Astronomy
Recently I've heard female student speakers courageously describe their struggles to find support and encouragement for being different from their peers in interest or culture, not only gender. At my university's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration breakfast today, an undergraduate told how she felt looked down upon at a technical university for majoring in economics. Questions from her peers like "Why aren't you an engineer or scientist?" and "Why would anyone come here to do that?" reinforced her own self-doubt in the classic multiplier of stereotype threat. The impact is largest when there are no peers or role models to provide a positive image of choices like those made by this young woman.
Two weeks ago, at a university-wide diversity summit, an international female graduate student told a similar struggle of fitting in as a double minority - a female engineer with an accent and different cultural background than her peers. She had learned to give and take with the guys, but it was clear that the callouses accompanying a thickened skin increase the academic drag coefficient.
Ideally, each of these students and all others from underrepresented groups could find mentors who provide encouragement and help in dealing with criticism. Unfortunately, we are as far from that ideal as we are from a perfect meritocracy. Meanwhile, individual acts of courage - by students telling their stories, and by staff and faculty offering support to students - may help to stem the losses that otherwise accompany a bad climate dream.
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Two years ago I made the transition from academic science to data science. There are many aspects of industry that mesh better with my working style. However one very important industry practice that I feel is lacking in academia (at least for many of...
- Why Men Should Advocate Gender Equity
Recently I was asked to speak about gender equity at the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard. I chose to elaborate a theme that has been on my mind lately. In three brief parts: I. Why men should advocate gender equityWomen...
- How Do We "demand Equality"?
Today?s guest blogger is Elizabeth Rivers. Elizabeth is a postdoc on the NuSTAR team at Caltech, studying X-ray spectral properties of Active Galactic Nuclei. Here, she responds to two questions that have come up repeatedly in the wake of the New York...
- Is Affirmative Action Still Worth Discussing?
The US Supreme Court will hear the case Fisher v. The University of Texas this fall in a case testing the limits of affirmative action in college admissions set by the previous case Grutter v. Bollinger. A young white woman, Abigail Fisher, was denied...
- Encouraging Men To Advocate For Women In Astronomy
Men have an important role to play in promoting gender equity broadly in astronomy and other gender-imbalanced fields. I was impressed by the commitment of a few male colleagues whom I saw at Women in Astronomy III last fall and would like to see more...
Astronomy
Climate dream: Inclusion of diverse backgrounds and interests
Recently I've heard female student speakers courageously describe their struggles to find support and encouragement for being different from their peers in interest or culture, not only gender. At my university's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration breakfast today, an undergraduate told how she felt looked down upon at a technical university for majoring in economics. Questions from her peers like "Why aren't you an engineer or scientist?" and "Why would anyone come here to do that?" reinforced her own self-doubt in the classic multiplier of stereotype threat. The impact is largest when there are no peers or role models to provide a positive image of choices like those made by this young woman.
Two weeks ago, at a university-wide diversity summit, an international female graduate student told a similar struggle of fitting in as a double minority - a female engineer with an accent and different cultural background than her peers. She had learned to give and take with the guys, but it was clear that the callouses accompanying a thickened skin increase the academic drag coefficient.
Ideally, each of these students and all others from underrepresented groups could find mentors who provide encouragement and help in dealing with criticism. Unfortunately, we are as far from that ideal as we are from a perfect meritocracy. Meanwhile, individual acts of courage - by students telling their stories, and by staff and faculty offering support to students - may help to stem the losses that otherwise accompany a bad climate dream.
- The Best Part Of My Week
Two years ago I made the transition from academic science to data science. There are many aspects of industry that mesh better with my working style. However one very important industry practice that I feel is lacking in academia (at least for many of...
- Why Men Should Advocate Gender Equity
Recently I was asked to speak about gender equity at the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard. I chose to elaborate a theme that has been on my mind lately. In three brief parts: I. Why men should advocate gender equityWomen...
- How Do We "demand Equality"?
Today?s guest blogger is Elizabeth Rivers. Elizabeth is a postdoc on the NuSTAR team at Caltech, studying X-ray spectral properties of Active Galactic Nuclei. Here, she responds to two questions that have come up repeatedly in the wake of the New York...
- Is Affirmative Action Still Worth Discussing?
The US Supreme Court will hear the case Fisher v. The University of Texas this fall in a case testing the limits of affirmative action in college admissions set by the previous case Grutter v. Bollinger. A young white woman, Abigail Fisher, was denied...
- Encouraging Men To Advocate For Women In Astronomy
Men have an important role to play in promoting gender equity broadly in astronomy and other gender-imbalanced fields. I was impressed by the commitment of a few male colleagues whom I saw at Women in Astronomy III last fall and would like to see more...