Damn all you other female scientist bloggers that broke my rose coloured glasses!

A few blogs ago I questioned whether I would recognise sexual discrimination if/when I saw it. Well, I’ve spent all week trying to rationalise a situation so as not to accept that it may indeed be sexual discrimination. But I haven’t come up with a scenario that would make the situation acceptable in my mind. And that sucks.

Here is the situation:
I reviewed a manuscript this summer, which recently came back to me for re-review. With the revised manuscript also came a paper trail of my comments, second reviewer’s comments, subject editor comments, rejection letter, and author’s comments on reviewer suggestions etc. In the rejection letter from the editor the corresponding author was addressed as “Dear Miss So-and-so”.

“Odd” I thought, as I’ve only ever been addressed as “Dr.”, even when I was known by the editor to be a grad student. But, my moment of “huh, that’s odd” quickly turned into “Oh, that’s not good” when I went to the next page, the author’s reply, which was clearly addressed from “Dr. Female Professor”.

My first instinct was to think it was a mistake, an oversight, an embarrassing gaffe by the editor. Then, I doubted my own experience and wondered whether the term “Dr.” was overused as a courtesy to me when I was a wee young thing. But that didn’t make any sense, because this person wasn’t a grad student, she is clearly a faculty member with a Ph.D.

And that’s where I sit now. I’m dragging my heels on the re-review because not only do I have to re-reject the manuscript, I also have to write something to the editor that addresses his ‘oversight’ without placing myself in a situation where I am seen as overly reactionary. I can’t ignore it because it’s simply unacceptable and inappropriate. Even if it were a male prof who was addressed as “Mr.” it would be unacceptable. But it’s more than that…it was “Miss”, not “Ms.”, but “Miss”. It might as well have been addressed “Dear Little Girl…please stop wasting our time with your silly little research and go find a husband.”

Suggestions?