From REBECCA WISEMAN
Call me a naive, sweet-almost-sixteen-year-old, but I really did not
expect to come up against the phenomenon of sexism quite so early in my
science career, especially as I go to an all-girls’ school. This is my tale.
In the first chemistry lesson of my A-level course, I was instructed
to purchase a white lab coat. Fine. So I trekked out to the school uniform
shop. Out came the plastic bags with the nice new lab coats in them. I try
one on (a coat not a plastic bag), and what d’you know? It’s a boy’s lab
coat.
How can I tell? The sleeves are too long, the shoulders are too wide,
the hem’s too long, and of course the chest is too tight! The wretched thing’s
not only uncomfortable but a fire hazard – the cuffs dangle tantalisingly
into Bunsen burner flames. This item of protective clothing has been designed
assuming that all 16-year-old scientists are male.
OK, perhaps this is petty, but if I’m having problems because I’m a
woman now, what can I expect in ten years’ time when I’m not being spoon-fed
most of what I need?
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Yours, hoping for an equally lab-coated future.
Rebecca Wiseman Finchley, London
