Comments on: What are these little HEARTS doing on my GRAPHS?

By: sumac

sumac — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 19:48:30 +0000

Hunt has worked well with female scientists in the lab in the past. (See my remarks about Ehrenfeld and Kosower above.) Maybe he was making the best of a situation he considered sub-optimal.

That doesn’t mean he hasn’t discouraged other female scientists, which would be more likely when he ran his own lab.

I don’t know what his duties were in his honorary post at UCL, if any. I can see why they didn’t want to hold up as an example someone who thinks it’s better if “girls” work in separate labs.

I don’t know what his duties were on the other committees he got kicked off of, whether he had influence over the careers of female scientists.

So thought they acted in haste, it’s hard for me to judge those who “exiled” him.

By: Wendy M. Grossman

Wendy M. Grossman — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 10:17:31 +0000

On the other hand, there’s this entered into evidence, in which Michael Eisen recounts sitting next to Hunt at a recent event at which female scientists outlined the sexism barriers they’ve had to navigate: http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=1728

By: Wendy M. Grossman

Wendy M. Grossman — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 11:58:14 +0000

Without knowing the interview context, I’m not sure I understand why asking her how much debt she carried was wrong, or even necessarily sexist: we read a lot of stories about the debt burden on the younger generation, for example.

I note that Tim Hunt was forced to resign (his words to the Guardian – http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/13/tim-hunt-forced-to-resign) from his (honorary) UCL post, and while his remarks were sexist and stupid I don’t think I see the proportionate justice of that – again, without knowing the context it’s hard to judge (did the university want to get rid of him before this? did anyone investigate how women were actually treated in his lab?). I note that his wife, also a UCL prof and a distinguished scientist, didn’t support that (according to the Guardian). I’m disturbed the whole public-shaming-rush-to-judgment-with-real-consequences thing. Should Hunt’s *comments* be ridiculed? Certainly. Should he be exiled? That depends: if, as the three women scientists defending him in the Guardian said, he mentored both male and female scientists, then I’d say arguably no.

By: sumac

sumac — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 20:51:53 +0000

In reply to tanita. I love that SO MUCH.

By: tanita

tanita — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 20:09:32 +0000

In reply to tanita. HAHAHA! Check out this distractingly sexy stuff at the BBC.

By: tanita

tanita — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 19:49:15 +0000

I’m just so… confused about this. And yet: I sat in on an interview with a woman where a man (emeritus) asked her how much debt she carried. He was told by the other interviewers that the question was off-limits and we all gave him shocked/filthy looks — but it was a little wake-up call about the things we all carry inside of our heads that are influenced by our privilege, age, gender, etc. — so I guess I’m fair disgusted by this man’s remarks – but resigned. This is a underground river through our entire culture, alas. At least he’s been outed.