
On being a woman and a non-physicist at CERN - bluesmoon
http://lindahenneberg.com/post/7576670960/woman-nonphysicist-cern
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mctavjb9
I spent 2.5 years at CERN as a grad student in experimental particle physics
in the 1990s. I never experienced anything like the condescending head patting
or bad pick-up lines the OP refers to. In fact, those years at CERN were the
closest thing to a meritocracy that I've experienced in my adult life. I
suspect that being a non-physicist is a far bigger impediment to fitting in at
CERN than being female. I spent countless hours talking physics over coffee,
skiing down mogul-infested inclines in Chamonix, and drinking beer/yelling at
the TV during soccer matches with the guys in my (otherwise all male) research
group and never felt like I didn't belong. On the rare occasions that guys
said or did things that I found to be in poor taste, I called them out on it
in a non-confrontational way. Most of the time they weren't intentionally
trying to be misogynist swine, they just needed someone to point out to them
that they were being insensitive. I've been in the unique position of existing
in male-dominated environments for as long as I can remember and have always
wondered why more women don't seem to realize how much male behavior can be
explained by a combination of cluelessness and insecurity-- it would save my
gender much emotional angst.

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civilian
I was kind of hoping for more elaboration. I'd like to know what us males can
do to make male-dominated work environments less of a boy's club. I'm,
frankly, kind of tired of my male-dominated workplace... there's too much
testosterone and cavalier joking.

That being said, I've caught myself giving off what might be subtle sexism.
There's usually some other reason behind it though-- like being annoyed that I
needed to ask permission for a copy of TextMate to be comp'd.

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hzay
I was looking for more details, too. I don't mean that I suspect the OP of
falsehood. It's simply that I'm a woman in a male-dominated field, and many
people have asked me if I've ever faced prejudice at work, and I've always had
to say no. That and the post together got me wondering if my prejudice-sensors
are malfunctioning.

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ristretto
I don't know if it's related, but I remember a gender inequality talk in a
conference where surprisingly, Switzerland did not rank well in many
statistics, including wage discrepancies which seem to be at 20%
[[http://wikigender.org/index.php/Gender_Equality_in_Switzerla...](http://wikigender.org/index.php/Gender_Equality_in_Switzerland)]

