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Is physics sexist against men?

Amber Thomas
At a recent CERN workshop on gender and high energy physics, Professor Alessandro Strumia of Pisa University told the audience "People say that physics is sexist, physics is racist. I made some simple checks and discovered that it wasn't, that it was becoming sexist against men and said so...Oxford University extends exam times for women's benefit...Italy offers free or cheaper university for female (research) students". He also said that he himself was overlooked for a job that he was more qualified for, which was given to a woman.


He produced a series of graphs which, he claimed, showed that women were hired over men whose research was cited more by other scientists in their publications, which he says is an indication of higher quality. He also presented data that he claimed showed that male and female researchers were equally cited at the start of their careers but men scored progressively better as their careers progressed.


He told his audience of young, predominantly female physicists that "physics was invented and built by men, it's not by invitation". He said his results "proved" that "physics is not sexist against women. However the truth does not matter, because it is part of a political battle coming from outside".


What are your thoughts on his views and do they reflect your experiences working in STEM fields? And was he the right choice of speaker for an event such as this?


Read more in: "Cern scientist: 'Physics built by men - not by invitation'" available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45703700
  • 0
    And as the story continues to unfold, more than 3,000 physicists have signed an open letter condemning Strumia's talk.


    "We write here first to state, in the strongest possible terms, that the humanity of any person, regardless of ascribed identities such as race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, disability, gender presentation, or sexual identity is not up for debate... Secondly, we write to strongly express our view that the science case presented by Strumia was fundamentally unsound...Finally, we would also like to underline how grossly unethical it is to misrepresent the topic of one’s talk to workshop organizers to promote an agenda which is antithetical to the workshop itself. To personally attack one of the organizers during said talk is even worse."


    Read the open letter in full (and add your signature) at: https://www.particlesforjustice.org/
  • 0
    I came across this article today. NB. It is a blog, rather than a research paper, but still raises some interesting points about Strumia's interpretation of the data, and how different parameters applied to the data show a different argument to the one put forward by Strumia in his talk. The author, Sabine Hossenfelder (a theoretical physicist and Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies), states:

     
    Strumia begins his talk by stating that “smarter people are less affected by implicit bias,” but this is wrong. Studies have shown repeatedly that intelligence does not protect from thinking biases. Yes, intelligence is useful to overcome certain types of biases (mostly those that can be exposed with mathematical reasoning), but only once people are aware they are biased to begin with. 


    Strumia’s mistaken belief that intelligent people are less affected by cognitive biases does not remotely surprise me. I have encountered this very same attitude (“We are too smart to be biased!”) among almost all high-energy theorists and phenomenologists I have spoken with about the issue. That in itself is a bias, known as the “bias blind spot.”

     



  • 0
    Amber Thomas‍ 

    'I bet more female physicists have had phone calls / emails in the last week to discuss their work with mainstream press than in the rest of the year combined!'

    Thanks to Strumia's 'own goal'...:)
  • 0
    I can't help but feel that perhaps some of his views are influenced by the fact that he didn't get a job he went for, which ultimately went to a woman. I wonder if he would have felt just as slighted if the job had gone to someone male. Would he have started compiling graphs that showed that people with curly hair are given unfair advantages, or people who have green eyes or people who are tall or short or fat or thin or any other difference that he could find between himself and the successful candidate?


    He says his research had more citations, but this could be completely irrelevant - the work he has been cited for could be on a slightly different topic, or he could have self-cited, or he could just have had a bad interview while the other candidate could have just happened to have had a better interview on the day than he did. Nobody is entitled to get the job they want, just because they want it! There are a lot of factors at play, and the job could have gone to the other person for any number of reasons.


    His data is based on the "lead" author of a paper, however, the first named author isn't always the lead on a piece of research and sometimes a paper may include a sentence to say "these authors contributed equally to this work". Sometimes, researchers may just list their initial rather than their name, because they are worried about people having bias against their work when they see it was written by a female (https://peerj.com/preprints/1733.pdf). I myself have worked with a female author who had a male pen-name (yes, even in this century that still happens!)


    However...for all the hundreds of gender-based talks given all over the world, his talk has grabbed more headlines than any other. Has Strumia done more to highlight the role of women in science than if he had got up and said "women are discriminated against in STEM"? Lots of newspapers and magazines are running stories saying "Strumia was wrong and we talk to XXX to see what she is working on". I bet more female physicists have had phone calls / emails in the last week to discuss their work with mainstream press than in the rest of the year combined!


  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    Amber Thomas:

    Is this the one David Houssein‍ ?: https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/p06mms78  ( Antonia Tzemanaki‍, if you want to listen, hurry! It's only available for another 4 days!


    PS. If anyone wants to see the slides from his talk, they can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c_NyUhOZ8erdqU2AGZJZtNfFeA91Kefj/view




    that is great, thank you!

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Yep, that's the one!
  • 0
    Is this the one David Houssein‍ ?: https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/p06mms78  ( Antonia Tzemanaki‍, if you want to listen, hurry! It's only available for another 4 days!


    PS. If anyone wants to see the slides from his talk, they can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c_NyUhOZ8erdqU2AGZJZtNfFeA91Kefj/view
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    David Houssein:



    Men too!


    There was an item on Radio 4 yesterday morning and his soundbites made me cringe. They then had on a woman who destroyed his "evidence" and "logic" and it was glorious.



    any idea where I can listen to that online?


    many thanks,

    Antonia

  • 0
    Totally agree, men too (of course).


    Hurrah for logic...
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    Gemma Dwarampudi:

    Strumia is a misogynist and that needs calling out by all women




    Men too!


    There was an item on Radio 4 yesterday morning and his soundbites made me cringe. They then had on a woman who destroyed his "evidence" and "logic" and it was glorious.

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