Transgendered Professor Stirs Debate Over Women in Science

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: jdp <jdp () math ucr edu>
Date: July 15, 2006 1:36:29 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] WSJ on the spike in stock options just aftr 9/11
Reply-To: jdp () math ucr edu

Dave,

For IP if your wish ... the effects of gender in science from one
who has been in BOTH camps.

John

..........................................................
If anyone should know about the different experiences of men and  
women in
science, it should be someone who's been both.  I was especially  
impressed
by the "Ben's work is so much better than his sister's" comment.


Transgendered Professor Stirs Debate Over Women in Science
07.12.06, 12:00 AM ET

WEDNESDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- When former Harvard University
President Larry Summers voiced the opinion last year that women might be
intellectually inferior to men when it comes to math and science, he  
touched
off a nationwide firestorm of controversy.

Now, Stanford University professor of neurobiology Dr. Ben Barres is  
wading
into the fray with an essay in this week's Nature, contending that  
women are
just as scientifically inclined as men -- if given a level playing  
field and
the chance to shine.

He should know: Ten years ago, as Barbara Barres, this M.D. and Ph.D.  
made
the decision to undergo hormone therapy and begin living as a man.

In his provocative essay, Does Gender Matter?, Ben Barres contends  
that it
does -- that the attitude of others in the sciences changed toward  
him soon
after he made the switch.

"The main difference that I have noticed is that people who don't  
know that
I am transgendered treat me with much more respect," he writes. "I  
can even
complete a whole sentence without being interrupted by a man."

That fundamental lack of respect for women is what Barres, 51, believes
drives the relatively low representation of females in the world of
science -- not any innate genetic inability.

For many girls, these stereotypes and stigmas may keep them from  
pursuing a
career they might love and excel in, according to Barres. "From an early
age, girls receive the messages that they are not good enough to do  
science
subjects or will be less liked if they are good at it," he writes. "The
messages come from many sources, including parents, friends, fellow  
students
and, alas, teachers."

As a young girl, and then as a young female college student and  
academic,
Barres said he felt the sting of discrimination first hand. While an
undergrad at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the female  
Barres
was the only person in a class full of men to solve a particularly tough
math problem. The professor remarked that Barbara's "boyfriend must have
solved it for [her]." And as a grad student at Harvard, Barbara  
Barres was
passed over for a prestigious fellowship in favor of a male applicant  
who
had published just one-sixth as many scientific papers as she had.

Finally, Barres remembers that, "Shortly after I changed sex, a faculty
member was heard to say, 'Ben Barres gave such a great seminar today,  
but
then his work is much better than his sister's.' "

The essay resonated with Marianne LaFrance, a Yale professor of  
psychology
and women's gender and sexuality studies. Her work has long focused  
on how
being born male or female affects careers.

"The thing that's so terrific about this essay is precisely that he's a
transgendered person," she said. LaFrance pointed out that Barbara  
and Ben
Barres are exactly the same person -- in terms of their talent,  
creativity
and intellect -- and yet Ben gets much more immediate respect from  
his peers
than Barbara ever could.

"It raises lots of questions about just where is gender? It seems to  
be much
more in the mind of the perceiver than it is in the person who's being
perceived," LaFrance said.

But Larry Summers, too, quickly found allies within academia after his
speech in January 2005. A Harvard colleague, Professor Harvey Mansfield,
published a book titled Manliness, in which he contended that women
naturally shy away from competition and are risk-averse and overly
emotional, compared to men. And British molecular biologist Peter  
Lawrence
also penned a widely read essay in which he claimed that, even in a  
perfect
world, women's innate deficiencies in scientific aptitude would leave  
them
trailing men.

But Barres, who is also professor of developmental biology, neurology  
and
neurological sciences at Stanford, cited the data on the issue. He noted
that a study of math tests taken by nearly 20,000 American children  
aged 4
to 18 showed nearly identical scores by gender.

"And despite all the social forces that hold women back from an early  
age,
still one-third of the winners of the elite Putnam Math Competition last
year were women," Barres said.

LaFrance agreed. "Most of the evidence that we have suggests very  
strongly
that the differences between men and women in most things are pretty  
small,
and if you provide men and women with the same educational  
opportunities, lo
and behold, those differences all but disappear," she said.

She pointed out that these disparities have continued to shrink as  
society
slowly becomes more open to the idea of female excellence in the  
sciences.

"Now, if we're seeing real changes like that, that suggests that [the
differences] are not genetic, because we know that genetic changes don't
occur in just a matter of decades," LaFrance said.

"It also suggests," LaFrance added, "that if you provide the  
opportunities
and the support structure and various other kinds of arrangements that
prohibit discrimination, then you're going to get good scientists who  
are
men -- and good scientists who are women."

More information

To learn more, visit the Association for Women in Science.Archives at:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/



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