women in science, am i being unreasonable?

[jessmando]

I have received an email today asking for recommendations for early career women working in science who they can profile for the university website to celebrate women in science.
However this got my back up as they had decided in order to be "interesting and inspiring" they needed to have an interesting back story, eg, run a vlog, do sports, music etc...
Would they ask this for a profile of a male colleague? (approximate age range 24-34)
Am i being unreasonable to think that this is extremely patronising and if they want to celebrate women in science they should actually write about the science that they do and that maybe just maybe there may be females out there who have done some really interesting research?

Yanbu, surely the interesting bit is the science they do?
Do you follow man who has it all on Twitter? Give them a heads up, I'm sure they could do a parody

twitter.com/manwhohasitall?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

YANBU - I fucking hate seeing "profiles" that treat women in STEM as fucking dancing bears - "oh look darling, this unnatural actually has a life too, how nice for her."

Just talk about the awesome science!

Thanks, I hadn't seen that twitter before!
I will try to formulate a polite response suggesting that it would be good to focus on the excellent science carried out by their female colleagues.

Not only does this little lady run a successful vlog she also does some science-y things too!

Depends on the audience - our organisation would actually ask for similar on the men

What does get my back up is that I always see “ has two children. She says “ is great because of the work life balance and flexibility so I can balance being a mother / work around the school run / enjoy family life as well as a career...”

Whereas for men, no mention of fatherhood, flexible working etc. Might mention if they have run a marathon or are in a band, but not their family arrangements

jessmando Promise you'll post updates when you hear back from them.

Really patronising! I kind of want to know which university now....

Spot on.

Pitch it as trivialising and bad for the university brand/the kind of thing that would attract negative backlash etc.

It'd be even nicer if they could celebrate women in science by just quoting all the other articles they wrote in the last year which featured women's expertise alongside their male colleagues.

Also, early career women - nice, but wouldn't it be MORE inspiring to see established women too? Or does the university edge them out once they get older & stroppy, do awkward things like demanding better lab space/having babies etc?

If I see a uni or a company going OMG LOOKIT OUR NEW HIRES AREN'T THEY SO CUUUUUTE RAH YOU GO GIRLS! - the first thing I think is "you've only just allowed women to join?"

Who seriously gives a shit about vlogs and other hobbies?

How bloody belittling. Reminds me of Blair’s Babes. Which was par for the course for the Daily Mail, but we should be able to expect more from a university three decades later.

Can lady brains even science?

Surely not

Vlog makes it sound like they are looking for someone young, not somebody with decades of research behind them.

I have no idea if Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has a vlog, a blog or, indeed, a dog.

Would they ask this for a profile of a male colleague?

I imagine they would if they were trying to raise awareness about men in a female dominated field, both are silly but bear in mind who they are (likely not actual scientists) and who they are targeting (prospective students). It seems more to be tone deaf PR nonsense than misogyny.

Can one not just be ace at science but be a relatively unremarkable human in other ways, or do female scientists have to have two specialisms?

What’s that about a woman having to work twice as hard and be twice as good as a man in order to be taken seriously again?