Equality, diversity and inclusion in Physics
Equality and diversity are very important to me. But more often than not people who think they stand for equality don’t, because they feel like promoting more diversity in physics will somehow lower the prestige and make what it means to be part of the physics community less reputed. This is what inequality looks like. Because whether you are male, female or non-binary, whether you are Black or white, whether you are neurodivergent or not, these factors do not influence whether you are good or bad at physics, mathematics, or any area of science. People feel, mainly straight white men if I’m honest, that outreach and encouraging people to get involved in science, is not worthwhile because “the people who want to be scientists will end up being scientists” and that they shouldn’t need encouragement to get there, because dedication and overcoming barriers is ‘character building’.
But, with respect, I disagree entirely. A white man can grow up watching TV where all the scientists on there look like him. Where he can go to school and just say the words “I want to study science” and he will not face prejudice, he will be able to get the normal qualifications, not experience prejudice, and overall the route is relatively easy, particularly if they went to a private school. The statistics of those at Oxford and Cambridge, no matter what they say, still have a disproportionate number of people from the public schools such as Eton, Harrow, etc.
Women get a different outlook. I was privileged enough to attend an all girls school. This meant I didn’t feel overshadowed by my male peers at school, and I was just able to be myself, and I do certainly think I was somewhat blinded by this and I didn’t really acknowledge the amount of stereotypes and injustices that exist. But this only emphasised that they did exist by the time I went to University. At University I was suddenly in male dominated classes. Surrounded by people of so many different backgrounds in the overall university environment, yet in Physics it still was predominantly white men from public school. And honestly, I don’t blame the university for this at all, I do believe it is a problem in society as to what girls subconsciously see as welcoming or unwelcoming environments, and physics I believe is seen as unwelcoming to women.
The point of ED&I isn’t to put unqualified minorities into science which could dampen their prestige, ED&I is about trying to change the fact that minorities often have to work 3x harder to get the same or less credit than they would get if they were straight, white and male.
The bias of some men that they think, not even consciously most the time, that they can just speak over you because your idea isn’t as good as theirs, even when it turns out you are right.
The fact that certain members of faculty will refer to male students of your age as ‘bright young men’ and yet I am still referred to as a ‘wee girl’. This is a direct quote from one male member of staff. This choice of language is demeaning and makes women feel excluded and inferior.
For gender non-conforming, non-binary and transgender folks, the language used by some senior (male) members of staff belittling them, stating things along the lines of “all these boys dressing up as girls just to make an impression. Do they know how stupid it makes them look?”, again, a direct quote of a male staff member speaking to another (female) staff member who, I might add, looked extremely uncomfortable. This isn’t ok behaviour and honestly, it won’t change unless you call it out. Be active. Stand up for yourself and those who don’t have a voice or who are too scared to speak out. In addition, people being able to just openly say how ‘silly’ they think pronoun badges are, or how they think it ‘unnecessary’ for people to state their pronouns in email signatures. Does it affect your quality of life? Does it hurt anyone? Are you well-educated/an expert on this matter? No? Then don’t comment. No one is forcing you to do it but at least don’t belittle the people who aren’t being dicks. To be honest, I never wore pronoun badges or put my pronoun in my email signature before hearing this comment. But after hearing that comment I did both of those things. Even if you’re not trans, be an ally. Don’t make a marginalised community feel even more alienated. Make it normal.
The necessity that so many postdoctoral roles so often require you to spend a few years in the States and that this is not viable for many women with children who can’t just travel from country to country with a toddler or an older child who has friends at school and doesn’t want to move. This is an equality issue. Having a child doesn’t affect your worth as a researcher. It doesn’t make you any lesser, but it does make it harder for you to get a job that suits your lifestyle. That is inequality. By stopping a mother from getting a job she is well qualified for you could be preventing a scientific advance that that person could make in the future. Instead they choose to leave the field because they need security.
The latest news that the new honorary fellows announced by the IOP - there are more honorary fellows named Brian than there are female fellows. Does that scream equality and diversity to you?
Recently I was harassed on social media by straight white male, senior academics. None of whom I’d met before. Being called so many different things; being called Leftist and it being meant as an insult. Being called naive. Literally being called “one of the crazies”. But I will take this abuse and harassment even if it leaves me in tears in the small hours of the night, if it gets the message across and proves that free speech doesn’t mean speech free from consequences. Because it doesn’t and if someone is a racist or discriminating against minorities even if I can’t get them fired because my voice means so little I will move heaven and earth to make sure everyone knows their true character. Because they are wrong and this is a battle that they must lose and the day we give up standing up for ourselves is the day they win.