Do you have a 50/50 relationship?

I'm reading a preview copy of a great new book by local authors Sharon Meers and Joanna Strober: "Getting to 50/50" (to be published by Bantam Books in February 2009). The book is about how couples (typically with kids) can arrange their lives so that the woman can have a fulfilling career and the man can have a fulfilling family life with all the benefits that both of those things can bring to everyone in the family. I've just got through chapter one. I've waved it at my husband a couple of times, but he's put off by the way its obviously written for a female reader. Ah well, I'll just have to read him choice bits out loud as he sits at the computer working in the evenings.... More to come as I read!

New initiatives on prostitution in the UK

News from the UK of government proposals to crack down on the clients of prostitutes, with the aim of protecting trafficked women. Some controversy over whether it will actually achieve that goal. See the Associated Press story.

Intersex Babies

Fascinating article in The Stanford Report, November 12, on "intersex babies": i.e. babies born without a clear sex. The Stanford Report story draws on a new book, Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority and Lived Experience (Duke University Press) by Katrina Karkazis. Intersex people used to be called hermaphrodites. Sometimes they have mostly male characteristics, sometimes mostly female; the intersex characteristics may be at the genetic, gonadal, or anatomic level.

Dr Karkazis talks about changes to the way doctors view these babies. They no longer tend to treat assigning a sex as essential. Being assigned to the male or female gender is necessary, for social and legal reasons; but surgery is no longer seen as the only or best option for children with ambiguous genitalia or other anatomical intersex characteristics. Dr Karkazis advocates for a more sympathetic view of intersex people, as whole individuals with unique stories, rather than as curious biological specimens. The Stanford Report article concludes with a quote:

'We need doctors, Karkazis said, who will tell...worried parents, "I've seen this before. It's OK. There's no reason your child cannot have a marvelous life." '

Leaving the Clayman Institute

I will be leaving the Clayman Institute on December 17, after more than three years as Associate Director. We are (obviously) looking for a replacement - go to the Institute's website at http://gender.stanford.edu to look for more details on the homepage. We'll also be looking for two part-time maternity cover posts for an events co-ordinator and a fellowship program manager, January to June 2009.

Silicon Valley research this week

Watch out for new research this week from the Clayman Institute at Stanford in collaboration with the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology. It's called Climbing the Technical Ladder: Women in Mid-Level Positions in Silicon Valley High Tech. Based on survey and interviews at six leading Silicon Valley high tech companies, it examines why women drop out of the technical ladder, and why so few women make it past the difficult mid-level tier to senior management. It reveals that women want much the same as their male colleagues - and that to improve employee loyalty and retention, companies would be advised to approach all their employees with similar initiatives. Very revealing stuff.

Speak out!

I just spent the past two days in a seminar hosted by Catherine Orenstein, founder of the OpEd Project, on how to write and pitch an opinion piece. She has amazing experience of freelance writing to share, and a host of great ideas. Do you have something you want to say? Did you know that over 90% of op-ed pieces in newspapers are written by white men? Speak out! Take a look at the Op-Ed Project's website and see if they are hosting an event near you soon. You'll be surprised to learn that YOU are an expert too!

Dual-Career report update

Only 6 days to go till we launch our Dual-Career Academic Couples report. Watch out for a story in the Chronicle of Higher Education on August 20.

Dual-Careers report coming soon

It's been a busy time at the Clayman Institute as we prepare our new report, Dual-Career Academic Couples: What Universities Need to Know, to go to press. It went off to the printers (at last!!) yesterday, and we will be launching the report on Wednesday August 20.

The report is based on over 9,000 responses to a survey we rolled out in the early months of 2006 at thirteen of the US's top research universities (all shall remain nameless). We have an incredible wealth of information on all kinds of aspects of academic life through this survey, from data on partnering patterns to who does the laundry. This new report is on just one aspect of the survey data: the extent to which academics partner with each other - including how that affects their view of their career, the career decisions they make, and the ways universities deal with the dual-career phenomenon in their role as employers. The report also makes suggestions based on current best practice for how they might deal with dual-career couples more effectively.

Fixing the Knowledge, One Conference at a Time

Here's my report back on the Gendered Innovations conference.

