May 25 picks!

Hello everyone, 

We hope you had an interesting and productive week! Our team read the articles below: 

In this piece, Dr. Aarthi Gobinath (neuroscientist studying how stress differently affects male and female brains, @aarthigobinath) discusses the importance of including female subjects in research, and how the lack of consideration of sex differences explains sub par treatment results for women. 

A while ego, we highlighted in this blog the initiative "Request a Women Scientist", aiming to decrease the under representation of women in scientific panels, meetings and boards by providing a list of women scientists worldwide in all fields (if you are not on it, go join a pod!!). We were happy to read in this article that 11 months following its creation in January 2018, the database racked up a list of researchers from 174 different scientific disciplines in 133 countries. The progression of this initiative was recently published in PLoS Biology.

Receiving funding to perform research is one of the pillars of Academia. This article describes how language used in grant proposals is different between men and women applicants, and how that difference causes an imbalance resulting in men receiving more funding even when the review was blinded.

This thought-provoking commentary by Christine Middleton (associate editor at Physics Today)  reflects on the Katie Bouman/black hole controversy, and argues that the media focuses too much on looks when describing women scientists.

See you next week!

This week's picks

Hello everyone!

For those of you in academia, happy end of the semester!

If you're an educator, you may have noticed a disparity in your student population. This article by the Washington Post delves into the question as to why black and Latino students drop out of STEM majors at higher rates than their white peers. Perhaps one way to circumvent this disparate tendency is for institutions to take advantage of the Inclusive Excellence initiative by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This initiative allows for up to 30 schools to apply for grants to help promote diversity and inclusivity within their STEM programs. Is your institution on the list? If not, perhaps you can apply!

Speaking of inclusivity, there is always more to learn when it comes to how women fare in the STEM world. A recent paper highlighted that only 10% of children will depict a woman when asked to draw a scientist. Although 10% isn't particularly high, consider that in previous decades, this statistic was  only 1%! In order to combat this kind of perception, the organization 500 Women Scientists has compiled a database called Request a Woman Scientist so that women scientists will have more representation when it comes to public speaking events, consultations, or having their voice heard in the media. A recent study surveyed the women in this database, and one of the authors, Elizabeth McCullagh, sat down with Laboratory Equipment for an interview about this recent study investigating the effects Request a Woman Scientist has had.

We're always talking about inclusivity, and interventions to promote diversity in STEM, but what if there are unintended consequences, good or bad? This article in Psypost discusses potential negative consequences that come with these kinds of interventions.

Lastly, if you're looking to join an organization, consider checking out NEURONEXXT, a network for women in neuroscience.

Thanks for stopping by!

Our Picks for May 1, 2019

Show Me the Data: Studies on Bias and Sexual Harassment

Does Bias Training Fix Bias?

According to a new study in PNAS, bias training has limited effects on bias. They found that bias training aimed at preventing gender and racial bias had positive effects on attitudes of both men and women. However, bias training did not seem to have large effects on behavior, especially in men. This data suggests that if we want to get rid of bias, we need to do more than just one-off bias trainings!

Sexual Harassment Drives Women out of Physics

A recent study showed that almost 3/4 of undergraduate physics majors experience sexual harassment. They further show that experiencing sexual harassment decreases the likelihood that women stay in physics, decreases the feeling of belonging and increases imposter syndrome. For a good summary of the study and its context, see this piece by Julie Libarkin.

Thoughts, Observations, and News on Women in Science

Erika Jefferson asks where the black women leaders are in science. In 2017, only 5% of managerial STEM jobs were held by black women--we need to do better! One way to improve these numbers is to train black women in STEM to be leaders. And Jefferson has started Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE), a mentoring organization to do just that -- check it out!

Christine Liu asks whether the focus on imposter syndrome as a problem that's all in our heads is keeping us from changing what really causes it: a toxic environment.

The National Academy of Sciences has a plan to remove members convicted of sexual harassment.