Nobel shutout of women comes as no surprise
The times they are not a-changin’. In the clamour over Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, did anyone notice that not a single woman had won a Nobel this year? It’s 2016. It happened in 2012 too. It happens most years.
In the 115-year history of the Nobels, with 800 winners, only 48 women have won, reports Elizabeth Koh of McClatchy. In the Literature category, where a woman writes alone, escaping the sexist hurdles of universities, only 14 women have ever won.
There are many fine female candidates in the six categories each year, including, as the Washington Post pointed out, the American physicist Vera Rubin, who “provided the first real evidence of dark matter.”
Dark matter, imagine that. There are many other deserving female physicists, as Slate.com wrote in 2014, after doing an informal poll in the field and offering a list of 20 names.
Physics is the worst category for women. Only two women have ever won. The first was Marie Curie, who won twice. The second was Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963. That was 53 years ago.
And then came the news on Thursday that the UN had a new secretary general, Antonio Guterres of Portugal. He is, as they always are, male. The Economist’s headline was “Can the next man do better?” and called him “the right man for an almost impossible job.” The word “person” does not exist for this publication that keeps asking me to subscribe.
But almost all my attention is focused on the U.S. presidential race. Hillary Clinton is well-placed to defeat Donald Trump, a man whose life is based on rock-solid womenhating. But I take nothing for granted. Trump might win. You never know.
But if Clinton wins, women will still pay a price. In the same way that the election of President Oba- ma, of mixed race, caused a backlash against African Americans, imagine the savage snapback against Clinton.
Things are awful for women now whether they win or lose. It has been warming to see men form common cause with women as Trump blasts out sexist hate.
But it will be a rough, say, decade for women if Clinton wins, and I hope, as do all civilized people, that she does. She is not a progressive candidate but she is better than Trump.
As we flail in this sea of misogyny, not waving but drowning, Canada seems an island of relative safety. Beyond events such as the 1988 Morgentaler decision allowing abortion rights, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to make his cabinet gender-balanced — “because it’s 2015” — was the most significant Canadian feminist event of our era.
It wasn’t an honour or a headline, it was actual power being placed in women’s hands.
Here’s an example. In 2008, the federally funded Canada Excellence Research Chairs offered 28 jobs to top researchers. Only one is held by a woman, the Globe and Mail reports.
“I think in 2016 that number is simply unacceptable,” said Science Minister Kirsty Duncan. So she is offering 11 more of these chairs, but only to universities that can show they have a gender and diversity equity plan in place.
There were 19 comments on this Globe story, all of them negative, some of them crude, almost all anonymous. Commenters make me wonder about the dubious suggestion that those who show up at Trump rallies aren’t representative of his voters.
Women will be under attack for years to come. At least in Canada, we have a feminist prime minister. I’m hoping the next Supreme Court justice will be female.
Are misogynistic commenters merely the crust or are they the whole pie?
If Clinton wins, or obviously if she doesn’t, girls and boys are going to grow up in an atmosphere where parents have to explain what a p---y is, and worse. It’s a kitten. Trump has been grabbing kittens, that’s it.
I don’t know how they’ll explain Trump’s attack on “international banks” a.k.a. Jews.
Mr. Trump thinks banks should stay home next summer. Maybe go camping. Camp of Nova Scotia, that’s it.
Women will be under attack for years to come. At least in Canada, we have a feminist prime minister. I’m hoping the next Supreme Court justice will be female. I hope women will move up, with government help, to take their rightful place and that women and men will advance in friendship.
If Trump wins, I’m thinking an Underground Railroad for Muslims and women fleeing Trump-promised punishment for abortions. We are Canada. We will make space for you. You’ll like our new feminist ways.
And some more fantasizing: Next year, maybe all the Nobel winners will be female. Maybe Canada will have a gender-balanced Senate.
Hey, it could happen. hmallick@thestar.ca