このページはフレーム対応ブラウザ用に作成されています。下のリンクは非フレーム使用ページですのでそちらをご覧ください。
この記事をプリントする
物理学専攻の女性たち
ある日、教授から電子メールを通じて昼食会の誘いを受けた雅子さん。物理学を専攻する女性たちが集まり、お昼を食べながら、女性ならではの関心事について話し合う会です。雅子さんも物理学に携わる女性として、あれこれと思いをめぐらせています。
Women in Physics
By MASAKO YAMADA
One day all the women in the physics department (grad students, postdocs and professors) received an enthusiastic e-mail invitation from one of the professors, Rama Bansil, to come to a "BU Women in Physics lunch." Rama held a similar lunch last year too. She has organized various other women's meetings as well, and they have been well-attended and successful.
Research positions are particularly scarce now. Women are a definite minority in the physics world, and we haven't established ourselves in the human network of physicists. So it's understandable that we are particularly concerned about our employment prospects.
Actually the entire lunch cost well under one hundred dollars, so I knew the amount wasn't the problem. It was simply that the unfair treatment of women is hard to recognize, while our unfair distribution of the money was open and obvious.
And as my male classmates rightly said, the ugly, the obese, and the unsociable suffer just as much discrimination as women do, and yet they, as a group, don't receive the same kind of free lunch that we did.
If there were an objective way to measure ugliness, obesity, or unsociability, then perhaps it could be proven that the ugly, obese, or unsociable receive unfair treatment. Then if enough voices were raised for their cause, there might be an annual free lunch for them too. But for now, I think I'll enjoy my free pizza and ponder my own case as a woman in physics.
One day all the women in the physics department (grad students, postdocs and professors) received an enthusiastic e-mail invitation from one of the professors, Rama Bansil, to come to a "BU Women in Physics lunch." Rama held a similar lunch last year too. She has organized various other women's meetings as well, and they have been well-attended and successful.
The food at this year's lunch was not fancy. It consisted of pizza and soda spread out on the desks of one of the classrooms. The discussion at the meeting was also very informal. There were about 20 of us, and we basically used a "round table" format to talk about whatever interested us. There was no particular agenda, and nobody led the discussion. The conversation was allowed to wander into the areas we women found most interesting.
Although last year's discussion centered on the issues of balancing the demands of family life and a competitive physics career, this year finding a job ― period ― seemed to be the most pressing concern. Of course, job hunting is not a particularly gender-specific issue, but women do have special challenges in the working world.
My friend Teiko recently told me that each of the research groups in the chemistry department at her school in Japan have definite caps on the numbers of female students they take. That kind of overt quota would be criticized in an American institution, but even "fair" selection processes can be influenced by subtle, subjective, subliminal factors.
Research positions are particularly scarce now. Women are a definite minority in the physics world, and we haven't established ourselves in the human network of physicists. So it's understandable that we are particularly concerned about our employment prospects.
The BU Physics Department provided the money to buy our pizzas. When I mentioned to my male classmates that we'd just gotten a free lunch, some of them actually got mad. They acknowledged that women in physics "have it hard" compared to men, and they didn't object to us forming our own support group. But they thought it was unfair for the department's common money to be spent for a women-only event.
Actually the entire lunch cost well under one hundred dollars, so I knew the amount wasn't the problem. It was simply that the unfair treatment of women is hard to recognize, while our unfair distribution of the money was open and obvious.
And as my male classmates rightly said, the ugly, the obese, and the unsociable suffer just as much discrimination as women do, and yet they, as a group, don't receive the same kind of free lunch that we did.
There are no black and white answers about who deserves special treatment. The answer depends on who you ask. Popularly accepted answers also change with time. In our mothers' generation, women were excluded from Ivy League colleges. Then a "cutting-edge" affirmative action program in the 1960s forced "exam schools" in Boston to accept one third minority students, but now this law has just been revoked. The times keep changing.
