White House Report on Women and Economy

The White House recently released a report on women entitled “Keeping America’s Women Moving Forward: The Key to an Economy Built To Last.”  The report includes a section on women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.  STEM-related employment is expected to increase by 16.5% by 2020.  For this reason, it is so important to make sure women are equally represented in STEM. Women make up 25% of the STEM workforce, and therefore are missing out on valuable employment opportunities.  In addition, STEM employers are missing out on valuable employees!

Another reason why it’s so important to encourage women to pursue STEM jobs is because women in STEM fields earn more.  On average, women holding STEM jobs earn 33% more than women holding non-STEM jobs.  There is also better pay equity in STEM fields – while women in non-STEM fields earn 21% less than their male coworkers, women in STEM-fields earn 14% less than their male coworkers.  Granted, both of those pay inequity numbers are terrible.  The pay inequity is just a little less terrible in STEM fields.

The report goes on to detail things the government is currently doing to increase the representation of women in STEM.  The entire report is very long, and contains a variety of topics related to the status of women in the U.S.  It’s worth picking out a few sections you’re particularly interested in to read

Early women in science

In case you haven’t seen it yet, I wanted to point everyone to this amazing collection of photographs of women scientists working before the 1970s/1980s (when women were more severely underrepresented in the sciences).  This collection was put together by the Smithsonian for International Women’s Day/Women’s History Month.  Looking through the photographs was super informative and inspirational – I had never heard of the vast majority of these women!  It goes to show how the women who were working in science at the time went unrecognized.  And the photographs themselves are truly treasures.  So if you haven’t already, I highly recommend you take a look.  Some amazing women in the collection include Cornelia Maria Clapp, recipient of the first and second biology PhDs awarded to a woman in the U.S., biochemist Gerty Cori, winner of a Nobel Prize in Medicine, and aviator Jaqueline Cochran, the first woman to break the sound barrier!
For some more inspirational women scientists, check out 25 Female Scientists to Celebrate This Month!

Positive, realistic, flexible, kind

Today, I attended Inspiring Women Scientists 2012, an event dedicated to women in science held at the CUNY Graduate Center.  There were talks and panel sessions, and I was grateful to be in the presence of strong women scientists who had great advice for those of us who are just beginning our careers.

One of today’s talks was given by Jill Tarter, the director of the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research.  Dr. Tarter gave a great talk about her research, which is inspired by question, “Are we alone?”.  The question of whether life exists on extraterrestrial planets has gained particular relevance recently, given the great success of the Kepler Mission.  Kepler has identified over 2,000 exoplanet candidates, several of which are located in habitable zones (at a distance from their star where water could exist as a liquid).

Dr. Tarter had some great advice (which is relevant for all scientists), which I wanted to share.  Dr. Tarter told us that we should try to be positive, realistic, flexible, and kind.  She elaborated on each of these concepts:

• Positive. Others can and will try to discourage you.  Remain positive and don’t let it affect you.
• Realistic.  Try to find metrics to measure your own performance.  How are you doing in relation to your peers?  Figure out what do you need to be able to do the things you want.
• Flexible.  You probably won’t end your career doing what you started, so be flexible.  Figure out what problem solving skills you have, and then figure out what the most interesting problems are. Be willing to use your skill sets to solve these problems.
• Kind.  Be kind to yourself! And especially be kind to other women.  Support other female scientists.

I really enjoyed hearing Dr. Tarter speak, and these are qualities I will definitely try to maintain throughout my career!

How do seventh graders see scientists?

I recently came across this website, which posts students drawings of scientists before and after visiting Fermilab.  While at Fermilab, the students had the opportunity to meet with scientists in small groups.  They deliberately chose a white male, female, and African American scientist for the students to meet with.  The before and after drawings and descriptions of scientists are extremely interesting and illuminating.

Some of my favorite posts are from Amanda, Ashley, Beth, James, and Pat.  A common theme expressed in the before and after descriptions are that scientists are normal people, not mythical beings – some of the students seemed surprised that scientists had outside interests like sports and music. A LOT of the students drew old, white men with crazy hair in lab coats in the “before” illustration.  In the after illustrations, the scientists are of all ages and wearing normal clothes (Amanda notes, “I saw people walking around in sweatshirts and jeans. Who knows? Maybe I can be a scientist.”) It’s also really encouraging how many people drew women and people of color after visiting Fermilab.  It seems like this exercise was a great way to reinforce that there are scientists of all kinds, and that anyone can be a scientist if they want to be!

Drawing of scientist before and after, by Ashley. Source: http://ed.fnal.gov/projects/scientists/ashley.html

For some humor, check out Katie (“Their jobs sound very interesting because they can do whatever they want and still get paid for it” – if only!),  and Beth (“The scientist has big square shaped glasses and a big geeky nose.”)

In the NY area? Come to Inspiring Women Scientists!

Are you in the New York area? Consider attending the Inspiring Women Scientists forum! There are going to be some really exciting talks and panels about science in academia and career options in science. Registration is free, and it looks to be a really fun, inspirational, and informative day.  I went last year and I highly recommend it.  If you can’t attend, I’ll be blogging about it afterwards!

