Scientist and Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt told a room full of female scientists yesterday that he thinks science labs should be segregated based on gender because women simply cause too much trouble.
“The trouble with girls” according to Hunt, who happened to be speaking at a convention hosting many female scientists, is this “… three things happen when they are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry,” he said.
He then openly admitted to being a “chauvinist” and said he was in favour of gender-segregated labs – presumably because he thinks this will end all the falling in love and crying.
Thankfully, he concluded by saying that he “doesn’t want to stand in the way of women”. Thanks, Tim.
Hunt is a member of the Royal Society, which quickly distanced itself from his comments by tweeting “Tim Hunt’s comments don’t reflect our views”.
The Royal Society then released an official statement declaring its support of the advancement of women in science.
“The Royal Society believes that in order to achieve everything that it can, science needs to make the best use of the research capabilities of the entire population,” the statement read.
“Too many talented individuals do not fulfil their scientific potential because of issues such as gender and the Society is committed to helping to put this right.”
“Sir Tim Hunt was speaking as an individual and his reported comments in no way reflect the views of the Royal Society.”
The problem with Hunt’s comments is not only that they are evidently sexist – any time you hear a sentence beginning with the words “the trouble with girls” you know things are going south – but that they also fail to consider how few women there are in science labs in the first place. Science continues to struggle to encourage women to participate in the profession at all. With comments like these is it any wonder?
According to campaign group Wise, only 13% of the people working in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are women. Only 16% of full time professors working in the academic sections of these fields are women. So these “girls in labs” doing all the falling in love and crying barely exist at all – and that’s precisely the problem.
Sweeping generalisations like Hunt’s about the few women he has worked with only exacerbate the problem. As one female scientist tweeted, “For every Tim Hunt remark, there’s an extra woman in science that takes an interest in feminism. Ever wonder why there are so many of us?”
Similarly, emeritus professor at University College London David Colquhoun described Hunt’s comments as “a disaster for the advancement of women”.
Hunt later went on England’s BBC Radio 4 to apologise for the remarks – but sadly he failed at giving a genuine apology and what he said sounded more like a defense of his original comments.
“I’m really sorry that I said what I said. It was a very stupid thing to do in presence of all those journalists,” he said.
“What was intended was a sort of light-hearted, ironic comment was apparently interpreted deadly seriously by my audience.”
There is very little light-hearted or ironic about barefaced sexism. Nor is there anything light-hearted about the number of women who continue to be excluded from science labs due, at least in part, to attitudes like his.