Gender Discrimination in Science
Here's a study demonstrating how people discriminate against women in science. Hard facts, hard numbers. Wow, humans really fuck things up.
So what do you do if you are a woman, or any other disadvantaged group, and people say critical things about your work? Look at the work. Check to see if it's solid, using as objective standards as you can manage. Then consider that there is an ambient bias against what you are. Which explanation fits the data better: that your work is indeed poor quality, or that the work is sound but the bias is obscuring that?
In other words: being a woman means you must constantly suspect other people of bullshitting you and cheating you, which may or may not be conscious on their part, to lower the tendency of that bias to make you underestimate your own skills and worth. Do not buy into the bullshit. And if you are assessing another woman's work, try to do so objectively and make sure that you are not adding to the ambient bullshit yourself.
So what do you do if you are a woman, or any other disadvantaged group, and people say critical things about your work? Look at the work. Check to see if it's solid, using as objective standards as you can manage. Then consider that there is an ambient bias against what you are. Which explanation fits the data better: that your work is indeed poor quality, or that the work is sound but the bias is obscuring that?
In other words: being a woman means you must constantly suspect other people of bullshitting you and cheating you, which may or may not be conscious on their part, to lower the tendency of that bias to make you underestimate your own skills and worth. Do not buy into the bullshit. And if you are assessing another woman's work, try to do so objectively and make sure that you are not adding to the ambient bullshit yourself.