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Caryn Riswold

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On Tim Hunt, the Doktorvater & #distractinglysexy Women

On Tim Hunt, the Doktorvater & #distractinglysexy Women

Last updated on: June 15, 2015 at 1:20 pm by Caryn Riswold

On Tim Hunt, the Doktorvater & #distractinglysexy Women 2015-06-15T13:20:35-06:00 Caryn Riswold

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Nobel prize winning biochemist Tim Hunt recently made headlines with his comments at the World Conference of Science Journalists: “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls … three things happen when they are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry.”

1st #distractinglysexy sign I’ve seen @ibers_aber. Welsh-speaking scientists need more PPE to mitigate extra hazard. pic.twitter.com/iZD25QYBg6

— Arwyn Edwards (@arwynedwards) June 12, 2015

There are so many things wrong with this that others have written about. Thankfully, female scientists are having the last laugh with #distractinglysexy … you must check out some of the images.

But there are many reasons that Hunt could even fathom that it was a good idea to say this out loud, and one of them is the enduring image of the Doctorvater that pervades academia where women and men are educated, trained, and where many of them work. It exists in the sciences, as well as the humanities, arts, and beyond. Even the German-language phrasing of “doctoral father” is still used by many. One blogger describes the relationship this way:

“The Doktorvater decides to accept the young scientist because he trusts in him; he desires to pass his experience, knowledge and scientific ethics through to the next generation.”

For some, this becomes an academic genealogy that can be traced, a family tree of mentors and teachers. I learned from a colleague that mathematicians have what is called an Erdos number, “the collaborative distance between Paul Erdos and another person as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.” I think of it as the Kevin-Bacon-principle for mathematicians.

Here’s the problem with all of it: Power reproduces itself in its own image, and placing such high value on the doctoral fathers both ignores the mothers and makes little space for daughters. Actually, I really dislike the gendered familial metaphors in these relationships. Let me be clear: If men hold the power, they are more likely to mentor men, support men, and hire men.

Sure, I had teachers and mentors at every stage of my academic work in religion who were important, encouraging, and appropriately critical, from whom I learned a lot. Men and women. More men than women because the professoriate remains a male dominated field. And yes, I succeeded.

Yet the data about female faculty in academia remains clear. In 2011, John Curtis, Director of Research and Public Policy for the American Association of University Professors, reported on persistent gender inequity in academia. In short, while women comprise 57% of college and university students, they are only 42% of full-time faculty:

“Overall, women are less likely than men to be employed as full-time tenure-track faculty members, less likely to hold tenured or full professor positions, and comprise less than a quarter of all college and university presidents. Women in full-time faculty positions earn only about 80 percent of what men earn, and since women are also overrepresented in low-paying part-time faculty positions, the gender gap in earnings is actually even larger than that.”

The fact is also that the number of women in full time faculty positions has grown slower than expected after Title IX in 1972 dramatically increased women’s access to higher education and their ability to earn graduate degrees normally required of faculty work. Curtis notes the common response that “it’ll just take some time” for women to gain parity with men in academic employment. A study of hiring trends and employment patterns reveals that this is not the case.

“…at the rate of progress found at this university throughout the 1990s, it would take 57 years for women to make up 50 percent of the full-time faculty.”

MT @aauw As if being charged as #distractinglysexy isn’t enough, women in #STEM are underpaid: http://t.co/lnvd3jJWFr pic.twitter.com/wQnHh2I7Ni — NARAL (@NARAL) June 15, 2015

Additionally, when you go up the ranks, there are fewer and fewer women. 28% of those at the full professor rank are women (I am one of them, and reflected on some of the reasons why here). And of course, the data on women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is even more bleak:

“Studies by Fiona Murray and Leigh Graham of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that women scientists may have fewer graduate and postdoctoral students to support their work than men and less diverse networks. In addition, women faculty report fewer referrals from collegial networks to participate in the commercial marketplace by being asked to consult, serve on science advisory boards, and interact with industry.”

One problem remains the looming image and power of the Doctorvater. The senior male professor who wields power every time he decides to mentor a younger student, bring a student in on a research project, invite a student to join his lab, travel with a student to a professional conference. Feminist critics have rightly pointed out that power replicates in its own image. As long as that Doktor is a vater, there will be less room for women at every step of the way.

And, women will be considered by some as just #distractinglysexy.

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