"Name one!"

On a committee to evaluate people across all fields, I was the representative for many of the STEM fields. That I was a mathematician came up frequently at our meetings. During the week, we came in at our convenience to read files.

One day, X, Y, and I were sitting around the table in the file room. As we read files, X and Y chatted amiably. They laughed about how all mathematicians are poorly dressed. And how mathematicians hold their glasses together with tape. I tried to ignore them.

Eventually, the insults reached a level where I didn't feel comfortable keeping quiet. In as friendly a voice as I could muster, I said "Some of the people in my department dress quite well."

X shot back, "Yeah, right! Name one!"

I looked down at my clothes. By pure luck — or more truthfully, my awareness that the better I dressed with this committee, the better the candidates I represented fared in the committee's evaluations — I happened to have been quite well dressed that day. I gestured towards my clothes, but they didn't get the hint.

Did they intend to deliberately insult me?

I don't think so. I think it's more likely that they didn't think of me as a mathematician (or maybe even as an academic). I wondered whether the STEM candidates we evaluated would have fared better with a man representing them, well-dressed or not.

I named a mathematician — a former Dean — who dresses nicely. They expressed doubt, and continued their chatter.

After I finished reading files, on my way down in the elevator, a well-dressed woman complimented me profusely on my lovely outfit. I smiled, and wished X and Y had been there. But I still don't know what I should have done to make them remember that I'm a mathematician.

Stage whisper

 Professor Q was supporting candidate Y and I was supporting candidate X, for a postdoc position.

During the hiring meeting, Q said to me in a stage whisper that was heard by everyone in the room, "You're only supporting X because she's a woman."

I pointed out that:

•   Almost all the candidates I had supported since I arrived at Ohio State were male.
•   All of the candidates he had ever supported were male.
•   No one accused him of only supporting his candidates because they were male.

I found out later that Q and the department chair had made a secret deal, and had already promised Y a position. They did this so that Y would use our university as the sponsoring institution on his application for an NSF postdoctoral fellowship. The chair and Q hoped that the department would decide on its own to extend an offer to Y, so they wouldn't have to admit that they had violated departmental rules by making a secret promise of a job offer. Q's stage whisper was because he felt he needed to undermine the case for X, to make sure that Y got an offer.

In the end, Y was offered both an NSF fellowship, and a postdoc position from us. He turned down the latter and went elsewhere with the NSF.