Ok, I promised my next post would be about how Fermi spends it's money - that will be next - but I just can across this courtesy of Absinthe. It is an article about the lack of diversity in science and the reasons for it.

An excerpt from the article:

Engineers have their “hard hat culture,” while biological and chemical scientists find themselves in the “lab coat” culture and computer experts inhabit a “geek culture.” What they all have in common is that they are “at best unsupportive and at worst downright hostile to women,” the study said.

The 147-page report (which was sponsored by Alcoa, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Pfizer and Cisco) is filled with tales of sexual harassment (63 percent of women say they experienced harassment on the job); and dismissive attitudes of male colleagues (53 percent said in order to succeed in their careers they had to “act like a man”); and a lack of mentors (51 percent of engineers say they lack one); and hours that suit men with wives at home but not working mothers (41 percent of technology workers says they need to be available “24/7”).

The work environment is hostile, they are harassed, they are dismissed.....this is not a minority of the women in these fields, this is a majority. Then when complain they are dismissed by the EEO's, the HR departments and the courts, who all think this does not really happen.

Remember the report that Absinthe did regarding the inequities for women at Fermilab said the same thing.

What does it take for the people who can put a stop to this to 'get a clue'?

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