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WOMEN IN THE SCIENTIFIC ELITE
I would not have been able to handle conflicts in the department. That has always
been the area of authoritarian men. (Subject no. 8, human sciences)
I feel that if I'd had any ambitions for a leadership position, I would have reached
it. But I have a conviction that the majority of women would not want that. They
wouldn't be effective enough. So this is not the same as recognising scientific per¬
formance. I expect women to be acknowledged in that aspect too. But a leadership
position, that’s different, I don’t know how many women aspire to that. I don’t think
too many do. (Subject no. 4, social sciences)
They could actually be matched to the “traditional identifiers” due to their
strong identification with women, identification with a certain group of fem¬
inists can however still not be excluded. One of the benefits of MIA (multiple
identity approach) is that it points out the possibility of identifying with women
without that necessarily leading to politicisation. This distinction of woman¬
hood is supported by further works in gender literature as well as the feminist
movements themselves. Certain strains of feminism namely put a huge
emphasis on womanhood as the field of positive discernment from men
(e.g. difference feminism), while others (as it appears with the 4th type, see
below) undermine it.””’ It can also be established that the attitude of female
scholars in this group can from many aspects be described with the axioms
phrased in post-feminism. This means the difference between the genders
needs to be reinforced positively, and the individual otherness of women has
to be acknowledged as well.?”?
Most are in agreement that the fundamental differences are enhanced by
certain further factors such as a woman having a child. They think this cir¬
cumstance virtually rules out their being a good leader simultaneously as well.
Besides, I am not that certain that girls really want to be leaders at all. Because if
you are a boss, you need to be present at every single meeting and gathering where
there must be some kind of leadership conflict [...] You always need to be there,
because if you aren't, nobody is going to stand up for your own people. And not all
women can do this. There is a tremendous amount of work with children, and that
always takes priority in their case. (Subject no. 21, natural sciences)
This was further reinforced by a female scholar (Subject no. 29, natural
sciences), who — speaking about her own experience — stated that she was only
able to give 100% until there was a call informing her that her child has a fever.
It wouldn’t matter if she’d sent someone in her stead in such cases, for her mind
272 Van Breen et al.: A Multiple Identity, 18.
273 Kádár, J.: Feminista nézőpont az irodalomtudományban, Helikon. Vol. 40, No. 4, 1994,
407-416.
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