women in science
sciencewoman | March 9, 2008What do you do if you are the mother of two young children, have an academic spouse, and have just been denied tenure because of what appears to be upper-level university politics?
It sounds like some sick joke, right?
Only it's not. It's the situation that MommyProf finds herself in this weekend. Give her some sympathy and outrage.
sheril | March 7, 2008Devastating news from my neighborhood in North Carolina...
Eve Carson, the fourth female student body president of UNC-CH, 22 yr old pre-med senior double majoring in political science and biology, recipient of the university's prestigious Morehead Scholarship and member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, was shot and killed in a suburban neighborhood near campus.
Our community lost a bright, engaged, and promising young woman in an act of senseless violence. I am deeply saddened by this loss and my heart goes out to her family.
sciencewoman | March 6, 2008I'm so pleased to welcome See Jane Compute to the ScienceBlogs family. Jane was one of the first women in science bloggers I discovered, and I've been a big fan ever since. She's been on the tenure track a couple of years longer than I, so I've really valued hearing her perspective on research, teaching, and dealing with colleagues. She's also got a baby girl, appropriately nymed Baby Jane, who is just a few months younger than Minnow. Welcome, Jane!
skookumchick | February 22, 2008We've got a week before posts are due for the March Scientiae, the theme of which (if you choose to use it) is RENEWAL. Neither ScienceWoman or I have written a post on/for this yet either, so we're all in the late boat together. But this is the anniversary of Scientiae, so feel free to submit something to the celebratory party! Here's how, and the deadline is February 29 at 5 pm EST.
sciencewoman | February 17, 2008There's an article this week on Science Careers talking about impostor syndrome. The writer does a good job exposing the problem:
"Impostor syndrome" is the name given to the feelings that Abigail and many other young scientists describe: Their accomplishments are just luck or deceit, and they're in over their heads. The key to getting past it, experts say, is making accurate, realistic assessments of your performance....
Impostors have trouble putting those feelings in perspective and worry about their errors, not recognising that their colleagues make them, too. They also attribute their…
skookumchick | February 16, 2008Some of the comments to this post brought up the topic of implicit gender bias, and I thought the time might be ripe for a couple of pointers on the subject. Although I'm changing the context a little (from ethics training to search committees), the comments on reducing bias remain the same.
The first is that, in general, but with considerable caveats,* BOTH women and men are biased against women's applications, papers and such. The issue of gender bias is NOT just a problem of men being biased against women.
In fact, let's be clear - in all of these stories about gender, there are some…
sciencewoman | February 13, 2008As long as we're rolling out great new things this week on this soon-to-be-renamed(?) blog, here's another one.
Wouldn't it be cool if a bunch of us read the same book at the same time and then got together virtually to discuss it? Rather than one of us reading a good book and reviewing it, and the rest of us thinking "hmmm, maybe I should read that book someday," all of us could read the book and share our thoughts on it. Specifically, I'm thinking of the sort of books that speak to the experiences of women in STEM fields.
I think a book club would be really cool, and I say we should do it…
sheril | February 12, 2008Nicholas D. Kristof has an interesting Op-Ed in The New York Times 'When Women Rule'.
While no woman has been president of the United States -- yet -- the world does have several thousand years' worth of experience with female leaders. And I have to acknowledge it: Their historical record puts men's to shame.
After citing many examples, down the page he describes the 'Goldberg paradigm':
..people are asked to evaluate a particular article or speech, supposedly by a man. Others are asked to evaluate the identical presentation, but from a woman. Typically, in countries all over the world, the…
sciencewoman | February 9, 2008It is my great pleasure to announce that "On Being a Scientist and a Woman" has a co-blogger debuting today. Alice Pawley is a first-year faculty member in engineering education at Purdue University, and she'll bring a wonderful new dimension to the stories on the blog. Alice and I "met" on the 'net and she has a great writing voice and both a scholarly and personal perspective on women in STEM fields.
It probably surprises some of you that such a personal blog would decide to have a co-blogger. But my purpose in sharing my personal stories has always been foremost to start a conversation…
sciencewoman | February 4, 2008I'm swamped (and last night's early bedtime did not help matters. I've got lectures to write, papers to grade, and exam to write (then grade), a lab to prepare...oh yeah, and some service obligations and the ever-elusive research time.
Fortunately, there are lots of wonderful things on the internets these days for y'all to read. Here are some notable ones:
The February Scientiae carnival is up at Fairer Science. Pat has done a fabulous job compiling all of the amazing stories that were submitted.
