On being a woman and a non-physicist at CERN

I spent 2.5 years at CERN as a grad student in experimental particle physics in the 1990s. I never experienced anything like the condescending head patting or bad pick-up lines the OP refers to. In fact, those years at CERN were the closest thing to a meritocracy that I've experienced in my adult life. I suspect that being a non-physicist is a far bigger impediment to fitting in at CERN than being female. I spent countless hours talking physics over coffee, skiing down mogul-infested inclines in Chamonix, and drinking beer/yelling at the TV during soccer matches with the guys in my (otherwise all male) research group and never felt like I didn't belong. On the rare occasions that guys said or did things that I found to be in poor taste, I called them out on it in a non-confrontational way. Most of the time they weren't intentionally trying to be misogynist swine, they just needed someone to point out to them that they were being insensitive. I've been in the unique position of existing in male-dominated environments for as long as I can remember and have always wondered why more women don't seem to realize how much male behavior can be explained by a combination of cluelessness and insecurity-- it would save my gender much emotional angst.

I was kind of hoping for more elaboration. I'd like to know what us males can do to make male-dominated work environments less of a boy's club. I'm, frankly, kind of tired of my male-dominated workplace... there's too much testosterone and cavalier joking.

That being said, I've caught myself giving off what might be subtle sexism. There's usually some other reason behind it though-- like being annoyed that I needed to ask permission for a copy of TextMate to be comp'd.

I was looking for more details, too. I don't mean that I suspect the OP of falsehood. It's simply that I'm a woman in a male-dominated field, and many people have asked me if I've ever faced prejudice at work, and I've always had to say no. That and the post together got me wondering if my prejudice-sensors are malfunctioning.

I don't know if it's related, but I remember a gender inequality talk in a conference where surprisingly, Switzerland did not rank well in many statistics, including wage discrepancies which seem to be at 20% [http://wikigender.org/index.php/Gender_Equality_in_Switzerla...]