feminism
mikethemadbiologist | May 14, 2009Throughout my career, I've perceived a double standard towards women in science regarding behavior at scientific meetings. For those of you who aren't professional scientists, the after-hours parts of meetings are very important for one's career and scientific opportunities. Like it or not, the 'non-science' parts of the social construct of Science matter a great deal. Being a successful scientist isn't just about your research. But back to the double standrard.
If a male scientist goes to a meeting, and, after hours, goes crazy, he is viewed as a 'works hard, plays hard' type of guy. If…
thusspakezuska | May 11, 2009In the midst of a vigorous discussion on my last post, reader Deatkin expressed his frustrations as to how he might engage in a positive manner in a discussion of feminist issues. In this case, it was not the hairy-legged man-hating feminazi Zuska who was intimidating; it was Comrade Physioprof.
Now, I'm perfectly willing to accept that the problem lies with me on this... In sum, I may simply be too immature (I'm 20 and a mere undergraduate) to think broadly and imaginatively enough on feminist issues in order for me to reach a conclusion that somebody such as [Comrade Physioprof] would find…
bcohen | May 7, 2009Pt. I | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3
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Part 3 with Martha McCaughey, discussing her book The Caveman Mystique, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-blogger series can be found here.
WF: So how is the use of evolutionary psychology to explain masculine actions not just quackery? Evolutionary biologists, and many who read science blogs, rightly announce and discredit the quackery of creationists or, more broadly, those who "deny" scientific truths. But, for the sake of argumentative symmetry, can one put that lens back onto evolutionary psychology? Besides the caveman issue, does that field…
bcohen | May 6, 2009Pt. I | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3
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Part 2 with Martha McCaughey, discussing her book The Caveman Mystique, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-blogger series can be found here.
WF: How do you see the relationship between the academic fields of gender studies and science studies? And how has that relationship changed in the past two decades? I'm asking for a few reasons, but one of them is that I remember from graduate studies that many of the most persuasive accounts of the politics of science and technology came from feminist scholars.
MM: It's a big question, so I'll offer but a start…
gregladen | May 3, 2009... well, not really, you should not burn any book. But don't just leave this one around for your kids to accidentally read.
Source of book.
Hat tip
pharyngula | May 2, 2009When I teach genetics, I like to pull a little trick on my students. About the time I teach them about analyzing pedigrees and about sex linkage, I show them this pedigree and ask them to figure out what kind of trait it is.
It's a bit of a stumper. There's the problem of variability in its expression, whatever it is, which makes interpretation a little fuzzy — that's a good lesson in itself, that genetics isn't always a matter of rigid absolutes. They usually think, though, that it must be some Y-linked trait, since only males (the squares in the diagram) have it at all, and no females (the…
gregladen | April 12, 2009... in the movie Observe and Report.
Go HERE to see the rest of the commentary as well as the R-rated trailer which shows part of the scene in question.
I've got no opinion on this one scene because there is not enough context or detail (having not seen the movie) but the FFFU seems reasonable. The movie as a whole seems to be stupid. And it seems to be just one more of the parade of stupid that serves so well to maintain our stupid culture. I don't think I'm being stupid when I say this. Am I?
bioephemera | April 3, 2009At 3quarksdaily, Sam Kean has an interesting essay on the future of theoretical mathematics, whether computers capable of generating proofs will supplant human mathematicians, and what that will mean for the "beauty" of math:
There's general consensus that really genius-level mathematics is beautiful--purely and uncorruptedly beautiful, the way colored light is, or angels. More particularly, it's regarded as beautiful in a way that science is not. With a few exceptions--Einstein's theories of relativity, string theory, maybe Newton and Darwin--no matter how much science impresses people, it…
gregladen | March 22, 2009Do I need to spell this out for you?
Transcript and background available here.
gregladen | March 22, 2009The National Young Women's Leadership Conference is going on. You can get to related information via this blog: Choices Feminist Campus.
