As a ‘young’ female professor in my late thirties I went to the central research office to personally hand in a research project application file on the day of the deadline (a walk around the corner from my office). The (female) secretary behind the counter looked at the file and said to me: “Is Prof. X abroad because we need his original signature?”. Looking bewildered, “I am Prof. X”, I answered. The secretary was embarrassed of course and I tried to laugh it away a little as did some of her colleagues in the office who had witnessed the incident.
Maybe the secretary was also used to secretaries getting asked to deliver files rather than professors turning up themselves, I do not know…
Bemused rather than deeply insulted, this nevertheless is not an isolated incident. For example, when answering my work phone I always answer “Prof. X” in order not to be taken for a secretary. As I get and look older – and more self-confident perhaps – these incidents occur less and less, but I believe it is deeply gendered and male professors in the same ‘young looking’ age category on the average do not get the same treatment, both from women and men. The dominant image of the professor seems to remain male – white – and of a certain age, even today…
Story signed by : Pili Pala
The story happened to me as a Prof. Dr. in the years 2005-2009, around an academic institution in Flanders.