Monday, July 26, 2010

Being a woman in the sciences is sometimes hard. Sometimes you have to put up with total and utter bullshit. I'm one of those women that if I feel I'm getting some sort of "special" treatment from a guy (God forbid the word "honey' is used), I'm going to knee him, and he's going to feel it for several days.

Currently, I am the only woman in a research group of 10. There's another research group with which we work, and they are 20% male. I don't really know how this worked out. But since I'm in the 'boy' lab, there are some things that I would like to change.

1. I have wrist problems. This necessitates that my wrist is at the correct height. If I raise my chair, my feet don't touch the ground. I'd like keyboard arms at all stations.

2. I'm short: easy access to stepstools please.

3. If you make 'women' lab equipment, can you please not make it pink? I fucking HATE pink.

4. Because I am short, my torso is short. This means that if I'm at a big honking microscope, I have to have the chair all the way up, sit on something, and then my knees don't fit in the knee-well.

5. I would like optical scanners on said scopes to automatically adjust to to my eye width.

6. I would like the door knobs to not fall off when I open doors. (Short story, every time I would go into my old scope room, the door handle would fall off the door.)

7. Lighter rotors, the SLA-1500 sucks, when full, to have to put in the 'fuge.

8. I'd like a labcoat that didn't make my ass look like a movie screen.

9. (This is not specific to science:) Quit putting food flavored scenty things in the bathroom, it's creepy and disgusting.

10. I'd like gloves to take into consideration the 'pipettor muscle' in your dominant hand.

11. Drawer stops so that you can't pull drawers all the way out.

12. PI related: They should get chipped with GPS tags.

13. Almost all of the solutions in lab are clear, don't bitch when I order colored eppendorf tubes.

14. If you are going to move big honking machines out of a lab, please adjust HVAC for that room. If I can tell that my nailbeds are blue THRU MY GLOVES it's too cold.

15. Do not assume that I will bake you anything. Chances are I will, but don't assume. It just makes me want to set all your pipets to the max.



Lastly, the rule is that whoever gets in first gets to pick the Music. Sorry.