an interesting ny times articles about a stanford professor, ben barres, who came and talked to our neuroscience ethics class. it was a small discussion session, a very frank discussion about his personal history including his childhood with a very feminine twin sister, a complex upbringing with personal conflict, and ultimately a sex change from being born a woman, to a man. here's a clip of his interview in the ny times:

"[Barres:] It is very much harder for women to be successful [in science], to get jobs, to get grants, especially big grants... Right now, what’s fundamentally missing and absolutely vital is that women get better child care support. This is such an obvious no-brainer. If you just do this with a small amount of resources, you could explode the number of women scientists.

Q. Why isn’t there more support for scientists who have children?

A. The male leadership is not doing it, but women are not demanding it. I think if women would just start demanding fairness, they might get it. But they might buy in a little bit to all this brainwashing. They are less self-confident. And when women speak out, men just see them as asking for undeserved benefits."

allegedly, the word around campus at stanford was that ben barres was actually, ironically, a misogynist. this statement really bothered me - when tenured professorship tracts are so hard to come by, who's going to hire someone who demands additional support for child care? it would never happen. i know people are paying attention because barres has experienced "both" genders, yet i don't think it's fair.

one part of his interview i liked: he actually spoke about this during our class discussion. he said he notices that he's less interrupted more at conferences. and another professor at stanford, who also had a sex change but from a man to a woman, says that after her sex change, she's interrupted more at conferences and feels like her work is taken less seriously. i was so shocked by this observation.

"Q. You write that as a man, you can complete a sentence without being interrupted. Are you treated differently in other ways?

A. It’s when people don’t know that I was a woman that I can really see the difference. Even in just stupid things. You go into a department store and people are more likely to wait on you."

barres does do good science though. his thrombospondin work in glia is going to be huge, me thinks.

article here