we have a quite balance M:F ratio at the moment......although some of our males but really nice to work with these guys....they usually do what they are told to do

I have seen all female in a large lab (>8 people), but I never see all male in a large lab.

There is a spy amongst us or someone seriously read this thread

Univ of Tokyo to increase number of female researchers, ban evening meetings

Nabi on Apr 9 2009, 08:34 PM said:

Meeting starts after 5pm in University of Tokyo!! Then, when do their meetings end?...7 - 8pm!!

I never have lab meeting that starts after 5pm. I have meeting that ends after 5pm.

Minnie Mouse on Apr 10 2009, 01:54 PM said:

Huh! U r not kidding right ? @ our lab it starts at around 7:30pm and ends . . depends on the contents and discussion - normally 9:30-10:00

That is the oddest lab custom I've heard of. I mean, nobody pays real attention at the evening meeting. Morning is the right time, like you come, set your experiment, go to meeting and then continue the experiment.

Nabi on Apr 10 2009, 08:25 AM said:

It all depends on the people: I have seen people that just do their jobs at thats it, they are not inspired by what they do. Others are and they can stay very long just because they are intrigued by something.




in general:

I think discrimination based on gender is wrong, however at the moment I do notice some "positive" discrimination in favor of females when I read certain posts. They are starting to bend the rules so females can do a certain job.
And I am not speaking in specific on labworkers or so, but in general. In the army here , when being a female they almost automaticly accept you, even if you are very very bad. Just to get more females in.

A general rule like no meeting after 17.00 seem stupid to me, they should make more general agreements.
At a lab that I visited the women that are pregnant get to pick (o some degree) when they work as long as they do their hours or they are allowed to work more from home out etc... especially when doing a phd or something like that you have a lot of hours that you spend behind a pc searcing for info or you are helping other students etc... well some of those things are easly done at home.

I think the pregnancy is indeed a big problem like Telomerase allready stated.

I once heard of a firm that made the women "sign" a paper stating they werent allowed to become pregnant the first 5 years when they worked there. (its not legal and its not a "real" document, but some sort of verbal agreement they had to agree with or they would be fired and they would simply find some other reason to kick you out)

Telomerase on Apr 10 2009, 07:31 PM said:

Odd might be; but that's how we enjoy doing it over here. For me, early morning meetings are something I do no want. Beside, there are other meetings in the morning to start the day and plan for the day. The evening meetings which we call the lab meetings are where we have a lot of teaching-learning and discussion. Someone might present their data and others give their view. Someone might present some interesting paper and make a proposal for another project. We also plan of days ahead - long term and short-term. On top of that, we have dinner together during the meeting. Everyone is relaxed after a long day of work in the lab, hospital, or other part-time works.

pito on Apr 10 2009, 09:59 PM said:

My class: me and 1 other guy, other students are all girls: 10 girls in total

It looks like there are good number of girls in biology. For some reasons they cannot make it to the top, if I got it right.

But, what I was thinking today was. . how many Lady speakers/presenters are there in conferences you attend. I have not attended many but I can remember only a handful. There got to be good reason for that.,