Beyond the “Leaky Pipeline” - a "fuck yes" to Kaylyn Zipp's article in Fisheries and comment on the metaphor
https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fsh.10813
The “leaky pipeline” metaphor has been tossed about like a beach ball in the academic sphere for years, depicting women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields as sad, helpless Dali clocks dripping out of their promising careers and into fruitless oblivion.
I just read a FABULOUS article by Kaylyn Zipp in Fisheries magazine detailing how our current political state in the US, including but not limited to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, has amplified negative impacts on women in fisheries science. Kaylyn nailed it and I’m here to “yes, and” that message.
Let me first note that gender is NOT A BINARY MULTIPLE CHOICE. Folks can, will, and should identify anywhere they feel their best self in an infinite galaxy of identities. So let’s just acknowledge, accept, embrace, and celebrate that right now please. Thanks. My perspective is that of a female identifying human, using she/her pronouns for the most part. When I talk about women, I include anyone identifying as such. I also discuss parenthood and mothers, and again - this includes anyone identifying as such. Inclusivity is cool. Get into it. And we will save an in-depth discussion of the complex and intersectional issues facing trans men and women for another post, as that warrants more than a few sentences.
Now, I need to comment on the metaphor at hand, as I think it is part of the problem. The “pipeline” analogy amounts to a rusty, broken conveyor belt that (falsely) runs from a higher education degree to tenure track positions (though those are disappearing - that is a post for another day). The pipeline is a carnival nightmare, poorly patched with metaphorical band-aids and electrical tape, so unstable that many women everywhere are fed up and fleeing quite literally for their lives. I would like to state for the record that we are not leaking out of a pipe so much as walking away from a patriarchal system collapse, fires raging behind us as we slow-motion Beyoncé strut away, deuces up, hair blowing cinematically in the winds of change.
Calling this epic and careful decision a “leak” implies passive helplessness and we are FAR from helpless. We are pissed. Go ahead and try to take away our power to exit a shitty situation. I dare you. Because you can pry it from my cold, dead-inside, manicured, fish slime-covered fingers.
Like any career decision of this magnitude, women are acting in their own best interests if they choose to leave academia. Truthfully, in the context of conservation science, we are acting the interests of the whole fucking planet, taking our skills, energy, and power somewhere we can be appreciated or, at the very least, supported to do our work. It is no mystery that women are less represented at later stages of career trajectories in academia. It is a simple fact that the ivory tower was built for men - it’s a tower, I mean c’mon, how phallic can you get. More specifically – it was built for white men that had a lot of money, privilege, and spare time. Even now, still, the patriarchal establishment of the STEM academy invites women into a broken system with no idea what the fuck to do next.
Women manage a lot. Like, A LOT. For context, I bleed for 5-7 days every month (bye iron!), I have fluctuating hormones that do all sorts of incredible and wild things to my body and brain (in addition to confusing and frightening your average academic old guy), and I even birthed and nursed a baby human from my amazing body while finishing my PhD. This is my experience and it differs from that of every other female-identifying human out there.
Women deal with enumerable not-so-fun hurdles in the workplace, not the least of which are the outlandish and uncomfortable wardrobe expectations relative to men. And when it comes to field gear - don’t get me started. If I had a nickel for every piece of ill-fitting gear I have had to wear, I would be the one funding the research.
If a woman chooses to have children (NOTE: this is HER decision and your expectations and stigma about whether she does or does not do that can take a flying leap), mothers are generally saddled with the majority of childcare, carry the mental load of managing a household including housework (fight me), then go to work and get paid a fraction of what male peers make, all the while battling endless gender stereotypes (including those I’ve thrown down here - did you notice??).
Gender discrepancies are especially apparent in professions historically dominated by men, such as in fisheries science. Fisheries in particular is a profession couched in field work, often requiring collaborations or interactions with anglers (or “fisherMEN”, need I say more?). Not only is the fisheries science and academic realm male-dominated (see the stats in Kaylyn’s article), but the applied and socioeconomic aspects of fisheries are a veritable sausagefest. Being a woman in fisheries, for me, has meant conjuring some inner old white guy, code switching on the reg to get samples and data for my research.
The fisheries field and academia in general were not made for me, but here I am. And I am not alone. For over a decade, I learned the science and did so from the perspective of someone with a very different appearance and biology than that of a man. I earned those letters after my name. Now I write the papers, pipette the reagents, facilitate the stakeholder workshops, inform the managers, and heck I even drive trucks. All the while, I struggle and watch women struggle all around me, plagued by stress, headaches, trauma, exhaustion, and debilitating anxiety. Women are worth more than how we are treated in the ivory tower. It is a quiet and constant hurt. And it will take sustained allyship and intentional action to change.
The disadvantages women face take many forms, and most remain elusive to the untrained eye. I have watched male colleagues be offered positions and authorships behind closed doors by male supervisors. I have seen men disproportionately invited to field outings (read: big dude on boat lifts buckets of fish) that cascade into opportunities and jobs. I have seen men repeatedly given the benefit of the doubt when using field equipment for the first time (you may not believe this, but I know how to operate an outboard motor while still having a vagina). Meanwhile, women are often left out of these micro-opportunities, which accumulate to produce a palpable gap in access to resources and professional growth. We are running in place but expected to smile. Goddess forbid we procreate and must navigate the social stigma and logistical horror of taking a maternity leave (or not), maintaining a publication record (or not), and somehow balancing family life with career growth (or not). Fuck that. Find me the nearest exit because if this is where we are headed, I want out.
But then what? If we leak listlessly from the dick-clogged plumbing of the academic pipeline, how and where do we land? On our feet, first and foremost. Second, fucking anywhere we want. Spoiler alert: many women find their way into awesome jobs in industry, NGOs (non-government organizations), policy, and more. NGOs in particular produce impactful science that in many ways is more easily applied in the systems we study, enabling women to have the flexibility we need to balance life beyond work. And there are struggles outside of the academic sphere as well, but that is another post for another day.
Point being, women are not leaking, they are leaving. We are pivoting to something better suited to our needs. Sorry academia, you just aren’t doing it for us. Call us when you get your shit together and we’ll talk. We are done cleaning up after you. Pay her for the work she does and know how much work it actually is. Break down the broken systems and build something better. Because that is how we save the planet from ourselves.