‘Go and fix your make-up, we’re working': Women scientists face staggering sexism, survey finds

More than half of female science students and a large majority of female academic staff have been made to feel uncomfortable because they are women, a survey released this week found.

After Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tim Cook was quoted as saying that “girls” in the lab were “trouble” because they distracted the male scientists, United Kingdom’s Bristol University conducted a survey to find out how often women at the school faced those type of comments.

Over half of female students in the science, technology, engineering and maths departments said that they had been made to feel uncomfortable because they were women. And 46 percent had personally experienced sexist remarks.

Among the academic staff, sexism was even more rampant. Eighty percent said that they had felt uncomfortable because of their gender, and 64 percent had faced sexist comments.

Survey respondents reported a range of sexist remarks. One recalled being told that her answer to a questions was “women’s logic.”

A male tutor told another that he had “all the blonde ladies to myself this morning” because his study group was made up of mostly women.

One female student said she was told to “go and fix your make-up, we’re working.”

Following Tim Hunt’s remarks, female scientists mocked him on Twitter by sharing photos of themselves with the hashtag “#distractinglysexy.” Hunt later blamed Internet critics for branding him a “sexist jerk” after he was forced to resign from his post at University College London.

Source: DAVID EDWARDS