Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None (Free)
Volume Numbering: 13
Issue Numbering: 1
Section: A
Theme Type: Idea
Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”
Theme Part: 32
Formal Sub-Theme: None.
Individual Publication Date: December 1, 2024
Issue Publication Date: January 1, 2025
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Word Count: 811
Image Credits: Photo by Eleonora Patricola on Unsplash.
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885
Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*
Abstract
Dr. Sandra Schlick has the expertise and interest are in Strategic Management. She is Managing Research Methodology and coach Research Projects while having a focus on online training. She supervises M.Sc. theses in Business Information, PhD, and and DBA. theses in Business Management. Her areas of competence can be seen in the “Competency Map.” That is to say, her areas of expertise and experience mapped in a visualization presentation. Schlick’s affiliations are the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, University of Gloucestershire UK, and Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences. Dr. Schlick compares the high-IQ world to a bubble of self-expression, contrasting it with the hierarchical, politically charged academic environment where she faced discrimination as a woman and an external employee. She describes systemic biases, including unequal pay and a lack of rights for external workers, calling it “modern slavery.” Schlick highlights issues like neurodiversity being undervalued, with managers favoring conformity. She reflects on identity, power, and uncertainty in academia and life, emphasizing that these dynamics hinder individual growth and drive power-based relationships.
Keywords: Academic discrimination, gender inequality, high-IQ societies, modern slavery, neurodiversity undervalued, power dynamics, systemic biases.
Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: To set the tone for this interview, today, the general context will be opinion grounded in personal experience in Europe, specifically Switzerland, rather than statistical reportage as seen in the World Economic Forum, UN Women, and elsewhere. On face value, Mensa is mostly a male group or a men’s organization in Europe and in Switzerland. What has been your experience with the high-IQ societies and tests?
Dr. Sandra Schlick: I like to make tests when they are posing interesting questions to work on, puzzle. It is kind of a game for me.
Jacobsen: Has your experience in the high-IQ world been much the same as in the academic world? Although, from my understanding, you have more experience in the academic world in Switzerland.
Schlick: The high-IQ world is different, it is kind of a bubble you can be yourself while in the academic world you need to fill a role.
Jacobsen: In your experience, what is the role of power in the concept of gender relations?
Schlick: It is related also with the hierarchical role in a company, very often the ones with lower level tasks are the women and they are not treated the same as those on higher ranks, even though they might be smarter and more innovative.
Jacobsen: How are prestige, authority, and powerful positions, experienced in Academia for you?
Schlick: I gave up to hope to excel a high position. I have an interesting job and I like most of the time what I do. I would have loved to get a leadership position but I was always bounced away from other “aspiring” leaders, also from political games. I do not like that and I do not play their games. I tell what I think and they do like it as long as it is in line what they want and what is good for the ego of the higher positions, but the moment I come with something logical that is against them, well, then they do not like me so much. This might be the reason I am seen as difficult. Honesty is difficult.
Jacobsen: How has discrimination in the academic world played a role in professional life for you?
Schlick: It has always played a pivotal role. Not only due to hierarchy but also due to being an “external” which means working not on a permanent contract. The institutes make a lot of money hiring externals and with that they can also shift them as they wish. As external you do not have any right other than doing your job – which is your duty. If you do not do what they want, you can go. I would call that modern slavery on the high skilled.
Jacobsen: If so, how does this discrimination manifest?
Schlick: See above. As a long-lasting slave of many institutes and also meanwhile a permanent in one, I think discrimination can change its face and it followed me wherever I went. I was discriminated as being female during my first education (being the sole female machine construct engineer student in my class), later in company where the job names differ for males and females (and the females get less money for the same job content with another label) to going to external docent duties and feeling as slave. I learned to work for my money and to adapt and shut up in many places.
Jacobsen: How does diversity, including neurodiversity, affect the academic world in personal
Schlick: I would say that neurodiversity is not really the trait it is looked for. Managers look for diverse teams but upon analysing their teams you see that they are just showing the same type of people. The “yes sayers” are the most wanted among everybody. Be quiet and make your work, don’t ask the difficult questions.
Jacobsen: How have gender, identity, power, time, and uncertainty, played a role in academic life for you, as a set of concepts (re: Hofstedte, G.)?
Schlick: I expanded above quite much about inequality and slavery in a modern sense for the highly educated. But I think it is also manifest in every part of our life, be it that we encounter religious people who life according to the old or new testament, be it that we have power relations manifested in neighborhoods or be it in our friendships and teams where we seek to find our places. I just think that our identity cannot fully evolve among others. Also, I think that uncertainty has increased with the many global conflicts and crises, which makes it difficult to interact – the more uncertain people are the more they tend towards power relationships. If you do not wish that, you need to take your distance.
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Schlick.
Schlick: Thank you Scott for the opportunity to talk about power and hierarchies.
Footnotes
None
Citations
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Jacobsen S. Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ. November 2024; 13(1). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/sandra-schlick
American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Jacobsen, S. (2024, December 1). Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ’. In-Sight Publishing. 13(1).
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S. Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ’. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 13, n. 1, 2024.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. 2024. “Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ’.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 13, no. 1 (Winter). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/sandra-schlick.
Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Jacobsen, S. “Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 13, no. 1 (December 2024). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/sandra-schlick.
Harvard: Jacobsen, S. (2024) ‘Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 13(1). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/sandra-schlick.
Harvard (Australian): Jacobsen, S 2024, ‘Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/sandra-schlick.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. “Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.13, no. 1, 2024, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/sandra-schlick.
Vancouver/ICMJE: Jacobsen S. Conversation with Dr. Sandra Schlick on Representation, Women, Academia, and High-IQ [Internet]. 2024 Dec; 13(1). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/sandra-schlick.
License & Copyright
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ©Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use or duplication of material without express permission from Scott Douglas Jacobsen strictly prohibited, excerpts and links must use full credit to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with direction to the original content.
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What does it mean that in a high-IQ society, you can ‘be yourself,’ but in academia, you can’t? That sounds like a story you’re telling yourself. You are you, wherever you are. In places where you have a role to play, like academia, you fulfill that role as part of being yourself. Claiming otherwise is just avoiding the reality of personal accountability.
And what exactly is so special about a group of people united solely by a specific IQ score? It’s a flimsy common ground, so thin it barely qualifies as a shared trait. You could have an awkward 18 year old with acne, a 28 year old guy battling OCD and depression who’s only interested in cats, and an 84-year-old woman whose friends are either gone or too tired to hear her talk about her IQ, so she pays a small fee to latch onto other members in the society. Where’s the genuine connection in that?
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Academia is considered as something pure and perfect and with my answers I want to emphasize that this is absolutely not the case. Academic institutions are places where people compete and very often not the ones that should come to a position are those that get it. Similarly, not the ones that are specialists in a discipline are those that lecture it. In high IQ societies, just the IQ is the one that counts. We have societies that are emphasizing various types of talents. I am convinced that here we can talk about what we think and join people with similar mindsets.
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