Gender Issues as an Undergrad

Over at the Chemical Forums Blog is a post about a female chemistry undergrad's negative experiences, simply due to her gender. Call my response a solidarity post, of sorts, I guess. Yes, based entirely on anecdotes.

As a second-year student, I obviously still have a lot more of my degree to go. But thus far, I have been extremely fortunate in experiencing very little gender discrimination. My first-year chemistry lab is a case in point: my lab partner (chosen by chance) is male. My TA is male. The pair working at the same bench as I do are also male. Did I feel inferior? No. If anything, I was the one who bossed my lab partner around, criticized my neighbours' atrocious lab technique, and answered everyone's questions when the TA was busy. In both my math and chemistry lectures, I am the type of keener that grates on professors: one of my favourite hobbies is to point out errors on the board and ask evil questions afterwards. You think I am stupid just because I am a girl? Let me correct your ignorance by dazzling you with my ability. I might not be at the top of the class, but I never let my gender get in the way of trying.

At my first workplace, about half of my coworkers are female. At my second workplace, one of my supervisors is female, and a powerfully forceful one at that. So no gender discrimination there.

It helped that I was an unattractive, arrogant prick in the classroom, of course. Still is, actually. What the business types might call "aggressive" in lieu of "assertive".

On the other hand, I do dress poorly, and have done so ever since well, elementary school. Except for special events like interviews and recitals, I don't dress up. And I don't wear make-up at all. Of course, the only math majors who routinely dress well are those in the business program, and the only chemistry majors who routinely dress well are those who don't mind oddities in their nice clothing. We do have a reputation to maintain, after all.

Is it a problem that a female in a traditionally "male" (pft.) subject is usually treated as inferior unless she acts like a guy? Yes, it is. Am I perpetuating the problem? Probably. But I would like to show my peers and supervisors, in a most blatant way, that an "intelligent female" is neither an impossible abstraction nor an oxymoron. Don't like it? Aww, that's just too bad.

Hmm, maybe I should try an experiment: dress nicely all month in May, and see if peoples' perceptions of my ability changes for the worse. However, I am not a good judge of what constitutes "nice clothes", and I really don't want to wreck my suit: despite my lab coat, all my t-shirts and jeans that have been exposed to the workplace have holes and funky coloured patches from aqua regia and metal salts, respectively. Anyway, I already have a reputation as something of a harridan (others may have choicer words), and I enjoy being mean.

I think I'll try it anyway. See what happens. Assuming that I notice anything, which I probably won't because all my "attention to detail" goes into my coursework. Oh well.

An ulterior motive: nice clothes might make me look more like a university student. I am sick of people thinking that I look like a high school student. (A high school student?! That hurts, that really does.)

[Edited]
I wear dress shirts all the time now and nobody has ever said a thing (or seemed to have noticed anything different at all). Hrm. I'm not switching out of my jeans and sneakers too (standing for 8 hours comfortably trumps looking decent), so that's the end of it.