Female Science Professor describes the amazing (and amazingly depressing) power of invisibility women in science seem to possess – at least when Distinguished Schmucks are visiting the department:

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So, what should you do when when someone behaves like a total jackass in front of your male colleagues? This is the wrong question.

The right question is, what should your male colleague do? This is NOT, as some of Female Science Professor’s commenters worry, about being “rescued” by a man. No, this is not one of those times where you need to demonstrate that you are a strong independent woman who can take care of herself in all situations. This is about men taking responsibility for their role in ending gender bias.

Entering a feminist space – whether that be commenting on a blog or attending a meeting – can pose some unique problems for men.

This isn’t about any one male (or occasionally female) commenter, or incident, because these issues aren’t brought up by one person and then forgotten. It hasn’t come up so often at The F-Word before, but I’ve seen the same issues and attitudes at other feminist forums, and I’m sure more experienced feminists have been dealing with them since time immemorial.

This article is inspired partly by the very useful post over at Feministe about how to be a feminist boyfriend (highly recommended reading) which has previously been mentioned at The F-Word.

The question I want to answer is how to be a pro-feminist commenter, particularly if you’re not the minority addressed…