Re: Bioimaging in Genoa - Open access - Great Talks, No women ?

Posted by Jeremy Adler-4 on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Re-Bioimaging-in-Genoa-Open-access-Great-Talks-No-women-tp7584302p7584337.html

Alby, one of our great and good decision makers, has been gently teased about nearly managing to hold a major conference without any women speakers.
In his defence Dr. Ammasi Periasami writes that Alby is a fundamentally decent chap and therefore "it's not a big deal".

A conference with 96% male speakers might be a statistical anomaly, though I am not aware of any similar meetings where a sole male speaker was the novelty.  Being generous we might argue that Genoa is at the very extreme edge of a distribution where the average proportion of male speakers in the 75-85% range, maybe in part because few women become part of the great and good.
But this only shifts the question, why does the number of women at the top of the pyramid does not reflect their presence at graduate and postdoc level ?

I suspect that there is a persistent low level bias in favour of men – who disproportionately win 50:50 decisions and frequently triumph as the weaker choice in 60:40 decisions. Careers are built on these decisions:  jobs, grants, fellowships, prizes, publications, collaborations, conference invitations. And while no single decision is fatal the cumulative effect appears at Genoa and other meetings – a near absence of scientists who are women, or even  their complete absence,  see the recent posting for the Scottish Microscopy Group 2015 Symposium list of named speakers.

The solution is not quotas, which are patronizing and become a stick for beating the surviving women, but instead to demand fair and honest decision making, a process that would be expected to produce a much more consistent sex ratio at all levels.

The clever part of Dr. Ammasi Periasami’s  the post is to make Alby into the victim. Sure Alby has been teased and with the help of friends will recover – sufficiently at least to just circulate one of his 15 year old papers. The real victims are science:  talks not given, ideas not tested and the missing women.  

The remedy is in the hands of the decent chaps who make decisions and in rejecting the "it's not a big deal" mantra.  Sex discrimination is a very big deal, at least for science and for the missing women, but, in a zero sum game, there are winners.

-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Periasamy, Ammasi (ap3t)
Sent: den 9 oktober 2015 16:33
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Bioimaging in Genoa - Open access - Great Talks, No women ?

Dear All
In support of Alby......
Alby has been promoting advanced microscopy and advanced optical technology for long time. He is also  involved in the Biophysical Society and SPIE, multiphoton microscopy conferences. He is a very enthusiastic person and I attended few of his meetings at Genoa and I was unable to attend few of them due to my other commitments. This goes for everyone (male or female sicentists) due to other commitments we may not able to attend.
Alby never has the mind or intention to discriminate any gender or any basis. sometimes it happens when you put together a program, it's not a big deal considering his Alby's outstanding performance in this area. I think it is a tricky question to raise when a person is enthusiastically organizing and promoting the microcopy techniques.
Have a great day.
Ammasi

Dr. Ammasi Periasamy
Professor & Center Director
http://www.kcci.virginia.edu/people/profile/ap3t
Phone: [phone] or 982-4869
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [hidden email]
Office Location
W.M. Keck Center for Cellular Imaging
Physical and Life Sciences Building, (B 005) At the intersection of Geldard dr and White head Rd., Mailing or Shipping Address:
W.M. Keck Center for Cellular Imaging (PLSB 005) University of Virginia Biology, Gilmer Hall, 409 McCormick Rd.
Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
FRET/FLIM Workshop-March 7-11, 2016: http://www.kcci.virginia.edu/workshop 




-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Barbara Foster
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2015 3:53 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Bioimaging in Genoa - Open access - Great Talks, No women ?

*****
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Dear Listers,

On one hand, I am glad to hear that this group is so aware.  On the other, I find it discouraging in this day and age to think that we actually have to "balance out" our programs just to make sure that each segment of the population is proportionately represented.  Several years ago, I received a call from an NIH Study Chair, asking if I knew of any scientists of a specific race so that they could have "proportional representation" in the grant process.  I found the question insulting.  All along, I was operating under what seems to be a
misconception:  wasn't the whole NIH granting process (and that of other government
institutions) supposed to be
color/gender/nationality neutral?  I realized that, in my world view, people either did good science or didn't.  Either they were open and sharing with their science or they weren't.  It never occurred to me to consider anything else.  When I was one of two women in an undergraduate physics class of 80, it never dawned on me to do anything but participate.  More recently, when I was one of two women out of 52 attendees of a major conference given in a country in which women are not seen quite as equally, I stood proudly at the podium and delivered my paper.  Later, the translator for a major industrialist approached me and said, "Mr. X could not understand why you were there, until he heard you speak.  Then he knew that he must do business with you."

