Feminism | Posted by Jill L on 08/23/2010

The Sex of the Scientist

Despite emerging from them under the vague impression that everything had gone well, I am currently awaiting my exam results with a degree of aprehension, multiplied by a summer of post-exam discussion and dissection.
However, sitting these papers confirmed something to me which I have long suspected. Whenever I exited the exam hall, I would be greeted by my contempoaries standing in huddles and, broadly speaking, the conversations would sound a bit like this. I’ll set the scene.

(Tuesday Afternoon, Outside School, Post Chemistry exam, Rain)
Boy 1- How do you think that went?
Boy 2- I aced it. Seriously. Probably did the best out of all of everyone who has ever sat the exam ever. It went brilliantly. It was so easy. Not going to lie, I was fantastic. …

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Feminism | Posted by Cicutae on 08/3/2010

Sexism in Science

You know what makes me angry? The fact that I apparently can’t do science because I have a vagina. Now, I didn’t think that my gender was damaging my math and science skills, but I guess having breasts means that engineering isn’t for me.

I went down to a NASA space flight center earlier this year as part of my Rocket Club team. We were participating in a competition sending 10-foot-long rockets a mile into the hot Alabama air. There was a “rocket fair” where we displayed our rocket and experiment for NASA employees and the other teams to peruse. I stood proudly in front of our display and tried to engage the passing engineers.

“Do you have any questions Sir?” The response was almost always the same – a …

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