I was just checking out the newest addition to our link list, Escape From Corporate America, and picked up a reference to a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal about a FTM transsexual neurobiology professor at Stanford, and his experiences as a woman scientist prior to his transition to male.
S/he mentions a few incidents where s/he experienced blatant discrimination as a woman scientist, but there’s also an interesting discussion of the “intrinsic” versus socialized differences between men and women. Here’s my favourite bit, which closes the article:
Women doubt their abilities more than men do, say scientists who have mentored scores of each. “Almost without exception, the talented women I have known have believed they had less ability than they actually had,” Prof. Petsko wrote. “And almost without exception, the talented men I have known believed they had more.”Which may account for what Prof. Barres calls the main difference he has noticed since changing sex. “People who do not know I am transgendered treat me with much more respect,” he says. “I can even complete a whole sentence without being interrupted by a man.”
This question of belief in one’s abilities is one that has in many ways guided the development of our book project. At several points, we had to stop and ask ourselves why we were writing this book specifically for women, and one of the things we kept coming back to is that women seem to need reassurance that they in fact know what they’re doing. So one of our hopes with the book is that it will provide some affirmation for all the brilliant and talented female entrepreneurs (and would-be entrepreneurs) out there.
On the other hand, though, we didn’t want to fall into the self-help trap of just making people feel better about themselves — so don’t get me wrong, we did NOT write a book of platitudes. But we do address the conundrum of being assertive and confident while remaining humbler and true to yourself. I think this is a real challenge for many women business owners, as we try to carve out our own way of doing things without mimicking some of the less attractive qualities of the stereotypical male entrepreneur (i.e. the kind of guy who wouldn’t let Prof. Barres finish a sentence).
I encourage you to read the entire article, because there are several gems in there — like how to poke holes in those “scientific” theories about how women and men are inherently different. (There’s little I hate more than windbag evolutionary biologists.)
