Stop “Fixing” Women

Telling women to behave more like men isn’t helping anyone

Women in science are bloody brilliant. Their work leads to more honest, rigorous and collaborative research. They make compassionate, effective and supportive leaders. They often carry way more on their shoulders than just research work (the invisible burden). They. Get. Shit. Done. But despite their excellence and the fact that gender equality (and diversity in general) leads to better science and more innovation, women are less likely to receive recognition and funding than male counterparts. All because of that stubbornly lingering fart that won’t go away (no, not Tr*mp) – the patriarchy. 

Recent years have seen much focus on levelling-up centuries of gender inequality in STEM, and there are many successful initiatives to attract women and girls into the field. The efforts to keep them there, however, are often found lacking. Many of us have seen or heard that to “get ahead” in STEM (and multiple other careers...) you should behave like “one of the boys”. Be more assertive. Speak louder and deeper. Exude confidence. Just ask for that pay rise! Lean in.

But here comes the catch 22 for women. Assertive = aggressive. Leading = bossy. Asking questions = awkward. Asking for pay rise = LOL, no (fact: women do ask, but are less likely than men to get them). The system is the problem, not women.

So, despite having excellent skills and qualities, why are women in STEM encouraged to “fix” themselves to get ahead? Why do many workshops and initiatives to help women mostly focus on individual empowerment rather than system change? Why are women encouraged to keep leaning in instead of men leaning the f*ck out for a change? Why are women targeted with “leadership” courses? (I could go on and on here…). It is something I come across more and more in disgruntled tweets and vocal callouts online. It is something I have experienced myself, both in and out of academia. And, you know what, it stinks.

It’s lazy support (not unlike lazy medicine). Instead of initiatives focusing on the actual issues blocking potential – such as gender stereotypes, harassment and pay discrepancies – women are being encouraged to change their behaviour, effectively dumping the responsibility to make things “better” on women’s shoulders.

It’s yet another instance where responsibility for change is placed on an individual instead of acknowledging the actual issue (e.g., encouraging employees to build “resilience” instead of employers tackling punishing workloads, bullying, sexism, or racism against their staff). And another example of misguided encouragement to be more like the default rather than recognising individual strengths and merits (like favouring extroverts rather than valuing the power of introverts). 

I’m not saying that women-in-STEM initiatives or individual empowerment are bad things. But true progress cannot happen for women if the barriers holding them back are not acknowledged. Organisations and all those working in STEM (looking at you, MEN) need to identify that they are doing wrong and work on fixing that. Because women already do more than enough. RF