This has been happening to me a lot lately:
I meet someone for the first time in my new capacity as an Administrator and one of the first questions they ask me is "Why (or how) were you selected?" I italicized you because in 87.3% of the cases, there is an emphasis on you, not necessarily in an impolite way, but to emphasize the you-and-not-someone-else focus of the question.
There are unambiguous 100% neutral examples of these questions -- that is, when I meet someone who has a similar position at another university and we compare notes about our jobs.
But then there are some situations in which the motivation is less clear.
Possible explanations for why someone would ask this question:
Some people (academics or not) may be curious about how things work in the intriguing world of academia in general and/or in particular at my institution.
Some people are surprised, at least at first, at finding someone like me in this position (the first woman ever to hold this particular position at my university). Which leads to these further possibilities:
- They think it is cool and wonder what excellent change has happened at this institution so that finally a woman was selected for this position.
- They wonder if I am qualified for the job, or at least, was I really the most qualified? Perhaps I was selected because I am a woman?
Do men get asked this question so frequently? I don't know, but in a recent poll of n=2 male peers, I realized that, although I had been asked this question nearly weekly for months, these guys had not yet been asked it once.
I don't actually spend a lot of time obsessing about the motivation of these questions. I think that these issues will fade with time.
I will mention, though, that a few days ago when I was asked this question, for the first time there was a witness to it, and it was a different experience altogether. I didn't realize until then that all the other conversations had been one-on-one. This time, a colleague (another administrator) was present and disagreed with the apparently disrespectful way in which the question was asked and did not stay silent. I can fight my own battles when I want, but sometimes it is very nice to have allies.
I meet someone for the first time in my new capacity as an Administrator and one of the first questions they ask me is "Why (or how) were you selected?" I italicized you because in 87.3% of the cases, there is an emphasis on you, not necessarily in an impolite way, but to emphasize the you-and-not-someone-else focus of the question.
There are unambiguous 100% neutral examples of these questions -- that is, when I meet someone who has a similar position at another university and we compare notes about our jobs.
But then there are some situations in which the motivation is less clear.
Possible explanations for why someone would ask this question:
Some people (academics or not) may be curious about how things work in the intriguing world of academia in general and/or in particular at my institution.
Some people are surprised, at least at first, at finding someone like me in this position (the first woman ever to hold this particular position at my university). Which leads to these further possibilities:
- They think it is cool and wonder what excellent change has happened at this institution so that finally a woman was selected for this position.
- They wonder if I am qualified for the job, or at least, was I really the most qualified? Perhaps I was selected because I am a woman?
Do men get asked this question so frequently? I don't know, but in a recent poll of n=2 male peers, I realized that, although I had been asked this question nearly weekly for months, these guys had not yet been asked it once.
I don't actually spend a lot of time obsessing about the motivation of these questions. I think that these issues will fade with time.
I will mention, though, that a few days ago when I was asked this question, for the first time there was a witness to it, and it was a different experience altogether. I didn't realize until then that all the other conversations had been one-on-one. This time, a colleague (another administrator) was present and disagreed with the apparently disrespectful way in which the question was asked and did not stay silent. I can fight my own battles when I want, but sometimes it is very nice to have allies.