From "Wings":
I think the effects on my own life in science are very similar to the effects in every other part of my life. Also I am a Chinese-American woman, which makes things a little different, because stereotypes about Chinese women are different from stereotypes about women from other ethnic or racial groups.For example, Chinese and many other Asian groups are assumed by many people to be good at science and math, even though girls are often assumed not to be good at science and math, and girls are sometimes ridiculed for liking science or math, or told it's not feminine to like these subjects.

When I was in middle and high school, I was simply expected to do well; no one thought that was unusual. No teacher ever discouraged me, as far as I can remember. My high school college counselor was different, however, and I was not encouraged to apply for the most competitive colleges. I remember being told "probably I wouldn't like it," by a white male college counselor, who undoubtedly thought I was shy and maybe needed to be protected (I was, but probably not more than many other people). Fortunately my mother in particular was quite certain this counselor was wrong.

In college (and I got into and got a scholarship to a very competitive west coast college, and I went) I encountered some very smart people, some of whom had been to much better schools than I attended, and who were much better prepared. I got intimidated, and I didn't do very well at first. I discovered that my biggest battle was actually my internalized stereotypes of myself--that as a quiet student, I wasn't as good as the loud students, as an American-born Chinese, I wasn't as good as either the American students or the international Chinese students, etc. In science classes I forgot that I was a gregarious, chatty girl who made good friends, and I just kept quiet because I thought I didn't know the answer.. Later, in graduate school, I trained myself to ask questions in public, even if some of them weren't very good questions.

To make a long story shorter, it has been very useful for me to remember as a scientist that I am both a scientist and an Asian heritage woman. I had many situations where it has been useful to be learn to make small impromptu jokes about a situation to get men scientists to relax so we could talk science and they wouldn't act like I was some kind of ice queen (stereotype of Asian women as dragon ladies). It's been useful for me to remember to constantly thank the men who have assisted me in any way, because as a woman, my work got a lot of attention because I was an easy person to remember. I've lived with the goldfish-bowl-life of this attention, and the pressure that if I didn't do well, it would be worse (because people then don't forget). Also some men scientists were interested in me as a woman, not a scientist, and this kind of attention isn't welcome, and is necessary for every woman to learn how to handle.

From "Dame Cod":
Honestly, I would have to say I don't know. If someone thought I wasn't up to the job, I think my first thought may have been that I wasn't good enough and NOT that they thought that since I am a woman I couldn't do something. What I am trying to say is I thought inward first and rarely thought of anyone I intereacted with as sexist. I may have experienced some form of prejudice but I just never considered it that because I was always worried that I just wasn't good enough. (I know now that is bunk!)

From "pond-scum":
One of the things that alot of us (more all the time!) have to deal with is the fact that our husbands/boyfriends/significant others are often also scientists or professionals (go figure that you meet guys you can relate to in classes you are interested in).

My husband (a biologist) and I decided that we wanted to start a family while we were graduate students studying for our PhD's. We worked out a plan that seemed like it would work, but it seemed that everyone else had ideas about what we would do that were real different from our own - namely that I would be dropping out in order to take sole responsibility for child rearing! This is the stereotype that people often have, and it is difficult for people to relate to the fact that couples may have alternative ways that they want to juggle the whole family-work-studies situation. I guess the sterotype comes from the fact that this DOES often happen (women quit when the family starts), but I think it happens mainly because we don't have enough examples out there to see how women scientists can have careers and families. It can work and be fun! Now my daughter (almost 4) is probably one of the few pre-schoolers that knows what bacteria look like under the microscope!

From "Marsh Maven":
As far as stereotypes go, I think I have always gone against the grain a little bit. I always played football and baseball with the boys while I was growing up. While I was in high school (a long time ago..) all the girls took home economics classes and the boys took woodshop, ceramics and graphic design. I didn't want to take home economics because I already knew how to cook and I didn't want to learn how to sew. So I took the shop classes instead, and I was one of the first females to do that in my high school. As a result, I never really paid attention to the stereotypes that existed, but instead did what I wanted to do and not pay attention to that.

For most of my education while preparing to be a scientist, I was mentored by many males who were very supportive of females in science. The biggest stereotype I did experience was from my graduate school Professor, who happened to be a female. She treated me differently than she did her other male graduate students. She had gone through graduate school in the 60s, and as a result knew it was hard for women to break through. As a result, she tended to push me harder than she did the males, because she felt that a woman had to be better than a man in order to succeed. There have been times during my career that I felt that I was treated a certain way because of education level, since the academic system tends to label people based on what degrees they possess. All in all, I just tend to be what I want to be, and not worry about the stereotypes because I am the one who has to be happy.