women in science

If you'll recall, in mid-October I had a disaster morning and ended up bringing Minnow to class with me. In the comment thread, Tara asked a great question: "What did my students think of it?" So I asked them. (Honestly, it was the reason for instigating the mid-semester evaluations, which turned out to be helpful in their own right.) I gave a list of possible answers and let them select multiple choices. 34% said it was "A chance to see that professors are human."53% said "Great. Bring her anytime."28% said "Acceptable under rare circumstances, but shouldn't happen on a regular basis."6%…
A look to our sidebar and you'll see a new photograph. Regular readers may notice the style is quite different from the previous image and arguably distinct from what I generally advocate on the blog. Or is it? Until this weekend, I hadn't realized I'd been feeling pressure to hide...or at least remain somewhat obscure. I had reservations wondering whether a woman can really be taken seriously as a writer for her ideas, if on some level she is first perceived as female. Evolutionary psychologists describe subconscious cues and I've encountered more than a few folks from the fishing…
My post a few days ago has set people debating what the conventions are for addressing faculty at different universities. It seems that the form of address is highly dependent on where in the world you go to university. Let me explain where I'm coming from in insisting that my students call me Dr. Woman rather Mrs. Woman. And then I'm going to ask for suggestions for next semester. In my UG at an old-guard American university, everyone was Dr. lastname, except the really ancient and honorable profs who were Prof. lastname. In grad school, faculty were firstname or first + lastname. The class…
Example 1: A significant portion of my students address me as "Mrs. ScienceWoman" despite my repeated email signatures, etc. to the contrary. On the other hand, the lecturer with an M.S. next door to me is constantly addressed as "Dr. Lecturer." Guess what gender "Dr. Lecturer" is? Example 2: I had a meeting with the daycare director this morning and I mentioned that I teach at Mystery U. She said she'd heard that, but didn't think there was anyone in the education department with my name. Hmmm, maybe I'm not in the education department. I don't think my students or the daycare director are…
Kate has announced a great topic for the next Scientiae. She'd like us to "transcend the debate." She says: I'm tired of arguing whether women are really screwed or not in science, I'm tired of discussion biological or cultural differences between male and female aptitude; there's something problematic about these dichotomies that makes the arguments stale. Instead: * What are the ways you transcend these debates? * How do you think about the big picture? * How do you do the work that you do, how do you move on? * What does your life look like in this context? * Where do…
Note: This post was originally published on 1 July 2007 at my old site. I am reposting it here and nominating it for inclusion in the Open Laboratory anthology. There is still time to submit your favorite posts from this blog, your own, or other blogs you read. Here's how. Sometimes I get depressed when I read the blogs of other women scientists - particularly when the topic of children vs. an academic career is the topic du jour. The short version is that many of us seem to think we have two choices: (1) Have a career and no children, or children we never see; or (2) Give up our plans for t-…
I'm being productive today, working on my revisions, but I've noticed a few really good posts around the blogosphere the last few days, so I wanted to share them with a broader audience. First, ScienceMama at Mother of All Scientists discusses going back to work after the birth of her daughter (and promises us that this is part 1 of infinity):I want to find a better balance between work and raising my child(ren). There is a dearth of flexible work situations in science. And it makes me sad that while the women's movement has made great strides in getting women into the workforce, there aren't…
The November edition of Scientiae, the women in science carnival, is up at Green Gabbro. Yami did a great job with the carnival, and I'm having fun reading all the great posts. I'm already looking forward to the call for posts for the December edition.
