thusspakezuska | March 4, 2008Janet Stemwedel has a lengthy, informative, interesting post on that eternally troublesome question: When in my graduate career should I have a baby? After reading it, I am put in mind of that New Yorker cartoon with the guy on the phone, looking at a datebook on his desk, saying "How about never? Is never good for you?"
The Chronicle news blog reports on a former professor at U. of Georgia with a "long record of sexual harassment." What's a university to do when one of its professors is found to be in violation of the sexual harassment policy? Why, pass him along to another university…
thusspakezuska | March 3, 2008I had lunch today in downtown Philly with the wonderful and always-interesting Lab Cat. We ate at a restaurant whose philosophy seemed to be "why serve a reasonable portion of food when you can serve a GINORMOUS portion of food?!?!"
This is what Cat got when she ordered a piece of chocolate cake for dessert:
Use the fork as your scale. That's a normal-sized fork. That's NOT a normal-sized piece of cake. In fact, I wouldn't even call that a piece of cake. I'd call that a little cake-berg, calved off of some unfathomably large chocolate glacier. Cat ate a portion of it that amounted to…
thusspakezuska | February 29, 2008Lab Lemming recently wrote to me:
However bad the situation here on Earth gets, at least there is another planet in the solar system where women scientists and engineers can work
and then directed me to this very heartening story on the Mars Exploration Rover tactical operations team. It seems that last Friday, every single person on the rather large team operating the rovers that day was a woman. Yay! Emily Lakdawalla, the author, tells us
Think about that. One, two, or a handful of women around could be explained away by the chauvinistic as token participants, the product of affirmative…
thusspakezuska | February 29, 2008There's been some quite lively blogging recently over at Abel Pharmboy's pad. Of particular note was the live-blogged vasectomy:
Anyway, as a medical blogger, I will try to liveblog the process from my Palm Treo 700p at the Hospital-That-Tobacco-Built. While I hope it will distract me and relieve some of my anxiety, I'd like to post it on blog as a public service to other men who want to be selfish and make their wives have tubal ligation after the mother of their children suffered through birth(s). (I've blogged on PharmGirl's complicated C-section experience and having my scrotum hacked…
thusspakezuska | February 28, 2008Skookumchick wants me to talk about renewal for the March Scientiae. I will try, though I'm sure this would be much easier for me if I had already undergone some form of said renewal.
What do I find compelling about the work I do? What do I hope for?
I would say I hope for a day when I have no reason to continue writing this blog. I'm not expecting that to happen anytime soon, however. So, instead I will hope for the strength to continue writing. You can't believe how enervating it is sometimes to think about gender and science on a sustained basis. I think I said on this blog…
thusspakezuska | February 27, 2008Maybe you've been wondering just exactly how few women scientists and engineers there are in academia in the U.S. Or, to put it another way, maybe you've wondered just exactly how much men scientists and engineers are overrepresented in academia.
There's a new website that gathers and presents comprehensive data you can use to answer those questions. The National Women's Law Center presents The Women's Prerogative. You can find out how many women are teaching in science and engineering at your school - there are data for 150 research universities. There are fact sheets that delineate…
thusspakezuska | February 21, 2008Alice has a very good post over at On Being A Scientist And A Woman about resources on implicit bias, including some really nice stuff to help you counteract implicit bias in reviewing/hiring situations. Go read it!
thusspakezuska | February 21, 2008Yes, February 17-23 is this year's National Engineering Week! I'm a little late to the party, I know...I've been a little preoccupied. But today is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day! There are events going on all over the U.S. even as we blog. But you know, you can do your own IAGTE activity at any time...it doesn't have to be today. And E-week has a list of 10 easy ways to get involved. Some of them are really easy, like #7: Donate copies of "Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers" to local libraries or a high school guidance office. "Changing Our World" is a product…
thusspakezuska | February 21, 2008What happens when you speak up about gender inequity in Japan's science culture? Why, you can expect to be accused of "tarnishing the reputation" of the university, that's what. That's what happened to biophysicist Mitiko Go when she spoke out about an instance of egregious sex discrimination. One Woman Is Not Enough, an editorial just published in Nature, recounts the tale. It's no wonder Go had to be essentially at retirement before she felt she could risk speaking up. Instead of retiring, however, she's now president of a university and a member of the Council for Science and…
thusspakezuska | February 15, 2008If you are, you may want to read this article over at ScienceCareers. It's very informative, with a link or two to some resources, and what's even cooler, it features quotes from Mrs. Whatsit (named "Abigail" in the article) and Sciencewoman (named "Mary")!!! Good stuff.
p.s. hat tip to my Sciblings on the back channel for letting me know about this!
thusspakezuska | February 14, 2008Abel Pharmboy reports on inaccuracies in breast cancer websites:
So it was no surprise to me and actually quite alarming to read a recent report suggesting that while only 1 in 20 breast cancer websites offer incorrect information, CAM-focused [CAM = complementary and alternative medicine] websites were 15 times more likely to contain inaccurate or incorrect information.
