Why women in physics feel less recognized

“Women are asked more questions during a seminar and the questions asked of women presenters are more likely to be patronizing or hostile. These effects are not due to women presenting in different fields, different seminar series, or different topics…” https://lnkd.in/gPDq272g Recently saw this shared by Dr Nora Becker on Bluesky, and I see similar situations happen repeatedly with female science communicators: * Our opinions on scientific topics will be considered equal to those of male content creators who don't have any relevant background (often without even an undergraduate science degree) * Our Dr/PhD titles will be left out of articles and posts, when all of the male scientists have theirs. Men without PhDs will even get awarded an honorary "Dr"! (This recently happened to Andrea C. Love, Ph.D.) * Less qualified men will be tagged into our posts to publicly factcheck us (again, the men often do not have any science qualifications) * A wildly incorrect post from a male science communicator is a rare outlier, but a slight inaccuracy from a female science communicator will be an indelible mark upon her reliability, and the world must be reminded of this anytime her name is mentioned in a positive light. If she transgresses again, it's time to compile a comprehensive directory of her sins (she used an ambiguous emoji once, and we must all take that personally). Unfortunately, this behaviour isn't limited to people skeptical of science, or limited to men! And this isn't just less worthy women complaining - male allies like Hank Green have commented on this as well: https://lnkd.in/gavryef4 I'm super grateful when they step in - it shouldn't take a man to correct this behaviour, but it often does. Here's to being more aware of our unconscious biases in 2025!

“Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.”  – proposition nr. 6 that accompanied my PhD thesis.   Whenever I shared with my male colleagues that I did not always feel welcome or safe in the predominantly male field that I worked in, I was always met with disbelief. “I don’t feel like that’s true” I would hear from the man sitting in front of me when I shared the numbers, the proven trends and the systemic biases that I got from the literature. Then, when I chose to share my personal and painful anecdotes of things that had happened to me, I got told that that was bad but also that it is “not all men” and maybe they didn’t mean it like that. More out of frustration than anything else, I chose to add an extra section to my thesis next to the acknowledgements, a section for my “anti acknowledgements”.  My goal here was not to blame individual people. I just wanted to prove the point of my 6th proposition: I had been told explicitly and implicitly that I shouldn’t be a scientist often enough that it had eaten away at my confidence and joy. When I said I didn't feel welcome, this is what I meant. I am sad to say that if I were to leave science, this would be my biggest reason for that. And I know for a fact that I am not alone. If we want to create a welcoming scientific environment for every person, we have to actively champion the people who currently do not make up a representative part of the scientific community. It is not enough to just not be mean to people, because the truth is that there are plenty of people who will. If we want to keep women and girls in science, we all have to actively take part in welcoming them, including them and cheering them on from the start. In a world full of Warners, be an Elle Woods.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗠𝗲 Women in Tech are in minority. But as a woman leader, an AI infrastructure expert and an ex-particle physicist, I have experienced being the only woman in the room at yet another level. Not only have I only reported to men over the course of my career: 👉 The whole chain of command above me has always only been men. 👉 I've always worked for companies where the CEO and the CTO were men. 👉 In fact, almost all my peers were men, meaning that I was practically always the only woman in all staff meetings I was part of (sometimes, that would be 20 or 30 people!) When I was younger, I felt honored just to be there, part of an elite group of technologists. But that very feeling of being "lucky to be included" shaped how I behaved. I held back disagreement, afraid that if I challenged the group, it would be attributed to me being difficult, to me being... a woman. And when I was talked over or quietly ignored, it could never identify when it was discrimination, because I thought that since I was here, it must mean that they cared about my opinion, so if they shut it down, it meant I was just wrong. But then, it started costing me more than just self-confidence, but real opportunities: ❌ I couldn't find the courage to ask for promotions because I felt I should already consider myself lucky to be the highest ranking woman in my department ❌ I didn't have anyone to advise me because no one above me had gone through the same experience ❌ Some of my managers even praised me for "doing really well for a woman", so it made me feel that I was subject to different standards, and of course, no one was there to tell me otherwise ❌ I accepted the fact that I was being passed on for cool projects and promotions as a fatality In the meantime, DEI initiatives were focusing on bringing more women onboard, not helping the ones already in place grow the ladder. So if you’re the only one in the room, or the only one on the org chart who looks like you, don’t let that become a ceiling. 🤞 You are not "lucky" to be there. 💥 You are powerful. And you have every right to keep growing… and to keep dreaming 🚀 🚀🚀 #WomenInTech #Leadership #CareerGrowth #RepresentationMatters