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/
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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
Friday, February 8, 2008
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 )
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 )
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
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
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
Friday, September 21, 2007
Are you going to be poor when you're old?
Are you saving for your retirement? No? Wish you were? Will get round to it eventually? Time to start thinking about the future: The Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER) says that millions of US women may run out of retirement savings.
A report published by the Society of Actuaries, and sponsored by WISER, concludes that men and women generally perceive the risks associated with retirement in a similar way, but that there are significant differences in how they experience those risks. Because women live longer than men (at least 5 years on average), there is a greater risk of exhausting assets: put simply, they are going to be retired longer. Women are also not giving enough thought to the costs of long-term care in their older years. Married couples need to give more thought to preserving benefits for a surviving spouse, and not just thinking about their joint plan for retirement. Today, one third of women over age 62 are collecting social security benefits based solely on the earnings of their spouse.
To see a paper summarizing the the survey findings, go to http://research.soa.org/WomensShortReportfinal.pdf
Read more about the Society of Actuaries complete survey at http://preview.tinyurl.com/39zsaq
It ain't sexy, but it's important. Think about it. Do you want to be poor when you are old, ladies?
A report published by the Society of Actuaries, and sponsored by WISER, concludes that men and women generally perceive the risks associated with retirement in a similar way, but that there are significant differences in how they experience those risks. Because women live longer than men (at least 5 years on average), there is a greater risk of exhausting assets: put simply, they are going to be retired longer. Women are also not giving enough thought to the costs of long-term care in their older years. Married couples need to give more thought to preserving benefits for a surviving spouse, and not just thinking about their joint plan for retirement. Today, one third of women over age 62 are collecting social security benefits based solely on the earnings of their spouse.
To see a paper summarizing the the survey findings, go to http://research.soa.org/WomensShortReportfinal.pdf
Read more about the Society of Actuaries complete survey at http://preview.tinyurl.com/39zsaq
It ain't sexy, but it's important. Think about it. Do you want to be poor when you are old, ladies?
Monday, September 17, 2007
Did You Know USA is Doing Well in Women's Soccer World Cup? No? No Surprise.
The FIFA Women's World Cup is taking place in China during the month of September. Here's the official website - http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/index.html - which will tell you all you need to know about the standing of different teams in the competition. At the time of writing, USA ties top of Group B, England is second in Group A, Australia ties with Norway at top of Group C, and Brazil is top of Group D.
With this big event going on, you might expect to see some news coverage of the US team's success thus far. I had no idea it was happening till I was chatting with a "Soccer Mom" at a match this weekend. So I checked out some internet sites. Not on Fox News. To give credit to CNN, it includes the World Cup on its soccer landing page (though below and smaller than a story about a men's soccer tournament that hasn't even started yet). New York Times also features it, below a story about (men's) college football. In contrast, the Guardian newspaper (UK) features a story about the England team's success in the competition on its homepage as its leading sport headline; though the Times of London buries it on the sports page. (And that when the story is about England beating Argentina which, just a few years ago, in the post-Falklands War world, would have been a leading headline). (All pages accessed on 9/17/07.)
This highly unscientific sampling suggests that we can't conclude that the failure to highlight the women's soccer competition is just cultural: that the US media outlets aren't interested because soccer is still a young sport in the USA, whereas the UK media outlets are accustomed to covering soccer as one of the main national games. Alas, it seems that our media outlets are still inclined to neglect the achievements of our professional sportswomen.
Well, now you know about the competition, you can look out for the coverage!
It is a well-researched fact that involvement in sports is good for girls' self-esteem and all-round success - hence the passionate support that Title IX gets from women in the sporting world. I've recently become aware of a new media outlet which aims to promote a greater presence of healthy images of women and girls, aimed mainly at middle and high school girls: Athletic Girl Productions. Check out their website at www.girlsarechampions.org. Founder and President Lisa Izzi, a former gymnast and Stanford Coach, has created this organization with the aim of presenting healthy, positive images and role models to counterbalance the prevailing "be thin", "get your appearance fixed", "skinny is glamorous" culture.
It may be an uphill struggle, but I applaud Lisa and her colleagues for taking this on.
With this big event going on, you might expect to see some news coverage of the US team's success thus far. I had no idea it was happening till I was chatting with a "Soccer Mom" at a match this weekend. So I checked out some internet sites. Not on Fox News. To give credit to CNN, it includes the World Cup on its soccer landing page (though below and smaller than a story about a men's soccer tournament that hasn't even started yet). New York Times also features it, below a story about (men's) college football. In contrast, the Guardian newspaper (UK) features a story about the England team's success in the competition on its homepage as its leading sport headline; though the Times of London buries it on the sports page. (And that when the story is about England beating Argentina which, just a few years ago, in the post-Falklands War world, would have been a leading headline). (All pages accessed on 9/17/07.)
This highly unscientific sampling suggests that we can't conclude that the failure to highlight the women's soccer competition is just cultural: that the US media outlets aren't interested because soccer is still a young sport in the USA, whereas the UK media outlets are accustomed to covering soccer as one of the main national games. Alas, it seems that our media outlets are still inclined to neglect the achievements of our professional sportswomen.
Well, now you know about the competition, you can look out for the coverage!
It is a well-researched fact that involvement in sports is good for girls' self-esteem and all-round success - hence the passionate support that Title IX gets from women in the sporting world. I've recently become aware of a new media outlet which aims to promote a greater presence of healthy images of women and girls, aimed mainly at middle and high school girls: Athletic Girl Productions. Check out their website at www.girlsarechampions.org. Founder and President Lisa Izzi, a former gymnast and Stanford Coach, has created this organization with the aim of presenting healthy, positive images and role models to counterbalance the prevailing "be thin", "get your appearance fixed", "skinny is glamorous" culture.
It may be an uphill struggle, but I applaud Lisa and her colleagues for taking this on.
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