Category Archives: Balancing gender

Another physicist for my research…

25 Thursday Sep 2014

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Thank you, Donna Milgram, for linking this article by Rachel E. Scherr in your newsletter:Hmm...not just the classroom, but women experience this phenomenon in boardrooms and meeting rooms across the professions

Guest: What keeps girls from studying physics and STEM | Opinion | The Seattle Times | September 14, 2014

Rachel writes:

I had fallen in love with physics while working as a science museum docent, where I learned the simple principles behind beautiful and puzzling natural phenomena.

My advanced placement (AP) physics class, unfortunately, was about memorizing equations and applying them to specific contrived examples. I did not perform well on the midterm exam. The teacher advised me to drop the course, along with all the other girls in the class.

I stayed despite the teacher’s pressure, as the only girl in the class, and did well in the long run.

Funny, that cartoon also reflects what women experience in boardrooms and meeting rooms across sectors and across professions.

I will have to connect with Rachel Scherr: our research seems to align…

Miss Possible soon to join Goldie Blox in the Toy Aisle

28 Thursday Aug 2014

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Just heard about this new challenger in the battle against gendered toys: Miss Possible. This doll will keep Goldi Blox company as they, together, reduce the pink in the girls’ toy aisle. Supriya Hobbs and Janna Eaves, who met while in the University of Illinois engineering program, launched their campaign on Indiegogo mid-July and reached their goal just last week.

Pretty exciting to see young engineers stepping up to make social change.

Shaking up the opportunities for girls: http://www.bemisspossible.com

 

What is feminism today?

12 Tuesday Aug 2014

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The f-word came up a few weeks ago and now it seems I cannot get away from it…

When I started this doctoral program to research the gender balance in engineering question, I wanted to completely avoid the f-word. In fact, during my final presentation at the end of the first residency period, I said outright that I am not a feminist. A feminist would want to be known as a female engineer but my greatest wish is that I am no longer introduced that way. I’m just an engineer. Continue reading →

Science is for everyone – including girls!

07 Thursday Aug 2014

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Dr. Randy Newman, Professor of Psychology at Acadia University, presents brief overview of the history and barriers leading to women’s underrepresentation in science. This informative talk is humorous and professional … and filled with a great historical reference that I shall be following up with!

Reference:

Gornick, V. (2009). The History of Women in Science. Feminist Press, The City University of New York. ISBN: 978-1-55861-587-8

Stanford Hires First Female Dean Of School Of Engineering

10 Tuesday Jun 2014

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Very interesting… I may have to interview her for my research. Later. From the ASEE aggregator:

Kristin Brown writes in “The Tech Chronicles” blog of the San Francisco Chronicle (6/5), Stanford just hired Persis Drell as its first female dean of its school of engineering. Brown calls this “a small step” but “a big deal” for the field in which “women are vastly outnumbered by men.” It is a movement towards changing the perception of engineering as a masculine field, which is “a major obstacle” to women pursuing it as a career.
The “Tech Chronicles” of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (6/5) also provided coverage of this story.

LEGO Approves Female Scientist Characters

06 Friday Jun 2014

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While I suppose I should be pleased and simply agree that it really is about time they made these toys, I am actually rather offended by Lego’s press release and the media coverage. STOP MAKING THIS SUCH A BIG DEAL!!!  Just add the stupid figurines and get on with it. Sigh…  And a good thing the “minifigures” look trendy so they can still go shopping and do housework, eh? Sheesh! (on the other hand, I will definitely have to buy the telescope and minifigure for my astrophysicist daughter…the hair almost matches, too)
From the ASEE aggregator:

New minifigures from Lego: trendy women in STEM careers

Abby Phillip writes in the Washington Post (6/5) “Style Blog” blog that LEGO approved designs for female scientist, paleontologist, and astronomer characters, giving the company, “at long last…female figurines who do something other than bake and hang out at the beach.” The designs came fro the LEGO Ideas online competition. Ellen Kooijman, who submitted the designs said she sough to address the “stereotypical representation” of women in LEGO figures. The Phillip presents the move as part of the effort to address the low number of women in Science Technology Engineering and Math jobs.
        Boston.com (6/5, Salahi) reports LEGO’s Lego Friends series is aimed at girls, but “the female minifigures were designed in trendy outfits and accessories to go shopping, do housework, style hair, and bake.”
        Also coveirng this story are the Huffington Post (6/6, Samakow) and NBC News (6/6, Wagstaff).

Published!

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

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In print for the first time! (photo courtesy of Jenn Todd, P.Geo., 2014)

Well, my first article has been officially published in a journal! The article, Gender Balance in Engineering: Is this an issue worth pursuing?, was first seen in print today in Innovation Magazine, the trade journal of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC. This article is based on the paper I wrote as an academic writing sample for entry into a doctoral program to research the possible educational reasons why women are not entering engineering. I thought this exploration of the benefits of gender diversity in a profession and how other professions managed to attain gender balance would provide some background to justify (at least to me) doing this research. Please check it out on page 26:
http://www.digitalityworks.com/Viewers/ViewIssue.aspx?IssueID=114&PageNo=1.

(The full paper with references is in an earlier post in this blog.)

Companies Encouraged To Attract More Female STEM Workers.

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Since I began my doctoral studies — of course, while continuing to work full time — I have not attended to this blog lately. I’ll be playing catch-up for a little while… The following article caught my eye and is from the ASEE aggretator:
In commentary for the US News & World Report Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (4/8) “Economic Intelligence” blog, Lisa Chau, a social media marketing consultant, and Marina Mijatovic, a sales engineer for an automation technology firm, write that the high salaries earned by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman are “stunning” given the fact that women only represent some 24% of US STEM workers. Noting that relatively few female college students study STEM courses, the writers write that “if more women committed themselves to STEM education and careers,” the pace of technological advance would accelerate. They note that the male-dominated nature of the tech sector tends to keep women at bay, but suggest that the higher earnings potential for STEM workers could help to attract women, which would in turn weaken the male dominance.