Have I faced discrimination as a woman?  Yes, but when that has happened, I did my best to find a different job, a different location or a different approach.  Case in point:  When I was on the road as  a tech apps specialist for a major microscope company,  an older gentleman of another culture opened the door of his lab to find me standing there and pronounced, with some surprise, "You!  You are the tech apps specialist?  But you are a woman!"  My response was, "Yes, but I can still handle a screw-driver.  Now, where is your microscope?" We got on quite nicely after that.

I applaud Alby's response.   And as for
under-representation... if there are INDIVIDUALS out there... whether they be pink, purple, or polka-dot; male or female.. who are doing good science but not getting enough recognition, then it's OUR responsibility, as their colleagues, to step up and recommend them for activities so that they can share in opportunities like publishing or giving papers/posters, etc.  Microscopy is global.  I would hope that our world-views would be, too.

That's my two cents

Barbara Foster, President & Chief Consultant Microscopy/Microscopy Education  ... "Education, not Training"
7101 Royal Glen Trail, Suite A  - McKinney, TX 75070 - P: 972-924-5310 www.MicroscopyEducation.com





At 02:37 AM 10/8/2015, Alberto Diaspro wrote:

>*****
>To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
>Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
>*****
>
>Dear
>Thank you for your observations. Please, let me tell you that: 1)
>Eirini is a woman; 2) I personally invited women that, for different
>reasons, declined; 3) I invited women - as I use to do - not because
>they are women - simply because they do excellent research in AND
>(logical) with the fact that I know the research they do; 4) I did not
>reply because i was on travelling with limited Internet access.
>I am Sorry for the xtremely low percentage, hopefully you will like Science.
>
>Alby iPad
>
> > Il giorno 08 ott 2015, alle ore 14:41, Julia
> Edgar <[hidden email]> ha scritto:
> >
> > Yes, much appreciated, Jeremy.
> > Thank you
> > Julia
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Confocal Microscopy List
> [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Sylvie Le
> Guyader
> > Sent: 08 October 2015 13:34
> > To: [hidden email]
> > Subject: Re: Bioimaging in Genoa - Open access - Great Talks, No women ?
> >
> > There is no 'Like' button on the confocal
> server and no way to insert an image in a mail but everyone knows what
> they look like anyway so I give Jeremy a huge ‘Like’.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thank you for your efforts, Jeremy! The
> Swedish part of me really appreciates and the French part of me loves
> it! :)
> >
> >
> >
> > Med vänlig hälsning / Best regards
> >
> >
> >
> > Sylvie
> >
> >
> >
> > @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
> >
> > Sylvie Le Guyader, PhD
> >
> > Live Cell Imaging Unit Manager
> >
> > Karolinska Institutet- Bionut Dpt
> >
> > Hälsovägen 7,
> >
> > Novum, G lift, floor 6
> >
> > 14157 Huddinge
> >
> > Sweden
> >
> > mobile: [phone]
> >
> > office: [phone]
> >
> > LCI website
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Confocal Microscopy List
> [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Jeremy Adler
> > Sent: den 8 oktober 2015 11:20
> > To:
> [hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]
> DU>
> > Subject: Re: Bioimaging in Genoa - Open access - Great Talks, No women ?
> >
> >
> >
> > Last week I posed a simple question about a
> conference that was being promoted using this list.
> >
> >
> >
> > 'Alberto, in case my reading of unfamiliar
> names is incorrect,  could you give us the fraction of the speakers
> that are male.'
> >
> >
> >
> > There has been no response - the question
> seems to come down to whether men make up  100% or just 96% of the
> speakers. Implicit  in the question is how is this possible.
> >
> >
> >
> > The massive under representation women as
> speakers is not trivial, being invited to speak has considerable
> career advantages, its looks good on a CV, it provides good networking
> opportunities beyond those available to conference participants, in
> addition speakers costs are often met and the unstated deal is that
> the organizers then expect/hope that the chosen speakers will
> reciprocate and invite them to their conferences - a loop that further
> works to exclude women. That speakers often become decision makers on
> grant applications and publications makes this cosy arrangement even
> more pernicious.
> >
> >
> >
> > So Alberto please answer a very simple but important  question.
> >
> >