society – that is, academics, corporate and government leaders,
legislators, etc., privately believe:
most women do best as “pink-collar” workers.
Give us a classroom of kids to teach and we’ll
excel, offer us a job at a hair salon and we’ll make you look beautiful, put us
on a talk show and we can gab with the best of them… just don’t ask us to
understand the derivatives market or predict earthquake patterns, or discover a
new medical protocol. We just don’t have
the intellect for that type of left-brain thinking.
Is there any truth to the bias? How do we break this pattern of belief that
influences women from childhood on up? What do you think?
