We have had informal hiring systems too long and if science departments had really been objective and impartial, we would have had a lot more women present in academia. Developing and monitoring standard methods of hiring and promotion will greatly improve employment opportunities for women and once women know that these opportunities are available, more will start applying to graduate school. The perceived threat of employment equity programs is that established numerical goals for hiring women will lower the standards of excellence. But both merit and excellence have not been achieved in the sciences if one considers that only contributions from one gender have been acknowledged.

There is an awareness on university campuses that the quality of life for women must be improved by providing safety measures and censure against violence. Most universities have or are developing harassment policies and have officers in place for the report of offenses. Most students and faculty are aware of their legal rights against discrimination due to sex, color, race, and marital status. What they need are guidelines on sexism, harassment, and discrimination to prevent the kind of jokes, passes and differential treatment women receive in the science classrooms and laboratories. Sexist remarks cause women great concern as to how they should react: to be assertive and cause personal embarrassment, or to ignore and hope the offenders will go away.

Because there are so few women in science, they should join status of women's groups, and national women in science organizations. Collective actions to promote equity and the identification of themselves as women can counteract feelings of tokenism and isolation. Women's' groups offer a chance to mentor and be mentored, and offer support and information (like the old boys network) on where the jobs are.

Feminists have asked if women scientists have unique qualities which will give them different perspectives in doing science. While I don't think women scientists in power will become like men in power, they will face more contradictions as more of them succeed in science. Harding has commented that learning to think and act effectively out of these contradictions is an important part of feminism and of becoming a feminist (7).

By activating our identities as women scientists, as women subjects and generators of thought, we can exploit the tension between multiple identities. These perspectives can be valuable in many fields, especially and including the natural sciences.

Being on the outside of the inside of science, looking at it from the standpoint of a woman of a minority group, I challenge other women scientists to explore their identities, to relate their experiences, and to make connections for change.

Hilda Ching is an active member of the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology, and is currently researching the area of women in science.

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2. Keller, Evelyn Fox. Reflections on Gender and Science. New Haven, Yale University Press: 1984; Hubbard, Ruth. The Politics of Women's Biology. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press: 1990; and Mura, Roberta. Searching for Subjectivity in the World of the Sciences: feminist viewpoints. Toronto, CRIAW No. 25: 1991.
   
   
3. Harding, Sandra. The Science Question in Famine's Ithaca, Cornell University Press: 1986.
   
   
4. Kranias, Gillian. "Women and the Changing Faces of Science". In: Despite the Odds, Marianne Ainley, editor. Montreal, Vehicule Press: 1990.
   
   
5. Gaskell, Jane, Arlene McClaren, and Myra Novogrodsky. Claiming an Education: Famine's and Canadian Schools. Toronto, Our Schools/Our Selves Educational Foundation and Garamond Press: 1989.
   
   
6. Solomon, Sylvia. "Nine Lives." The Newsmagazine. December, 1990.
   
   
7. Harding, Sandra. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Ithaca, Cornell University Press: 1991.