I’ve followed with interest the discussion on Amanda‘s astropixie blog following her post “Where did the women go?”. She wrote the post after attending a Women in Astronomy workshop in Sydney and summarises the problem (–> women underrepresented in astronomy) and her thoughts. She also gives a list of action point for individuals and for institutes, which are useful to remind ourselves of.

I wanted to post some comments of my own, and after Blogger ate my carefully thought out words, I thought I’d write something here instead. In brief, I find myself siding more and more with the comments made by Rita Tojeiro on Amanda’s post. I find the many discussions of “women in astronomy” issues polarising and not very constructive. While it’s important to raise awareness about unconscious bias, which I do believe exists,  creating an “us vs. them” atmosphere only makes the problem worse.

Personally I want to stand out from all my peers, including those of the XY conviction. As Rita says, we don’t give awards to the best black astronomer, or the best muslim astronomer. Imagine! I don’t want to be a great female astronomer, or a great female science blogger for that matter.

We need to talk openly about the reasons that many scientists, male or female, don’t stick with a career in science, with everyone involved.”Women in science” meetings, to which often men aren’t (made to feel) welcome, tend to revolve around work-life balance issues, such as childcare and dual careers. These issues affect men too. Stronger even: in many cases, the men are the women scientists’ partners! They are the work-life balance, the problematic second body.

I won’t go on too much, as I’ve said it all before, and it’s all been repeated in Amanda’s comments section. I’d like to stress that I do think there are unconscious bias effects at work, and some of the reasons why people leave science affect women more than men. I don’t debate those things. But I think the way we discuss them, the way we try to address them, is not always the best.

And hey, it’s not all bad being a woman in astronomy. Here’s why:

• No queues in the ladies’ loos at conferences. Where else can you get 2000 people together and only have lines at the men’s bathrooms? Makes me smile every time.
• It’s far easier to make an impression: you are the albino chimp at the zoo! Who do you the important people will remember in a week – the 50 regular chimps or the one weird albino?

I don’t mean to belittle the issue – but you have to let yourself laugh about it too. Got any others?