Around 200 people joined us in March for our second two-day conference on Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering. We were delighted to see such a good mix of people in the audience, including students, faculty (from Stanford and elsewhere - including the University of Uppsala in Sweden!), staff, and our wider community.

The first day opened with remarks by Professor Londa Schiebinger, setting out the reason for our conference subtitle: “Fix the Knowledge.” In a short talk setting out some of the background on the participation of women in science, she explained that the Clayman Institute was seeking to move the discussion beyond “fixing the women” (i.e. making women feel that they have a place in science) and “fixing the institutions” (i.e. creating structural and cultural change in universities and laboratories to make the working environment of science more welcoming to women). The Institute’s goal is to promote research that looks at the substance of science and engineering, “the knowledge”, to see how gender analysis can lead to new questions and completely new approaches to old problems. To publicize some concrete examples, Schiebinger proudly waved a copy of our new volume, also called Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering (Stanford University Press, 2008), which was published on March 12 (available from good booksellers everywhere).

Professor Terry Winograd opened the first panel of the conference, on Women in Video-Gaming and Virtual Worlds, by asking whether the audience remembered when “gender in gaming” meant adding pink to the packaging? It was clear from this panel’s presentations that things have moved on!

Sheri Ray (Executive Director, Women in Gaming International) questioned the assumptions that are made about women as gamers and argued that women are as likely to enjoy “shoot ‘em up” games as men. She did not think women needed to have special games created just for them, arguing instead that the key is for games to provide a tutorial. Games which expect the user to explore them in order to understand them are, she argued, typically a turn-off for women - while that very feature is what makes them so appealing to most men. Nick Yee (Palo Alto Research Center) supported Ray’s conclusions, noting that he had found an 86% overlap between the interests of male and female players in online gaming. His research suggests that age is more important than gender in causing differing levels of interest/participation in online games. Only 25% of online gamers are teenagers: the average age of gamers is 26. Yee thought the gaming industry was doing itself no favors in neglecting the female and mature market. Professor Vladlen Koltun rounded up the panel with some remarks on the potential of virtual worlds for different kinds of interaction and the redrawing of gender identities. A lively discussion followed!

After the lunch break, the conference moved on to Gender in Engineering. Michelle Zawadzki (Senior Director, Global Knee Development, Zimmer Inc) talked about the development of the Gender Knee, which at last took into account that “Women are not just small men.” Zimmer’s research identified 25 ways knee difference could have been reflected in a new product: in the end, they focused on three. Zawadzki passed a model of the Gender Knee round the audience to help their understanding of these differences. She also described Zimmer’s new work on hip replacement technology: they have identified significant differences between men and women, not reflected in existing artificial hips, which may account for the high levels of dislocation experienced by women who have had hip replacements.

Deborah Kilgore (University of Washington) brought the discussion around to engineering education, focusing on the work of the Academic Pathways Study. She asked the audience to complete a short questionnaire on the relative importance of different factors in designing a playground, then showed the results of the same exercise conducted with first and fourth year engineering undergraduates. Kilgore argued that the results showed first year female students had a “broad” design focus (including items such as handicap access and restroom availability), while the men had a “close” design focus (with emphasis on budget, availability of labor, and material costs). By year four, the results had largely converged.

After the break, the audience heard from Professor Cynthia Friend (Harvard University), Professor Sue V. Rosser (Georgia Institute of Technology), Professor Nancy Hopkins (MIT), and Jim Batterson (Women’s Health Initiative, Stanford) on a range of issues from women in leadership in science, to the impact of scientific patenting, and improving the way women access medical care. Friend observed that scientists need to make more effort to highlight the fun and excitement to be found in scientific research so that more women, and more men too, are encouraged to follow that path.

Day two opened with Sibongile Van Damme (South African National Parks) discussing the role of women in promoting indigenous knowledge in, about and for the environment in South Africa. Speaking from her wide experience working in conservation and in government, she shared two case studies: the Schools Water Action Project (which had involved drawing on the knowledge of village elder women to better understand the use of and attitudes towards water, a scarce resource); and Swazi Indigenous Products, a cosmetics company created through the influence of the Swazi Queen Mother to help poor rural women in Swaziland generate an income from the natural resources around them. (Visit http://www.swazisecrets.com to learn more.)

