Sexism in science reared its ugly and unwelcome head again recently when Sir Tim Hunt stood up on the 9th of June to address the World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, South Korea. In front of an audience of science journalists from around the world, he reportedly said the following comments;

“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. 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 later gave an interview for the ‘Today’ programme on BBC Radio 4 stating that he did “mean the part about having trouble with girls”, but went on to try to apologise for his comments adding that he was “really sorry that I said what I said”, and that it was “a very stupid thing to do in the presence of all those journalists”. He had hoped his remarks were “intended as a light-hearted, ironic comment” but instead they were “interpreted deadly seriously by my audience”. Is the joke still funny when no one else is laughing?

Let me tell you about my trouble with these comments. Firstly, I have never worked in a laboratory which has employed ‘girls’ (or boys for that matter). Although laboratory visits from schoolchildren should be encouraged, they shouldn’t be made to don lab coats and crack on with an RT-PCR, well, not at least until they have left school! Many women view the word ‘girl’ as derogatory and its use in this context can imply emotional and intellectual immaturity.

Secondly, as humans, we all feel a huge range of emotions, from love to hate and everything in between. However, to let our emotions towards fellow scientists somehow hinder or cloud the science we are employed to do seem to hint at a lack of professionalism. Because of our emotions and judgements, there will undoubtedly be colleagues we like and those we dislike. But respect is the key and regardless of our feelings towards other scientists, if they are good at their job, then surely that is the fundamental issue.

Despite Tim Hunt’s comments, should we have rushed to judge him and publically head-hunt him through social media and the press? I’m not defending his personal viewpoints, but how would it have been perceived if a senior female scientist had made such comments about ‘boys’ in the lab? Would there have been such a media outcry? Unfortunately, there is still a huge gender gap between senior scientists; only 16 % of full-time professors in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) are women.

Tim Hunt is 72 and he attended a single-sex school in the 1960’s. His own views about ‘girls’ in the lab may be part of the conditioning from that era and from his educational environment. In his statement he also said “my trouble with girls”, implying this was a personal issue and problem for him. Indeed, in an exclusive interview with Tim Hunt and his wife, Professor Mary Collins in The Observer newspaper 1, Collins stated that “really it was just part of his upbringing.” Although she also admitted that “it was an unbelievably stupid thing to say”.

Shortly after the conference, a rather vicious flurry of social media comments ensued and he was described on Twitter as a “clueless, sexist jerk”. Yes, his personal viewpoints are sexist, but a clueless jerk? Tim Hunt was a Fellow of the Royal Society, but they immediately distanced themselves from his comments and in their statement said that “Too many talented individuals do not fulfil their scientific potential because of issues such as gender”. On the 11th June, the Royal Society issued a statement to say that Tim Hunt had resigned 2. They stated that although he had “made exceptional contributions to science in terms of his own research on the cell cycle and its implications for our understanding of cancer”, his “recent comments relating to women in science have no place in science.” The final comment in their statement is the most telling; “It is the great respect that he has earned for his work that has made his recent comments so disappointing”.

The Royal Society works to promote diversity in science and has many projects, awards and campaigns targeted not only at gender inequality in science, but also ethnicity, disability and those who may need flexibility in their work due to roles as carers and parents 3. Tim Hunt should have been aware of the work of the Royal Society in his professional role before making seemingly personal comments which contradict the vision of diversity promoted by the Royal Society.

Furthermore, Tim Hunt was an Honorary Professor with University College London (UCL) Faculty of Life Sciences- that is until 10th June 4. In the interview in The Observer, his wife was informed by UCL that he had to resign or face the sack (Tim Hunt was still flying back from South Korea at this point). With regards to his resignation, the university stated that “UCL was the first university in England to admit women students on equal terms to men, and the university believes that this outcome is compatible with our commitment to gender equality.”

What have these thirty seven words from Tim Hunt done to highlight gender inequality in science? They have shown that even at the highest level of academia, intelligence and (supposed) professionalism that such views still exist. It may partly be a generational issue, but inequality exists in our laboratories, institutes and universities. In real terms, this manifests as the fact that there are still far fewer women working in the STEM subject areas and these women are paid less than their male counterparts. More worryingly, one study examining trainees in scientific fieldwork has reported that women are 3.5-times more likely to experience sexual harassment than men 5. Whilst Tim Hunt’s statement was disappointing, it highlights  the very real issues of gender inequality in science and rather than head-hunting an individual, we should focus our attention on addressing the root causes with a view to achieving gender neutrality in science.

1 http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/13/tim-hunt-hung-out-to-dry-interview-mary-collins

2 https://royalsociety.org/news/2015/06/sir-tim-hunt-resigns-from-royal-society-awards-committee/

3 https://royalsociety.org/about-us/diversity/

4 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0615/100615-tim-hunt

5 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102172