Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Would it have made a difference if they told me ...

I was told the other day by a friend that the whole idea that I, and all other international students and women in the department, that it would have been okay if the department had told us beforehand that this was what would happen. I don't think it would have been okay

If they would have told me that in their eyes that my Masters Degree, my two undergrad degrees and graduating from two honors programs along with all my previous teaching experience was going to mean that I'm not as qualified as a 3rd year student that they have known for 2 years and has much less physics training then myself, I would have never thought about coming to Australia. If they would have told me that in their eyes they were never going to count the teaching experience that I have had at the University of Newcastle and still only see me as "experienced" as a 3rd or 4th year student, I wouldn't have bothered even packing for Australia. If they would have told me that they would use excuses of people having trouble with accents I wouldn't have bothered. This is not okay even if they would have told me about it before, either before I came or before last semester.

This means that they are deciding even before a single international student arrives, when they don't ask any of the women coming up through the department to teach and only the guys, that their resumes are not going to be as complete as the male students who completed their undergraduate education here. It means that they are already making it harder for us to find jobs and professorship positions, let alone limiting our chance at a better income in the immediate future.

How can people only think this is a question of them not being honest about my chances of finding work, it goes much deeper then that. The other term people have put to this is that it's politics. This is not politics, this is racism, and sexism. This is a good old boys club and the reason it is so hard for minorities to break into groups such as this.

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