Welcome to the second day of our National Young Women's Leadership Conference. WOOHOO! We are Showing this morning's plenary live today on UStream -- same link as below for yesterday's plenary. It will be live from 10am-11:15am and available after for viewing anytime.
gregladen | March 20, 2009Julia and I looked into this and we have concurred, and this Jury of Two is prepared to pass judgment.
This is the original Dora the Explorer:
And here (below the fold) is the new Dora:
The original Dora had a backpack and a monkey, she had boot-like explorer shoes, sensible clothing, what looks to me like a watch with a compass built into it, a very sensible haircut, and a thirst for knowledge. When Julia saw the new Dora, she was a bit shocked. "No backpack. What about the monkey? Pockets? How can you be an explorer with no pockets? They turned her into a Barbie."
"But what…
gregladen | March 19, 2009
Totally stolen from Betul at Counter Minds. Who also has the latest on Darwin's plight in Turkey.
Also, see this follow up on the women in careers discussion by A K8, A Cat, A Mission.
bioephemera | March 18, 2009
Via Bora's blog, a delightfully cheesy1955 filmstrip about why science education is more important than anything else - even fishing. It starts out slow, but this Sputnik-era treasure turns into a veritable propagandafest about how science literacy is a civic duty. Plus, it raises vital questions like "Why do these kids have weird pseudo-Southern accents even though their parents don't?" and "How can science help Betty 'hook some guy'?"
Remember, women need to know as much about science as some men do! Are you going to be ready?
(Look how bored Betty looks by the end.)
Provenance:…
palmd | February 11, 2009There's been some pretty cryptic talk on ScienceBlogs over the last day or so, which brings up some topics that may seem obscure to some readers.* Worse, it gives an appearance that bloggers are engaged in some sort of self-indulgent flame war over minutiae. Let me help draw a guide for those of you who care (and I will try to make clear why all of you should care).
First, I hate debates about "discourse". When we argue about how we argue, we often lose track of the meat of the issue. But discourse is not irrelevant. More on this in a bit.
Medicine was traditionally a male-dominated…
gregladen | January 23, 2009The following is a proof developed by a number of economists at Harvard. It is a proof of the inability of women to understand technologically complex problems, math, engineering, that sort of thing. it is claimed that it almost always works.
Now, I'm not saying that Larry Summers was party to this proof, or even in the room at the time. I'm. Not. Saying. That.
Well, he was in the room. Not that that means anything.
Anyway, on to the proof.
Find a female, any available female, and give her the following information:
1: The speed of sound is approximately 720 miles per hour.
2: The speed…
gregladen | January 2, 2009As a daughter, I was raised to know nothing about money. Whenever I tried to ask my father a question on the subject he would respond, "Nu, Daphne? Since when the interest in business?" and shoo me away.
... apropos our discussion here, read about Bernie Madoff -> here
ty Ana
grrlscientist | August 1, 2008tags: sex, abortion, feminism, family planning, medicaid, Department of Human and Health Services, contraceptives, birth control pills
This morning, I heard an astonishing interview on WNYC that discussed a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) draft document that was just leaked. This document proposes to redefine nearly all forms of birth control, especially birth control pills, as a form of abortion and allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception [PDF]. Considering that roughly half of all American women use birth control pills, I think this…
grrlscientist | July 8, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, female scientists, science publishing, double-blind review, single-blind review, cultural observation, gender bias, sexism, feminism
A microbiologist at work.
Image: East Bay AWIS.
A few months ago, a controversy occurred in the blogosphere regarding whether scientific papers whose first author is female are discriminated against during the peer-review process, and the suggestion was to institute double-blind peer review as a way to mitigate this possibility. "Double-blinding" as this is sometimes referred to, is a process where a manuscript that has been…
grrlscientist | June 23, 2008tags: pro-life is anti-woman, George Carlin, humor, comedy, streaming video
George Carlin talks about the so-called pro-life people, who use their hypocritical position to legalize and institutionalize their hatred for women. He asks, Why, when it's us, it's an abortion, but when it's a chicken, it's an omelet? [9:50]