I just love this news article. When I was trying to climb the so-called corporate ladder, I was met with opposition and indifferences from the pant-wearing/beard/shaving citizens of the Earth, both from the top and lower rungs of the ladder. According to my deceased ma-in-law, my sis-in-law, the Harvard graduate lawyer did not pursue an academic career because of the same experience. Green-eyed but never was legally blonde, she excelled in her practice of law profession.
Excerpt of the news:
Neurobiologist Ben Barres has a unique perspective on former Harvard president Lawrence Summers's assertion that innate differences between the sexes might explain why many fewer women than men reach the highest echelons of science. That's because Barres used to be a woman himself.
According to Barres who used to be Barbara, it is the bias which prevents women from succeeding in science and if I may add business as well.
Just look at the comments that he/she gathered in her own personal experience.
1. "Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but then his work is much better than his sister's.- a comment made by another scientist who did not know the transgender operation Barres had so he's referring to the same person.
2. "Your boyfriend must have solved it for you."--comment made by his/her professor when once solved a difficult math problem.
3. "I had never met a woman surgeon who was as good as a man." --comment by a surgeon he had conversation with.
Besides that he felt that he is more respected now that he is a man than when he was a woman. "I can not even complete a whole sentence without being interrupted".
Another woman shares this opinion of Barres.
Nancy Andreasen, a well-known psychiatrist at the University of Iowa, agreed with Barres. She said it took her a long time to convince her husband that he got more respect when he approached an airline ticket counter than she did. When she stopped sending out research articles under her full name and used the initials N.C. Andreasen instead, she said, the acceptance rate of her publications soared.
