So you've graduated from female engineer all the way to pop psychologist? Knock yourself out. And since you seem to be bothered by my posts (and those of others who oppose your "I am woman, hear me roar" mantra, feel free to ignore them (or put me on your "ignore" list).
Never said I was an engineer, I'm a research scientist. And considering that your post is the only one I've actually replied to, I'm not sure who else I'm supposed to be opposing!
So rather than being a gesture of human decency, you're saying that holding the door for another human being, regardless of gender, is a "sexist" act?
Not sure how you managed to interpret that as the exact opposite of what I said..! I was saying that I am not that sort of person; people who do that are ridiculous. Anyone who doesn't hold the door open for the person behind them (regardless of gender) is just plain rude.
Unconscious bias? I find it immensely interesting that only those "victims" of the perceived bias point out stuff like this. Only those who persecute women engineers are guilty of these biases?
I cannot speak for everyone at my company in every location around the globe. However, I am friends with and often associate after hours with those on my work team on my account - about half of whom are females. We've talked about almost everything you can imagine over the course of my 25+ years in the business. I don't hear any comments about sexism, I don't see any sexism (aside from the previously mention act of holding a door open for a colleague).
Just because I have not seen the behavior doesn't mean that it doesn't occur. But not having seen/heard the behavior in over 25 years of working closely with female colleagues in tech field makes it seem as a non-issue to me. It certainly is NOT the big issue that you are trying to make it out to be.
You work in a different part of the STEM industry to me; it's really great that nobody in your industry has never experienced it, genuinely. But in mine it is commonplace, and I know a number of women who have been forced out of the profession because of it, and I have not been in this industry anywhere near as long as you have been in yours.
These are not the sort of people running around demonising men and generally making a fuss about opening doors. These are capable, intelligent women who have been intentionally sidelines and backed into corners until they had no choice but to leave, simply because there was the possibility that one day they *might* have children, or because their bosses are of an age where they believe that a woman's place is in the home. In these cases the bias isn't even unconscious.
In my field it IS a big issue. It is a really serious issue, and part of the problem is that it is often almost invisible to those who do not experience it. I have never personally experienced homophobia or racism because I'm white and straight, but that doesn't mean I'm going to claim that these problems just don't exist.
Regarding "Athena SWAN" - I know nothing of it, its purpose or its agenda. But just because there's "a whole organisation" to combat bias against something means nothing. If you don't believe me, check out NAMBLA.
It's a UK-wide initiative in scientific institutes and universities to address the high loss of women that occurs post-PhD, amongst other things. In my own organisation a site-wide census showed that the Athena SWAN initiative was genuinely making a difference to peoples' perception of discrimination, and to how they felt that discrimination was being dealt with, and that's good enough to me.
What I want to know, is that do you genuinely think Angela would have attracted a) as much criticism, and b) the same sort of criticism if she were male? I don't think she's done a perfect job, but she's not terrible. She's being blamed for a lot of things that she clearly won't have had anything to do with, and is being called incompetent because of this. I am not so sure that this would happen to a man.
