Kara Farthing still remembers her Virginia Tech forestry professor’s advice: Don’t get stuck as the “data fairy.”

During group work in the field, the professor said, female students needed to avoid always ending up as the designated note taker, even if they had the neatest handwriting. Just like their male counterparts, Farthing was told, female students needed to learn to use the forestry equipment, measure trees, and “actually get your hands dirty.”

“It tended to be the woman in the group taking the notes while the guys were out doing something,” Farthing said. The professor “would take the notebook away and hand it to one of the guys, saying to us, ‘You need to be out there. You need … Continue reading