Women and Science
jstemwedel | May 25, 2006Blogging has been light because grading has been heavy. But Chad has a post that started me to thinking. (Danger! Danger!) And, since he has stated his desire to avoid a flamewar at this time, it seems only fair that I do that thinking over here so his space can be unscorched.
The question at hand, initially posed by Scott Aaronson, is whether there might be a shortage of women in science because women are more prone to be "repelled by nerd culture" than men.
What do we mean by "nerd culture" here? This is Scott's characterization of it (along with his preferred strategy of making the…
tsmith | March 9, 2006Guess I should've held off an extra day on this post. Yesterday was blog against sexism day. Lots of excellent posts linked there if you're looking to spend several hours getting depressed, then pissed off, then ready to go out and kick some as over the state of affairs and the treatment of women in the 21st century. Locally, Janet shares some of her experiences.
In other "can you believe this crap is still happening in 2006?" news, Orac notes that the offices of the Holocaust History Project were attacked by arsonists (more details here). This latest outrage comes after an extended…
jstemwedel | March 8, 2006It's Blog Against Sexism Day.
There are those inclined to think that sexism is no longer an issue in science. Yes, it's horrible that in the past women were kept from pursuing science and barred from science jobs. But now, the doors are wide open and anyone who wants to can be a scientist.
Things are surely better than they used to be. But it is not yet the case that a woman's entry to science is just as easy and unproblematic as a man's.
There is data around (Tara provides some here) about how much more leaky the science pipeline is for women than for men. There are those who have…
tsmith | March 7, 2006So, Chad posted a link to this post last week.
As a woman in science myself, I have to say I don't 100% buy this argument:
Most people go to work primarily in order to earn a paycheck. Workers prefer a higher salary to a lower salary. Jobs in science pay far less than jobs in the professions and business held by women of similar ability. A lot of men are irrational, romantic, stubborn, and unwilling to admit that they've made a big mistake. With Occam's Razor, we should not need to bring in the FBI to solve the mystery of why there are more men than women who have chosen to stick with the…
tsmith | December 13, 2005...I was suffering the worst pain I'd ever experienced. I arrived at the hospital a bit before 1AM, and spent the next four hours or so walking around in agony. By 5AM, I decided I was ready for some of the good drugs, but the nurse informed me it was too late--time for the real fun to start. My daughter was born at 5:23AM, December 13, 1999--five long grumpy days after her due date. I was supposed to have a final exam that day.
My daughter wasn't exactly, erm, scheduled--but no contraceptive is 100% effective. I'd just been accepted to grad school, married less than 6 months, and hello, baby…
tsmith | November 29, 2005Link to CNN story.Stan Berenstain, who with his wife created the popular children's books about the Berenstain Bears, has died.
In more than 200 books, the Berenstain Bears, written and illustrated by Stan and Jan Berenstain, helped children for 40 years cope with trips to the dentist, eating junk food and cleaning their messy rooms.
The first Berenstain Bears book, "The Great Honey Hunt," was published in 1962. The couple developed the series with children's author Theodor Geisel -- better known as Dr. Seuss, then head of children's publishing at Random House -- with the goal of teaching…