“For Women in Sciences, Slow Progress in Academia” (Sara Rimer, NYT):

Even as the number of women earning Ph.D.’s in science has substantially increased – women now account for 45 percent to 50 percent of the biology doctorates, and 33 percent of those in chemistry – the science and engineering faculties of elite research universities remain overwhelmingly male. And the majority of the women are clustered at the junior faculty rank.

Pop quiz, class. Complete these sentences:

1. Women are underrepresented in academia because…
2. Conservatives are underrepresented in academia because…

Liz lists several things she wishes she didn’t know and then writes, “Yeah, I think life would definitely be easier if Iíd never had to learn any of those things.” But because Liz knows those things, there will be people around her for whom life is easier. This world often brings unwanted pain, but if you’re lucky you’ll find yourself able to do something positive with that pain, like help others avoid it or find their way out of it.

Danah writes of being on the receiving end of a sexist joke. Two of the responses to her entry think she is over-reacting. Certainly being told that you are good looking is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. The context matters, however. I know I would rather not hear about it if, for example, students were taking my classes because they thought I was attractive and not because they thought I was smart. And it seems to me that an overlooked part of Danah’s story is the experience of hearing yourself discussed in the third person while you are there to hear the discussion, as if you need not be addressed directly. If this isn’t objectification, then the word has no meaning.

Finally, if I weren’t such a half-assed Buddhist, I might actually believe in this concept, which I think gets at the heart of what I’m trying to say here.