Professor Kavita Philip followed with an exploration of gender in the artisanal fishing industry in Kerala, India. She shared a video of labor activist Nalini Nayak talking about the impact of new technology, foreign investment, and export-fixated government policy on the industry. Philip made the point that the fishers in Kerala were not opposed to new technology, nor to globalization in itself - indeed, they had forged alliances with people in similar situations in other countries - but they had suffered through the consequences of good intentioned, but ill considered, interventions by development and government agencies. Women, in particular, had found their role in the fishing industry under pressure; and the reduced role of traditional knowledge in the fishing industry had led to some bad outcomes for the local eco-system.

The conference ended with a panel of leading businesswomen in Silicon Valley, moderated by Professor Myra Hart (Harvard Business School). Hart opened by describing the research of the Diana Project which examined the numbers of women in venture capital; and why it that industry had been so poor at attracting and retaining women. She gave a brief introduction to the Clayman Institute’s current study of women in entrepreneurship.

Joyce Chung (Garage Technology Ventures), Ann Winblad (Hummer Winblad) and Diane Greene (CEO, VMware) then discussed their personal and professional experiences in Silicon Valley’s business world. Chung observed that women start companies at a higher rate than men, but they don’t pursue venture capital for high growth in the same way as men. She also wondered if venture capitalists had an unconscious reluctance to fund women entrepreneurs because they were blinked by their tendency to follow existing patterns (“Is this guy the next Steve Jobs?”). Greene commented that she had found it difficult to win over venture capitalists: in discussions with them on potential investment, they would often admit that they would seek to replace her as CEO if they invested.

The panel offered tips for potential VCs and entrepreneurs:
• Work on your network and find a mentor who can introduce you and show you the ropes (Chung - though Winblad disagreed!)
• Be confident in yourself - approach friends and family for investment, don’t be apologetic like you’re asking a favor. Present your idea as an opportunity. (Chung - and Winblad agreed with that!)
• Remember that every deal is crucial. One bad deal, and it can all be over. So think strategically. (Winblad)
• Be a constant learner, understand your flaws and develop your skills. (Winblad)
• Find some work/life balance, whether you are male or female; or you won’t have the energy and motivation to get through the bad days (and there will be bad days). (Winblad)
• Be adaptable - things can change dramatically, and quickly, and as a leader you have to be able to keep everything together. (Greene)
• Have a long term strategy for growth, and build it around a strong founding team. (Greene)

Great turn out, but now it's time for tea!

The Clayman Institute hosted its two day conference, Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering, on Thursday and Friday this week. Over the course of the two days (and five sessions) we were joined by around 200 people. It was a busy time! More to report later, when I've had a chance to catch up on my tea drinking!

Girls sweep top honors in Siemens science competition

News on girls succeeding in science and technology, quoted from the newsletter of the National Council for Research on Women:

For the first time, girls have swept the top honors of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. One of the nation’s most coveted student science awards, over 1,600 students nationwide entered the competition and 20 finalists were selected to receive scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. Eleven of the finalists were girls, marking this year as the first time that girls outnumbered boys in the final round.

“These strong results only reaffirm what was highlighted in our report Balancing the Equation: Where Are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering, and Technology. Research shows that girls have as much innate ability as boys to succeed in science, math, and technology, provided they are given sufficient opportunities and support programs,” said Council President Linda Basch.

Honorees included Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff from Plainview, NY who took first prize in the team category for creating a molecule that helps block the reproduction of drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria; Isha Himani Jain, from Bethlehem, PA, took first place in the individual category for her studies of bone growth in zebra fish. Other winners included Alicia Darnell from Pelham, NY who won second place for research that identified genetic defects that could play a role in the development of Lou Gehrig’s disease and the team of Naomi Collipp and Caroline Lang from Yardley, PA, and Rebecca Ehrhardt, from Hamilton Square, NJ, who placed fifth for their research on E. coli bacteria.

For more information about the Siemens prize, visit: http://www.siemens-foundation.org/en/

Gendered Innovations conference coming up in March

We are all abuzz at the Clayman Institute about our forthcoming conference, Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering II, on March 13 and 14. The conference is free, no registration required, and everyone is welcome.

