I noticed some of these trends anecdotally early in grad school in my own dept's seminars, so I made tallies in my notes for two years. I found that "questions" to women speakers were statistically significantly more likely to be phrased as statements rather than actual questions. - ThreadSky

celestelabedz.bsky.social • 61 days ago

I noticed some of these trends anecdotally early in grad school in my own dept's seminars, so I made tallies in my notes for two years. I found that "questions" to women speakers were statistically significantly more likely to be phrased as statements rather than actual questions.

Reposted from Nora Becker

“Women are asked more questions during a seminar and the questions asked of women presenters are more likely to be patronizing or hostile. These effects are not due to women presenting in different fields, different seminar series, or different topics…”

www.nber.org/papers/w28494

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jay-lynn-farrow.bsky.social•61 days ago

Thank you for collecting that data - interesting. Did you notice any other pattern that jumped out?

celestelabedz.bsky.social•61 days ago

For questions in the middle the seminar (not the end), I also tallied whether the asker was acknowledged in some way by the speaker before asking. Interestingly, women speakers had on average fewer unacknowledged (interrupted) questions, but that's trickier because it involves actions on both sides.

celestelabedz.bsky.social•61 days ago

I was originally planning to get more than two years of data and hand some stats over to the faculty when I left, but I stopped my tallying when we switched to zoominars in 2020. The vibes of the remote seminars (and how people ask questions in them) were just completely different.

eubiedrew.bsky.social•61 days ago

Perhaps this is an unfair dis on Economics, but there seems to be a lot bromanship in Econ, perhaps because so much is not certain, and assertiveness has a greater social payoff than some other research fields.

brooklynkid53bskys.bsky.social•61 days ago

I didn't notice this
But 2 PIs at my School, liberal Jewish AECOM:
Ora Rosen, who supposedly graduated 1st in her class at Columbia P&S & couldn't get a job

Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch who by all rights should have had tenure at Columbia

Almost no AfAms, except for the cleaning crew

hoaks.bsky.social•61 days ago

Did you happen to note who was asking those "more of a comment" questions? Anecdotally it's usually men who I've seen do this, which I've always kind of chalked up to chauvanism

rhacodactylus.bsky.social•61 days ago

i noticed a similar thing when i was in grad school. likewise, fewer faculty showed up to women's presentations than for men's presentations. for student presentations, this included many instances of faculty who weren't showing up to their own students presentations to the department. it got so bad

rhacodactylus.bsky.social•61 days ago

that on multiple occasions when we'd have department brown bags about department culture i spoke up about how several faculty are setting a shitty example to the students about what professional behavior is. it was quite maddening to watch over the course of my time there

rhacodactylus.bsky.social•61 days ago

i saw one faculty member on two occasions checking his fantasy football lineup throughout student presentations, on two rare occasions when he would bother to show up

bad department culture is such a fucking turnoff, and it often manifests in recapitulating societal prejudices, especially sexism

ratjohnny.bsky.social•61 days ago

Actually it's more of a comment than a question...

celestelabedz.bsky.social•61 days ago

Fundamentally yeah

madammimm.bsky.social•61 days ago

If a man asks another man about a part, they exchange info and go. If a man asks me about a part, I have to be ready with paperwork, photos, and case study evidence. It doesn't matter I've 30 years in my chosen profession. It doesn't matter I have a degree, or National Certification.

darylsng.com•61 days ago

Was there enough data to distinguish any differences when women were asking the questions vs when men did so?

celestelabedz.bsky.social•61 days ago

I took track of that, but it's not necessarily useful data at the scale of one seminar series in one department since individual faculty personalities vary so much. The study quoted in the original post might have looked at that with a sample size big enough to be useful, though!

ericlars2.bsky.social•61 days ago

My mom was a prof and her best friends were profs. The stories they told of exactly this were disturbing AF. They could all effectively handle misogynistic behavior, but they shouldn't of had to. It's rampant and blatantly obvious to me.

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