If there were an objective way to measure ugliness, obesity, or unsociability, then perhaps it could be proven that the ugly, obese, or unsociable receive unfair treatment. Then if enough voices were raised for their cause, there might be an annual free lunch for them too. But for now, I think I'll enjoy my free pizza and ponder my own case as a woman in physics.
Shukan ST: Dec. 20, 1996
(C) All rights reserved
- physics department
- 物理学部
- grad students
- 大学院生
- postdocs(=postdoctoral interns)
- 博士課程修了の研究者
- enthusiastic
- 熱心な
- similar
- 同様の
- has organized
- (催しを)計画してきた
- have been well-attended
- 出席率が良い
- fancy
- 趣向を凝らした
- consisted of 〜
- 〜 から成っていた
- spread out 〜
- 〜 に広げた
- informal
- 形式ばらない
- "round table" format
- 円卓会議の形式
- whatever interested us
- 私たちの興味をそそるものなら何でも
- There was no particular agenda
- 特に議題はなかった
- nobody led the discussion
- 議論を先導する人もいなかった
- The conversation was allowed to wander into the areas we women found most interesting.
- 我々女性が最も関心のある話題であれこれ会話がはずんだ
- centered on 〜
- 〜 が中心だった
- issues
- 問題
- balancing the demands of family life and a competitive physics career
- 家族を持ちたい気持ちと、物理の分野で競えるキャリアを築きたいという気持ちの釣り合い
- period
- それだけ
- pressing concern
- 差し迫った関心事
- job hunting
- 仕事探し
- gender-specific
- 女性独特の
- research groups
- 調査グループ
- chemistry
- 化学の
- have definite caps on 〜
- 〜 に制限枠がある
- overt quota
- あからさまな定数指定
- institution
- 組織
- "fair" selection processes
- 「公正な」選抜過程
- subtle
- 微妙な
- subjective
- 主観的な
- subliminal
- サブリミナルの(潜在意識的な)
- factors
- 要因
- (are)scarce
- ほとんどない
- definite minority
- 明らかな少数派
- human network of physicists
- 物理学者同士のネットワーク
- (are)concerned about 〜
- 〜 を心配している
- employment prospects
- 就職の見込み
- mentioned to 〜 that 〜
- 〜 ということを 〜 に話した
- got mad
- 怒った
- acknowledged that 〜
- 〜 はよくわかっていた
- "have it hard"
- 「苦労している」
- didn't object to 〜
- 〜 に反対なのではなかった
- department's common money
- 部の公的資金
- entire lunch cost well under 〜
- 全員のお昼代を合わせても 〜 に満たなかった
- amount
- 金額
- unfair treatment
- 不公平な扱い
- recognize
- 認知する
- distribution of the money
- お金の使用
- obvious
- 明白な
- rightly said
- うまく表現した
- the ugly
- 器量が悪い人
- the obese
- 肥満の人
- the unsociable
- 無愛想な人
- discrimination
- 差別
- There are no black and white answers about 〜
- 〜 に白黒のはっきりした答えはない
- deserves 〜
- 〜 に値する
- Popularly accepted answers
- 一般的に受け入れられる答え
- change with time
- 時とともに変わる
- were excluded from 〜
- 〜 から除外された
- Ivy League colleges
- 米国北東部の名門8大学
- "cutting-edge" 「先駆的な」
- affirmative action program
- 積極行動計画(差別されてきた少数民族や女性の雇用・高等教育などを積極的に推進するもの)
- forced 〜 to 〜
- 〜 に 〜 を強いた
- "exam schools"
- 学校(当時の公立学校だが、学生は入学試験にパスした人のみ)
- has just been revoked
- もう廃止されている
- objective
- 客観的な
- measure
- 測る
- ugliness
- 醜さ
- obesity
- 肥満
- unsociability
- 非社交性
- could be proven
- 証明できる
- if enough voices were raised for their cause
- それぞれの立場について多くの声があがれば
- ponder
- 思いをめぐらす