We have some great speakers lined up, including Diane Greene, the CEO of hot Silicon Valley company VMware, who will be talking about women's experience of the Valley's entrepreneurial culture. I am particularly looking forward to the first panel of the first day, Women in Gaming and Virtual Worlds. Our panelists, Sheri Graner Ray, Vladlen Koltun, and Nick Yee, will be talking about how women as users influence the creation of video games and virtual worlds; plus how they impact the development of this media market as software engineers and creative artists.

I also hope they will have time to get into a discussion of why men so often choose to have a female avatar, when the reverse is not true of women! Is it because they want to play with gender identity, or is it just because they get more "free" stuff as women? Apparently the the owners of the King of the World MMORPG, Aurora Technology, recently banned men from having female avatars. How bizarre is that?

(Disclaimer: This story may not actually be true - see Ars Tecnica for skepticism on this story: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070927-chinese-mmorpg-banning-cross-gender-roleplayers.html. But it is still a good story, and the fact that it spread across the internet with such alacrity suggests that it resonates with a good many users! Maybe there are a lot more men out there pretending to be female than you might think!!)

Find out more about our conference at http://gender.stanford.edu

Are Scientists People Like Us?

You know what science is. You know how people go about “doing science”. We all do. We picture the chemist in his lab with his test tubes, the physicist thinking about hard equations in front of his computer, the astronomer with his telescope, the biologist with his microscope. He’s featured extensively in the media, in everything from dishwashing detergent adverts to CSI. We think we know all we need to know about him, the scientist.

But we need to step back and reconsider what we think we know. For the great majority of us, the scientist is unquestionably a “him” – and a him with white skin, the ubiquitous white coat, and probably mad hair too (denoting an Einstein-like genius and disregard for the mundane everyday). Social scientists have been administering a “Draw-a-Scientist” test to elementary and middle school students since the early 1980s. In the first wave of experiments, all elementary school students proved extremely likely to draw exactly the typical scientist stereotype. More recently, middle school students, who are being educated in a more critical reading of the way the media functions, are dividing along gender lines: the boys draw a man, while the girls are more likely (though by no means 100%) to draw a woman. Adult stereotyping of scientists is just as prevalent, though the general attitude towards scientists as a group seems to be becoming more positive as time goes by. Ask yourself this: if you sat down to draw a scientist right now, what would your picture portray?

This stereotype persists even though the reality and portrayal of science changing, albeit slowly. More films and TV shows are including women in professional and scientific roles (sometimes even without the white coat), though recent research has revealed that female characters are still very likely to be sexualized or used in a storyline in a way that emphasizes their romantic desires or physical attributes rather then intelligence, education, or experience. Ms Frizzle, of The Magic School Bus, is a schoolteacher who glories in the possibilities of science and whose racially diverse, gender-balanced class gets to experience the wonders of scientific discovery first hand; yet she retains the stereotypical characteristics of a mad scientist who functions outside the everyday world. If Ms. Frizzle is a scientist, she is not one of us.

(References: Jane Butler Kahle in Gender Issues in Science Education (Curtin University of Technology, 1987).
J. Steinke, M. K. Lapinski, N. Crocker, A. Zietsman-Thomas, Y. Williams, S. H. Evergreen, and S. Kuchibhotla, Assessing Media Influences on Middle School Aged Children's Perceptions of Women in Science Using the Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) Science Communication, September 1, 2007; 29(1): 35 - 64.
Losh, Susan. American Stereotypes about Scientists: Gender and Time Effects Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Montreal Convention Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Aug 10, 2006
Stacey L. Smith, unpublished research on gender in children’s TV and films for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. http://www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org/research.php )

Transgender exhibit and talk today

The Clayman Institute is currently showing an award-winning exhibit of portrait photos of transgender people. They are really beautiful photos, and the stories that go with them are very moving. The artist, Jana Marcus, will be giving a lecture about her project today at the Tresidder Union on the Stanford campus (4:30pm, January 24). She will be accompanied by four people featured in the exhibit. It should be really interesting stuff. Do come along.

What does "safe radiation levels" really mean?

Did you know that "safe" radiation levels are based on a statistical model: a white man age 20-30, weighing 170 pounds and standing 5 feet 7 inches tall? This model man represents every single person in the US when it comes to setting regulations for "safe" levels of radiation exposure.

How different to this model are you? Children and developing fetuses are particularly at risk from radiation exposure, but their needs are not considered in the creation of this "reference man".

Read more about this issue at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research website - http://www.ieer.org/campaign/index.html