You know, we can just ask @Pscott to weigh in on whether or not they feel the term microagression is appropriate, and skip the chest-thumping over feminist credentials.
Well, maybe someone else would like to engage with that. I find it usually not a good use of time to write a long and thoughtful reply to someone who communicates in vague one-liners. If you want to say more, by all means, we can have a discussion then. While you're at it, you might want to relate your reply to the definition here (or others of your choosing): http://www.dictionary.com/browse/microaggression (emphasis is mine)
microaggression: a subtle but offensive comment or action directed at a minority or other nondominant group that is often unintentional or unconsciously reinforces a stereotype: microaggressions such as "I don't see you as black.".
Yeah, you are definitely not the first or only one who something like this has happened to. It's unfortunately more common than it should be. It's very unfortunate that this male student doesn't sound like someone who will help. The best ways I know of combating such a situation involve recruiting a man who can point out microagressions and unequal treatment in a way that women who are a part of the situation often cannot. @knp gave you some very good advice, but I would suspect that in this case it may be very difficult to solve the problem, since you say that all of the professors are male and the male student likely won't help. Maybe you can still identify an ally among the professors, but you should be careful about that. You don't want to be perceived as complaining or imagining injustices (even if they are actually real!); this is why having a male ally could be so important. If you did want to take this further, there may be venues you could bring this up in (the ombudsperson comes to mind), but you'll never be able to get someone to socialize with you who doesn't want to. But if this leads to favoritism in the workplace, that's something you can try to address.
This is definitely not petty. It's one more micro-agression in a world of many small and large gestures that signal to women that they aren't as wanted, aren't as good, aren't as likely to succeed. It's understandably incredibly frustrating. I don't know if we can help, but you are not alone. At least know that.
Oh, bummer! Yes, this is totally a real thing that happens. I have not been in exactly this situation, but I've seen rumblings at the edge of it. What follows are a couple sets of ideas, some better than others; I've also included some of the most obvious cons of each idea, and I'm speaking from experience on few of them. I am not sure how much traction you are going to get if these professors aren't comfortable talking to you—any of the female students—at the official holiday party (!). They should be managing this themselves, so I'm cynical about how much things will improve, but hopefully one or two of these ideas will help you shift the dynamic in a positive direction, even if you don't eliminate the problem. The organizing principle is, these are all ways to break up the current (bad) group dynamic in ways that are cheerful, non-threatening (specifically in a way that will reduce your professors' resistance to your interventions), and difficult for them to avoid.
First, where is the male student in this? It sounds like he isn't be in your cohort, so this may not be for you to do, but somebody with whom he is on speaking terms and has studied or worked with him for at least half an hour in the past should try to get his help fixing this. He should never ever ever—excuse my emphasis—be standing with a group of male faculty at an academic-social event without any other students in it. If he sees this happening, he should call some of the female students over (1-3), or, if he's too 'shy', he should (outside of such gatherings) encourage female students to interrupt the all male-groups and (in the moment) make sure to welcome the entering students into the conversation. Another good strategy would be for him, next time he gets a beer with one of the professors, to say, "hey, you know it would be really great if Jane and Maria came too," so that a pattern of group happy hour beers starts to emerge.
If he is an avowed non-feminist and you know this about him, a couple of his friend students might ask to be invited along to the next beer without mentioning any gender equity reasons for this intervention. If he is sufficiently greedy for attention that even this does not fly....I'm sorry for you, that's very selfish of him.
Or, just do it yourselves. "Hey professor so-and-so, are you going to that talk? Do you want to get a beer afterwards with me and Kat?" Or, "Hey my supervisor so-and-so, do you want to come out with me and all your other three advisees?"
Another one I've heard of, in more business settings, is for people to bring their partners, and that afterwards, that gesture proves the relationship is on a trustworthy footing even when the partners stop coming. I think this would not apply as well to academia, unless their partner works in a closely related field, or how you could suggest it, but I did hear people saying it had worked for them.
A final point: do not lead by fixating on having beers alone with anybody, or trying to deny that to the male student. ("If they won't have beers alone with us, they shouldn't do it with anybody!" No! Danger!) I worry that this is obvious and I'm overreacting to you just venting, but that's a horrible idea. Because you're at the beginning of the more social side of these relationships, the word for the semester is equity, not equality. It takes time to develop the relationship to the point that you're hanging out alone with a faculty member. The male student has that, and you don't, yet—it sounds true that the reason you don't have it yet is sexism, but do not start off with a crusade to get the faculty to refuse to have drinks with anyone alone. First, you have to develop the groundwork out of which hanging out alone might more naturally come. Once you've seen how that goes—if the faculty are generally receptive, but there's a lingering pattern where many of the faculty are still hanging out with the male student, and only the male student, very frequently—it might be a policy worth suggesting. (Or if more male students enter and the pattern extends that way.) In most departments, that would be a cutting off your nose to spite your face kind of situation, but I'm willing to the admit that a few departments exist where maybe this way of achieving a particular facet of equality is the best of a bunch of bad options. If one male student continues to get a one-on-one beer once a month with one faculty member, or twice a semester with maybe two faculty members, write it off as them having clicked particularly.
In general, although I have great, supportive relationships with several older male professors, it is disappointing that I don't have any close female mentors in the same way. Some of this disappointment, however, is global for our demographic cohort of young, professional women. I end with this article because your situation is very bad and I didn't want to be interpreted as fatalistic at the beginning: you can absolutely do a lot to make this better. However, I think milder forms of this problem will persist for us as long as we're early career: I liked how this article captured my mix of frustration about this and optimism about changing those dynamics myself someday, so I wonder if you might like it, too. http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/10/cant-find-a-mentor-look-to-your-peers.html
I wasn't sure where to post this but this seemed like the most fitting...
My grad program is almost entirely all female students, about 18 students total. However all of the professors are male. Recently we have been noticing that there is some favoritism towards the male student in class.. and at last years christmas party we noticed that they were all hanging out with this student and it felt weird. Also the student was just talking about how he went for beers with one of the professors (not his supervisor).
I understand that it would be inappropriate if a male professor went for drinks with a female student but if a professor wouldnt do it with a female student then shouldn't they just not do it with ANY student? I also wonder what people would do in this situation or if you would just let it be? Are there any anonymous avenues for complaint? I know that all of the female students are noticing this and are really frustrated.
Took the gre on a whim without studying and got a 167Q 159V. Is this competitive for programs like HKS, WWS, SAIS, Gtown? I know typically higher verbal is preffered but wasn't sure how the high Q would help.
Anyone going to the interviews for the Bush School?
I got the email invitation yesterday, but won't be able to attend as I live out of the country and even with the generous 25-33% reimbursement, it is still too hefty of a financial burden.
They say that not attending won't negatively impact admission of financial aid/scholarship opportunities, but I would think it would be impossible not to, what do you think?
