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So, this article is obviously a contender for The Worst Bad Take and the Sunday Times should be ashamed of giving his blatant misogyny a platform. But let's take a look at his claim that "it's not as if they...build walls to keep women out." They do. Citations ahead...
Scientists were more likely to hire a hypothetical candidate for a lab manager if the name was male: pnas.org/content/early/…
Peer reviewers found women authors to be less competent, even when their work had similar impact levels: nature.com/articles/38734…
Women are less likely to be offered opportunities to speak about their research at other universities: pnas.org/content/115/1/…
Recommendation letters have pretty different content when written for men vs women, and it's not in women's favor: nature.com/articles/ngeo2…
Women's grant applications are viewed as equally competent when just the science is judged, but not when a judgement of the scientist is included: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
There's not any evidence that women are less competent earlier in the "pipeline" when less exposure to bias has taken place; women students in STEM classes are doing fine: nature.com/articles/s4146…
Beyond all these biases in things like peer review and grant applications, women still face another problem of their time being divided more unfairly toward service roles: link.springer.com/article/10.100…
And teaching, as well: nature.com/news/teaching-…
All of these biases add up to a hellish feedback loop, since higher representation of women improves retention of women: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25867167
You can reduce the peer review biases if you have more women doing the reviewing: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
But the numbers of women in STEM workplaces on the whole are pretty bleak: pewsocialtrends.org/2018/01/09/wom…
You can pretend that science is meritocratic, but if you do that blatantly, then you actually lead to GREATER bias against women: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.218…
Oh, and obviously, women in STEM careers are being sexually harassed and assaulted at extremely high rates: nap.edu/catalog/24994/…
There's a lot of reasons that men (like the wretched guy featured in the article) have a hard time believing all these studies, and it turns out that being a man is one reason: pnas.org/content/112/43…
Through all of this, it's important to remember that women who are also minoritized in the academic world for other aspects of their identity (e.g. women of color, LGBT+ women, disabled women, etc.) face the consequences of these biases even more harshly.
If anyone has any more studies to link, please add them! And remember, when the trolls come, just block them. It doesn't mean you're scared of them. I'm not scared of garbage; I just take it out to the curb because I don't want it stinking up my house.
Oh, and also: read the amazing book "Inferior" by @AngelaDSaini for an excellent in-depth analysis of where this guy's brand of bullshit comes from. amazon.com/Inferior-Scien…
A friend just linked me to this spectacular thread from last year by @MHendr1cks with EVEN MORE citations on this topic:
I've just been linked to this excellent annotated bibliography of SIXTY MORE studies on this topic, too: hastac.org/blogs/superadm…
I've seen a few replies, quote-tweets, & a message on this from some feminism-appropriating reactionary transphobes, which sucks. So, reminder: TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN, & they deserve a safe & equitable environment in STEM (& everywhere) just as much as cis women.