More information/registration: http://cuny.edu/research/news-events/IWS.html

Balancing motherhood and a physics education

Today I read an interview by Physics Today with Randi Ludwig, an astronomy graduate student who has been a mother since her sophomore year of her undergraduate education.  The interview offers a really helpful perspective on what it’s like to be a mother and a student in the physical sciences at the same time.  And although it’s clear that it isn’t an easy thing to do, Randi Ludwig shows that it is definitely possible! The interview also makes a strong case for family-friendly science departments; one thing that made balancing science and motherhood easier was the fact that she could bring her daughter to class with her.  It’s really important that science departments be family-friendly as careers in science can make motherhood difficult.

Here’s the interview: http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition/singularities/forging_ahead_with_astronomy_baby_and_all

Study: Women physicists have less access to resources

In “Women in physics: A tale of limits”, an article recently published in Physics Today, Rachel Ivie and Casey Langer Tesfaye stress looking beyond the underrepresentation of women in physics to determine whether women in physics have equal access to resources.  Although women in physics are still underrepresented (they make up 17% of physics PhDs), concentrating on that can take focus off the day-to-day issues women physicists face.

In all, the authors had survey data from 15000 physicists from 130 different countries.  While the article can be read in it’s entirety here, I’d like to highlight some main points.

1) The majority of housework is more likely to be done by women than men.  The female physicists are also more likely to be married to someone with a high level of education. The authors write, “Taken together, the survey results indicate that if family responsibilities do affect physicists’ careers, they are more likely to affect women than men.”

2) Having children slows the career progress of female physicists, but not the career progress of male physicists.  In fact, according to a different survey, male faculty members with children are the most likely group to achieve tenure.

3) In both less developed countries and highly developed countries, women have less access than men to key resources such as funding, office space, lab space, and equipment (among other things).

4) In both less developed countries and highly developed countries, women have less career advancing experiences, such as being invited to give talks at conferences, and serving on committees for grant agencies.

I highly recommend taking a look at the tables and figures in the article, as they reveal distressing facts about the status of women in physics worldwide.  Not only are women physicists underrepresented, but they have less access than men to important resources and career advancing experiences.  The careers of female physicists are also affected negatively by family responsibilities while the careers of male physicists are not.

Show me what a scientist looks like…

…This Is What a Scientist Looks Like!

I recently stumbled across this really awesome blog called “This Is What a Scientist Looks Like“. Essentially, this blog tries to change the stereotypical perceptions of who a scientist is and what they look like.  Some of the pictures posted on the blog show us scientists who are women, and scientists who have families (including several with young children).  But it also shows us scientists doing things that aren’t science.  Scientists are not one-dimensional, and spend plenty of time doing things outside the lab/classroom.  There is a weightlifting entomologist, a soccer-coaching psychologist, a bagpipe playing biologist, a scuba-diving planetary scientist, and a fashion blogger/pharmacologist.

I think that showing that scientists come in many different forms can go a long way in increasing the representation of women in the sciences.  Scientists are not mythical men in lab coats, doing experiments through the night in their basement laboratories.  We do not all wear nerdy glasses and sport pocket protectors.*  Scientists can be your sister, your friend, your neighbor, your mother, and may even be you!

What stereotypes about scientists do you think need to be dispelled?

 

*Despite this, we will probably be nerdy in other ways. And actually myself and most of my friends wear glasses..

Planets, planets everywhere!

Wow, it’s been a longg time since I last posted.  I attribute this to my crazy semester (hard classes + applying for graduate schools = close to no free time).  I still have one final left, but I really wanted to post about the exciting planet news that came out today!

In case you haven’t heard, NASA has confirmed the discovery of the FIRST Earth-sized exoplanets (exoplanets are planets outside our solar system)!  There have been a lot of planet discoveries in the news lately.  A lot of this is due to NASA’s Kepler satellite, which looks for exoplanet candidates.  Kepler detects small dips in the brightness of stars, which can be due to objects passing in front of them.  If a dip occurs regularly and in even intervals, you  know there is an object orbiting that star.  One then needs to conduct follow up observations with another telescope to confirm that the object is a planet.

Today, two new confirmed exoplanets – Kepler 20e and Kepler 20f – were announced.  Kepler 20f has a radius 1.03 times that of Earth’s, and Kepler 20e is even smaller – it has a radius of .87 times that of Earth’s.  Although both planets are Earth-sized, they aren’t as hospitable as our home planet.  Kepler 20e and 20f are both close to their sun-like host star, meaning they are very hot.  Kepler 20e is more than 1400 degrees F, and Kepler 20f is about 800 degrees F.

NASA chart showing how the sizes of Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f compare to Earth and Venus. (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/kepler-20-planet-lineup.html)

Although these two planets aren’t exactly the Earth-twin we’ve been searching for, it seems that it’s only a matter of time before we find it!

To read more follow this link!

Thanks, but no thanks.

I was at a science conference recently where I was presenting a poster on my research.  A graduate student came by, we introduced ourselves, and I explained my poster.  He seemed interested as I talked about my work, but as he was leaving he said “You’re beautiful”.  Taken aback by this comment, I replied with a slightly confused “thank you”.

Afterwards, I felt offended.  While the comment itself wasn’t offensive, given the context, I found it to be totally uncalled for and inappropriate.  With that comment I was reduced from “fellow student and scientist” to “woman”.  We don’t go to professional science conferences to be hit on.  We go to share our science with others, learn about work other people are doing, and network with each other.  I don’t want to have comments made about my appearance; I want to have comments made about my research!

Has anyone had a similar experience (being inappropriately hit on in professional settings)?  How did you deal with it?  I feel like I should have said something along the lines of “thank you, but that’s not really appropriate right now”, but  I’d really appreciate some feedback from others.