In October of 2018, CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, held a workshop to highlight the gender issues within the scientific field of high-energy physics, as is conducted at CERN.

One of the chosen speakers was an Italian physicist of the University of Pisa by the name of Alessandro Strumia. This speech was given in front of many physicists and prospective scientists in this field, though the majority were reportedly women due to the nature of the workshop being the gender issues faced in the industry.

During his time allotted to him, Strumia made the claim that female scientists don’t experience sexism in the workplace or educationally. He lectured these aspiring women on the “dangers of gender equality”.

Tell me. Do you see anything wrong with a man preaching that women can’t be as good as men in physics to a room full of aspiring female scientists? And then daring to claim that the real victims of discrimination are men?

Because I do.

He claimed not only that physics was invented and built by men, but that brilliant female scientists such as Marie Curie are welcomed after showing “what they can do”. Anyone who has looked into her story will know that despite her discovery of two new elements and winning a Nobel Prize, Curie was still rejected by the French Academy of Sciences in 1911.

The fact that he says that women should only be allowed into science after proving their worth is inherently bigoted and discriminatory in itself by implying that he has full disbelief in the ability of women as a default state.

On top of all this, he used himself as an example of male discrimination, referencing that women with fewer citations than him have been hired for the roles that he personally felt he deserved. In scientific fields, citations are rated in the same way as academic marks, and people will show them off as a form of academic leverage. The more citations you have don’t actually attribute to the quality of your work, just how adamant you are to get as much work out as fast as possible. Philip Cohen, a sociologist and expert on societal inequality at the University of Maryland claims that Strumia’s results are just a “poor use of data” and that “he probably should have consulted a social scientist”. Even if Strumia’s data was correct, there is a lot of research to show that it is more difficult for women to gain citations as they are “harassed out of science” incredibly often.

Women responded with (justifiable) anger towards the situation. Jennifer L. Rohn, a British-American scientist and novelist tweeted “It’s damned difficult to do great science when you’re always navigating the minefield of bias and disregard...when asserting yourself makes you a b***h - even getting a word in without interruption can be a challenge.”

Strumia has currently had his “Invited scientist” status at CERN revoked and the University of Pisa is looking into the situation.

Despite the efforts of him and other sexist men given more power than they deserve, women will continue to push forward for equality and fair treatment in the industry. One day, I hope to be working alongside all of the inspirational women in physics, and that maybe one day it will be a place associated not with hostility but with growth.

Sources:

https://www.livescience.com/63730-physicist-says-women-bad-at-physics.html

https://gizmodo.com/male-physicist-claims-women-are-worse-at-physics-at-cer-1829443227

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45709205

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Strumia#Using_pictures_of_conference_slides