Not that I want to be anything BUT a woman, I am tired that because I am a woman who works in science I have to work harder AND fake approximations of appropriate responses to rididulous statements.
Such as: "Well, I feel (medical) resident's time has become too organized and restrained... "(TOO organized and restrained? You lost me there already Dr Fella (not his real name, or the real name of anyone I know)) " I blame this on women..."(My "Oh, bullshit I am pissed off " face appears on the neutral one I'm trying to hold on to; and since this is a "discussion" in which I am trying to convince a faculty leadership team member that I AM and HAVE been working on his damn project for a whole flipping year while HE keeps gaining and losing patients)...I continue trying to regain my neutral look of professionalism (although I am NOT in this instance, the unprofessional one). He continues: "woman want to be doctors AND have families and they can't do it on the traditional residency hours, so things were changed". This is, of course, total bullshit. Patients were dying because residents were working more than 80 hours a week and screwing up, because NO ONE- male or female can maintain an appropriate level of alertness under those conditions. But I am a female non-doctor so I have absolutely no say in this conversation that I am in the middle of. I have no doubt that things have changed, or he wouldn't even be having this dumb-ass conversation with me- but they have not changed for the better. They have changed for the semi-neutral, unless of course you took a government grant job (In THIS economy, yep- that one was my stupidity) and the grant is not likely to be renewed, so I have to fight for my $33000/yr, while we take on more faculty at literally 10x my salary. It's a little hard to take some days, and today is just one of those days. It wasn't until I was in the middle of this conversation that I realize we only have 3 female faculty members in my dept and one is a new grad. Support staff? All female. Me in my nebulous in-between of research coordinator (where somehow during my 2 years in this position none of the other faculty members were told I have a masters in biomedical science, taken with 1st and 2nd year med students, and some mad editing and grant writing skills) where I am spoken to like I'm a male, but not allowed to voice my opinion because it would not in the least be in my best interest. So yeah, being a female still kind of sucks.
Geez, I am not even sure this makes sense- but since I pulled a mini science experiment of inhaling the air coming out of our A/C in my asbestos filled office at work, I have been coughing and wheezing through my sore, scratchy throat: mold spores FTW- this is what you get.
