Close at the heels of the #DespiteBeingAWoman incident, the latest to face flak over his sexist comments is Sir Tim Hunt, Nobel-Prize-winning biochemist, who has since resigned from his position as honorary professor at University College London.
At the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea on June 9, Hunt said that female colleagues should work in women-only environments or else male colleagues might fall in love with them.
He also said, “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.”
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The furore over his comments led to the twitter hashtag #distractinglysexy, with women scientists sharing pictures of themselves at work.
The granddaughter of Dorothy Hodgkin—a British biochemist who developed protein crystallography, for which she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964—tweeted a picture of Hodgkin at work.
Image courtesy: twitter.com
Some male scientists joined the party, showing their support.
Image courtesy: twitter.com
And of course, meme makers had a field day…
Image courtesy: twitter.com
The Royal Society, of which Sir Tim is a fellow, distanced itself from his remarks, tweeting: ‘Tim Hunt’s comments don’t reflect our views.’
Hunt later apologised saying he only meant to be honest and “ironic”, but added that he “did mean the part about having trouble with girls”. However, the damage was already done.
His comments supporting gender-segregated labs haven’t gone down well with women scientists worldwide, since sexist attitudes and gender bias have always been a widely acknowledged issue in this domain.