An awesome blog by a woman scientist has been enlisted by the Sb overlords. Please welcome Green…
sciencewoman | January 30, 2008In my upper level course this semester, I am really trying to interject personality into the lectures and discussions. By personality, I don't (just) mean humor and compassion. What I also mean is that I am trying to convey that our subject matter is an area of active research, done by (gasp!) real people.
I started the term by giving the "old white guy tour," summarizing the historical development of the field and some of the key figures that have contributed. I called it the "old white guy tour" which at least got a smile from one or two of my students. I wanted to acknowledge that I was…
sciencewoman | January 30, 2008A reader recently sent me this email:
I have a question that perhaps you and your readers can help with. I'm currently at a cross-road in my academic career. A year ago I started a Master's program in one of the "ologies" with potential to switch over to the Ph.D if things progressed well over the first year. Well, I've had a very successful and enjoyable first year, so I was thrilled to learn that I could join the 'fast-track' for the Ph.D. Needless to say, this was my goal, since my dream job is to work at a small college/university where I can focus most of my time on teaching. But I've…
grrlscientist | January 29, 2008tags: Jennifer A. Clack, 2008 Daniel Girault Elliot medal, National Academy of Sciences, zoology, evolutionary biology, paleontology
The National Academy of Sciences's 2008 Daniel Girault Elliot medal.
I just learned that Jennifer A. Clack, ScD, FLS, Professor and Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Acting Director of the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge, UK, been awarded the 2008 Daniel Girault Elliot medal by the National Academy of Sciences.
The medal recognizes excellence in zoology or paleontology during a three to five year period of time, and the list of past…
sciencewoman | January 3, 2008We all know examples of successful women scientists. They are constantly held up as examples to us, used to say: "see, it can be done." Some of those successful women scientists are single, some are married, some are married with children. But are any of those women single mothers? Are any of them divorced with young children in their custody? Are any of them mothers of severely disabled children? Are any of them disabled themselves? How many of those successful women scientists are under-represented minorities? And do those minority women have children? At what point are the hurdles simply…
sciencewoman | December 26, 2007Here's my take on the top 10 women in science stories of 2007. It's highly biased toward blogospheric developments. Many thanks to skookumchick, Tara, Pat, and Karen for helping me compile items for inclusion on this list.
10. Microbiologist Rita Colwell received the National Medal of Science. Tara at Aetiology gives us the scoop, but Zuska points out that still only two of the eleven winners were women.
9. Girls won all of the top awards at the Siemens competition for research by high school seniors.
8. Women make out of this world astronauts. 2007 saw the first time that a woman has…
sciencewoman | December 19, 2007I think my entry for this month's Scientiae carnival is going to be a top 10 list of women in science news from 2007. This seems like a perfect excuse to kill a few hours web browsing. But I know that whatever ideas I come up with, I will miss some of the best things out there. So if you have a personal favorite women in science story (news item, blog post, report, etc.) that you think should be included in the top 10 list, please let me know.
sciencewoman | December 13, 2007Dear Administrator,
I know that everyone in this building lacks blinds on their office windows, and I realize that you have requested that blinds be installed. However, I have a particular need for blinds in my office and I hope you can forward my request to Facilities Services with some urgency.
In the current configuration of my office, the sun strikes my computer screen for several hours per day, making it very hard for me to read the screen. I would like to rearrange my office to mitigate this problem, but every single other arrangement leaves another problem in its place.
If I move my…
sciencewoman | December 5, 2007Congratulations to Isha Jain, Janelle Schlossberger, and Amanda Marinoff, this year's prize winners at the prestigious Siemens competitions for high school science research. Jain won the individual competition and was awarded a $100,000 scholarship. Schlossberger and Marinoff will share another $100,000 scholarship for their team research, while Alicia Darnell took home the second place individual prize, a $50,000 scholarship.
That's awesome with no qualifiers. These students are being rewarded for thousands of hours of effort and research that is graduate-level and publication quality. I've…
sheril | December 5, 2007With all the hullabaloo over women in science and engineering, let's hear if for the girls who just made history in New York!
Girls won top honors for the first time in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, one of the nation's most coveted student science awards, which were announced yesterday at New York University.
And most importantly, congratulations to all of the extraordinary young participants in this wonderful competition--These girls and boys give me great hope for a brighter future!
sciencewoman | December 4, 2007The December edition of Scientiae, the carnival by, for, and about women in science, has been ably hosted by Kate. She issued the challenging theme of "transcending the debate" and her challenge has been well met. Head over there for some great posts.