Astronomy
"Many scientists, I think, secretly are what I call 'boys with toys.' I really like playing around with telescopes. It's just not fashionable to admit it." These are the words of Caltech Professor and Optical Observatories Director Shri Kulkarni, shared with NPR's Joe Palca on Weekend Edition Saturday May 16, 2015.
The photograph of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin on the left shows that women have also been fascinated by scientific instrumentation since before Kulkarni was born. They just haven't always had access to it, unlike the boys.
Kulkarni himself has supervised several female graduate students and postdocs, so his choice of words was surprising. They do seem like a prime example of unconscious bias. Are there still scientists, or others, who believe that they are completely objective and fair? If so, please share with them the Implicit Association Test, so that they can match their wits against a computer. For a little background, see this nice explanation within the SPLC Teaching Tolerance curriculum.
Words matter. When a leading scientist excludes girls, it sends the message, whether intended or not, that girls should not apply because they do not belong. The same message is regularly heard by people of color, transgender people, and others. We expect better of our community members.
Fortunately, social media enables us to advance a different narrative, one that shows women (and, one hopes, people of color and other genders) playing with their scientific toys. I don't know how Twitter views compare with the audience size of Weekend Edition, but I know that it can have an impact. If more young people are drawn into STEM fields through the inspiration of role models showing up under the #GirlsWithToys hashtag, Kulkarni's comment will have served a useful purpose.
- Letter Of Recommendation For Letters Of Recommendation
My wife pointed out to me an interesting article in the May 2015 issue of Science about gender bias when writing letters of recommendation. It is by Science Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt and describes her personal experience in reviewing graduate...
- 2014 Holiday Gift Guide
With the holidays fast approaching, a common question that I see many of my colleagues struggling with is what to purchase our next generation of budding scientists for the holidays. A recent study featured in CBE-Life Sciences Education showed...
- Why So Few? Spatial Skills
The 2010 report entitled, Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), investigates the area of spatial skills learning. One of the largest and most persistent gender gaps...
- Lady Paragons: Building A Women In Stem Community
Below is a guest post is by Sarah Worsham cofounder of LadyParagons.com describing the goals of her site and how you can get involved. Do you remember what led you to a...
- Evaluating How We Present Role Models In Stem
Posted by L. Trouille Univ. of Michigan social psychologists Diana Betz and Denise Sekaquaptewa recently published a thought-provoking article that I thought might be of interest to our readers -- "My Fair Physicist? Feminine Math and Science Role Models...
Astronomy
#GirlsWithToys
The photograph of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin on the left shows that women have also been fascinated by scientific instrumentation since before Kulkarni was born. They just haven't always had access to it, unlike the boys.
Kulkarni himself has supervised several female graduate students and postdocs, so his choice of words was surprising. They do seem like a prime example of unconscious bias. Are there still scientists, or others, who believe that they are completely objective and fair? If so, please share with them the Implicit Association Test, so that they can match their wits against a computer. For a little background, see this nice explanation within the SPLC Teaching Tolerance curriculum.
Words matter. When a leading scientist excludes girls, it sends the message, whether intended or not, that girls should not apply because they do not belong. The same message is regularly heard by people of color, transgender people, and others. We expect better of our community members.
Fortunately, social media enables us to advance a different narrative, one that shows women (and, one hopes, people of color and other genders) playing with their scientific toys. I don't know how Twitter views compare with the audience size of Weekend Edition, but I know that it can have an impact. If more young people are drawn into STEM fields through the inspiration of role models showing up under the #GirlsWithToys hashtag, Kulkarni's comment will have served a useful purpose.
- Letter Of Recommendation For Letters Of Recommendation
My wife pointed out to me an interesting article in the May 2015 issue of Science about gender bias when writing letters of recommendation. It is by Science Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt and describes her personal experience in reviewing graduate...
- 2014 Holiday Gift Guide
With the holidays fast approaching, a common question that I see many of my colleagues struggling with is what to purchase our next generation of budding scientists for the holidays. A recent study featured in CBE-Life Sciences Education showed...
- Why So Few? Spatial Skills
The 2010 report entitled, Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), investigates the area of spatial skills learning. One of the largest and most persistent gender gaps...
- Lady Paragons: Building A Women In Stem Community
Below is a guest post is by Sarah Worsham cofounder of LadyParagons.com describing the goals of her site and how you can get involved. Do you remember what led you to a...
- Evaluating How We Present Role Models In Stem
Posted by L. Trouille Univ. of Michigan social psychologists Diana Betz and Denise Sekaquaptewa recently published a thought-provoking article that I thought might be of interest to our readers -- "My Fair Physicist? Feminine Math and Science Role Models...