I'm publicly responding to a particular reader's provocative comments because women-in-science is a topic that needs to be settled. Finally. After which, I'll be moving away from the great gender divide for a while and back to science and policy next week. Here goes. November 2, 2007 Hello there Gabe, You may be wondering why I'm addressing you in this forum. Well, since you visited both blogs and stirred up quite a response, I figured you deserve to be in the spotlight. To begin, I'm glad you read our blog and take enough of an interest to participate. My favorite aspect of The…
Can the federal government actually penalize universities that are not actively working to overcome subtle and unconscious gender bias by invoking Title IX of the Civil Rights Act? Step back and first consider these stats from Harvard on women in the life sciences: undergraduates: 57%doctoral students: 45%postdoctoral fellows: 37%assistant and associate professors: 31%full professors:13% Women in academia make less than our male counterparts, are promoted more slowly, and hold fewer leadership positions. So what's the big deal about examining gender bias? Cathy Young's Boston Globe Op-…
Wow everyone! Thanks for all your suggestions on my last post. I thought I'd respond here, since my comments are plenty long enough.... I'll probably still miss some things though. Re: pumping and breastfeeding. I am planning to nurse on the plane and during the conference proper. Unfortunately the first day I have an off-site field course for 10(!) hours. Hence the need to bring the frozen milk and pump that day. I'll probably end up tossing what I pump, but if I don't pump at least somewhat I'll be in serious pain. I've got a manual Avent pump for that purpose. Apparently, in addition to a…
In a moment of pure foolishness, I decided it would be a good idea to submit an abstract. This was way back in June and the conference was months away. Surely, things would be calm and under control by the time the conference came. Minnow would be sleeping through the night and I'd just pay a student to come along and babysit (turns out they have daycare on-site). It'd be fun. I missed the conference season last year, and this would be a great way to network and let people know my new affiliation. Besides there was a perfect session... I don't know what I was thinking. But at the end of next…
Read all sorts of wonderful posts by/for women in science at this month's edition of Scientiae. This edition of the carnival was ably hosted by Wayfarer Scientista who selected the theme "mentoring" to get us all going. Thanks, Wayfarer for doing such a great job putting together the carnival. Next month, the full will be hosted by Yami at Green Gabbro.
Hat-tip to a reader for bringing this to my attention. Should a breast-feeing woman be allowed extra long breaks during her nine-hour medical licensing exam? That's been the question in the case of an MD/PhD student and her four month old baby. The medical student, Sophie Currier, requested extra break time so that she could pump her breasts during the exam. The national Medical Board of Examiners denied her request, so she sued. On Wednesday, an appeals court overturned an earlier decision that denied her request. A Superior Court judge last week rejected Currier's request to order the…
There's been a lot of fuss 'round here this week about the fact that The Scientist magazine picked five male science bloggers to identify their favorite science blogs, and what that says about the ways that women are excluded from the conversation even when they're not badly under-represented (which they are). That's got people thinking about women in science in general, which is always a good thing in my opinion. PZ Myers reports that he asked his students to name a woman scientist and that many left the question blank. Who would you name? Who is the first woman scientist who comes to mind?…
The-Scientist recently posted a short piece on science-related blogs and interviewed seven different science bloggers to find out which blogs they recommend. One puzzling feature about the piece is that all the bloggers they interviewed were male. Pretty harmless, right? Sure. Except, as others have pointed out (here and here), these kind of invisible moments add up. Here are some of mine: I rode my bike to work yesterday and happened on a large bill-board with the phrase: "Are you a long-haired, pony-tail-wearing, software geek?" I was stunned. How did they know? When did I become…
I'm tempted to joke and say "Recruit hotter guys?" but that would be just as wrong as Razib's charming notion of what cute women read for fun or our uncertain physicist's misconception that there's nothing that he can do to improve the situation for female students at his small college. Of course our physicist friend has tenure, now, so perhaps he'll study up on Zuska's suggestions. Besides, I don't really think there's a shortage of hot geeky guys, Zuska and I both found them, so I know they're out there. Making a real difference requires a climate change. Life science enrollment is…
Zuska never fails to make people think. And she made me wonder this and made me think that perhaps we could pass some names along to future Noble committees - you know, just in case they're having trouble coming up with names of female scientists. Maybe we can be some help. I have a few suggestions below but I would really like to see more suggestions in the comments. My suggestions for female Nobelists are: 1. Mary-Claire King She could fit in two categories - The first category would be medicine for her discovery that a common disease, i.e. breast cancer, should have a genetic cause…
Some of my fellow ScienceBloggers have been hotly debating the role of male science faculty in perpetuating a climate that's chilly and hostile to women. From one end of the ring, we've heard the classic complaint "It's not my fault, I didn't do it." From the other end, we hear: "It is your fault because you're not doing anything to change it." And, in the middle, we have a rational and thoughtful referee, pointing out that both writers see things from different perspectives. I think the question boils down to this: Are you automatically part of the problem if you're not part of the…