Go read the whole post, and the comments too.
thusspakezuska | February 14, 2008If you find yourself in the condition of being unavoidably female, and you aren't willing to undergo a sex change operation, then your best publication strategy may be to hide the XX affiliation.
The title of a recent publication on this issue is self-explanatory: "Double-blind review favours increased representation of female authors" by Budden, Tregenza, Aarssen, Koricheva, Leimu, and Lortie. Sadly, as the authors note, double-blind review is "rarely practised". If your name screams out "woman", you may be better off with an initial.
Of course, this is nothing terribly new; just a…
thusspakezuska | February 13, 2008Sciencewoman ponders seen and unseen parenting responsibilities. In a discussion about parceling out responsibilities for a large project, the department chair expressed his desire not to unduly belabor a Department Dad because of his Very Special Parenting Responsibilities; Sciencewoman, however, he had no problem assigning the task to her. Until reminded by her colleague that Sciencewoman, too, is a parent. Why was Daddy's time more worth protecting than Mommy's? Well, one hopes the department chair has learned a lesson.
What really burns my shorts even more, however, are the…
thusspakezuska | February 12, 2008I've written in the recent past about why Jim Watson is bad for science, especially the perception non-scientists get of science as a result of his pseudo-scientific racist natterings. I analyzed the reactions within the scientific community to the recent Watson imbroglio.
It's far past time for me to speak up about how Watson's mess hits closer to home. I am talking about his role on the board of directors of Seed Media Group as a scientific adviser. Seed Media Group, as you may know, is the organization that sponsors Scienceblogs. I have to tell you, it is extremely disgusting to be…
thusspakezuska | February 11, 2008Here's the word, from Sheril at The Intersection - and the word is exciting!
For months everyone has been asking us, when will there be an invitation sent to candidates...a date... a venue...
Well it's finally happened! It's official. Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Barack Obama have been invited to ScienceDebate2008.
The location? Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, named after one of our nation's greatest scientists (and greatest patriots). The date? April 18, days before the Pennsylvania Primary.
We're so close to seeing this through and now more than ever, we need you're…
thusspakezuska | February 11, 2008It has been difficult to get back into a regular rhythm of blogging after all the time off when I was dealing with stuff for my mom. I think all that took more of a toll on me than I realized. Although mom is doing great in her new place, and seems really happy, I've still felt overwhelmed and stressed (partly because caring for her finances has been no small task.) This all contributes to blogger's block, which I experience every now and then even without provocation.
I have ideas for things I want to blog on, and one post in particular that I urgently need to do for my own conscience's…
thusspakezuska | February 11, 2008February is turning out to be quite a great month at Scienceblogs! Welcome, welcome, welcome, Alice Pawley, now co-blogging with Sciencewoman! Alice "wants to be a feminist-but-tenured professor when she grows up". I say, why grow up? except for the tenured part. That will be nice. And may both you and Sciencewoman achieve it swiftly and easily!
Alice waves hello here, and then gets right down to business here. I am looking forward to the evolution of this co-blogging experience. Also I'm curious what new name they'll pick for the blog. In the meantime, you may now double your…
thusspakezuska | February 1, 2008Hooray! Hooray! Green Gabbro joins Scienceblogs today! Welcome, Maria!
thusspakezuska | February 1, 2008Science policy, 20 years of sexual harassment, French women students as prostitutes: a round-up of stuff from the Chronicle:
Dan Greenburg of Brainstorm complains that the U.S. has no national science policy. Some commenters say "that's a good thing".
Over at Chronicle Careers, Julie Vick and Jennifer Furlong talk about how to write good letters of recommendation. They include this advice:
The dean also talked about an issue that merits more discussion in academe: the difference in recommendation letters written for men and women. He suggested that people writing reference letters read…
thusspakezuska | January 31, 2008Raise your hand if you've been to diversity camp!
You know - sometime during the academic year, your department head or dean announces there's going to be a diversity meeting/seminar/retreat. People grudgingly attend, they do some exercises to maybe show them just how prejudiced they actually are, they're told Diversity is Good!, and there's a little talk about how they can be more supportive of diversity. Everybody goes home feeling like they wasted an hour or day or weekend of their lives, and nothing substantially changes. No one has addressed why resistance to diversity is so…